West Ham and Barclays Premier League rival Tottenham Hotspur are vying for the right to move into the stadium. However, West Ham has insisted it would keep the running track while Tottenham has stated it would not, with the latter instead pledging to develop an alternative athletics legacy at Crystal Palace.
“This is about our ability to be taken seriously again in the corridors of world sport,” Coe told the BBC on Sunday. “There is a bid that delivers against the vision that we took to Singapore (where the vote took place on the 2012 Games host country) and we have a moral obligation to make it work.”
Coe added: “It's not beyond the wit of all of us to make this work and we have an obligation to make it work. The West Ham bid meets those commitments. I would have to vote West Ham.”
Asked about the impact on British sport's reputation if Tottenham’s bid receives the go-ahead, International Association of Athletics Federations president Lamine Diack told BBC Sport: “You can consider you are dead. You are finished. There is no way to come back to make any proposal as far as my generation is concerned.”
He added: “I think as far as this, I think they will be finished. There will be no credibility...of a great country like Britain – and I like very much your country. They will have made a big lie to us during their presentation (in Singapore); a big lie. And after that it is a betrayal. It is a betrayal, yes, absolutely, it is clear.”
