World athletics chief Sebastian Coe has denied allegations of a conflict of interest over his ties with Nike and his role in the 2021 championships being awarded to the sportswear company’s home state.

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Coe is believed to earn around £100,000 (Dh57,000) a year as a Nike ambassador but faces calls to cut links with the company due to possible conflicts of interest arising.

He is facing questions over the IAAF’s decision in April to award the 2021 world championships to Eugene, in the United States – which is closely linked to sportswear giant Nike – without a bidding process, despite strong interest from Swedish city Gothenburg.

Coe, who was elected IAAF president in August, has denied doing any lobbying on behalf of Eugene. A BBC investigation has claimed to have email evidence of emails that Coe contacted he predecessor as IAAF president to support Eugene’s bid.

However, Coe yesterday refuted all allegations, saying: “I did not lobby anyone on behalf of the Eugene 2021 bid. The situation was unusual but not unprecedented. A bid process did not take place when Osaka was awarded the 2007 World Championships.

“The process for bidding is already being reviewed as part of a wide range of reforms currently being prepared.”

Coe was elected president of the IAAF in August after spending eight years as deputy to Diack, who is being investigated by French police on suspicion of having taken bribes to cover up positive drug tests.

The timing of the allegations of Coe’s conflict of interest is not great for either the former two-time Olympic 1500m champion or the IAAF.

The IAAF Council meets in Monaco on Thursday to discuss Russian track and field, just three weeks after deciding to temporarily suspend them. But Dick Pound, former WADA president and co-author of the independent commission’s report, has expressed his expectation that Russian athletes would be in Rio as their sporting officials push to quickly comply with WADA rules.

Pound did add that the second part of his report, focusing on alleged IAAF corruption and likely due in early 2016, would have a “wow factor”. He said: “I think people will say how on earth could this happen?”