The Diamond League, a global athletics series of 12 meetings running from May to September, is set to be officially sanctioned by the sport’s governing body the IAAF. The league would replace the existing Golden League format.
The new league is being discussed at a series of IAAF meetings in Monaco, which started yesterday and continues today. IAAF president Lamine Diack is likely to be offered the chairmanship of the new league.
Under the new format, central contracts will be awarded to up to 10 of the world's biggest athletes who will commit to appearing in at least six of the 12 events. Eight events will be held in Europe, two in Asia and two in the United States.
"No change is not an option," Lord Coe, vice-president of the IAAF, told The Observer. "Athletics is a strong sport – it's global, it's men and women – but it's not a game, one team against another, and it faces challenges. There's a degree of confusion among the public about how the season works and we have to change that.
"The big attraction, and it was the real talking point last year, is head-to-head challenges. If tennis can have Federer and Nadal going up against each other several times a year, we need to have Usain Bolt running against Asafa Powell more than twice a year."
The Diamond League is the brainchild of a group of top athletics promoters headed by Patrick Magyar, director of the Weltklasse Zürich, the Swiss leg of the current Golden League series. The promoters and the IAAF will meet today to discuss details of structure, sponsorship, broadcasting, prize money, and athlete appearances.
The League is one part of a wider strategy that could herald a new era in the structural organisation of athletics. All meetings are poised to be brought under one organisational umbrella with the aim of creating a unified calendar for the sport.
