WITH Russia's athletes facing possible Olympic exclusion – and world sport is clamouring for it – the future for the International Association of Athletics Federations under its new president, Sebastian Coe, appears fraught.

With the prospect of defections from blue-chip sponsors down to children whose parents will not wish them associated with a corrupt sport, Coe faces a Herculean task, cleaning the stables and rebuilding integrity.

The wholesome image painstakingly built by hard-working coaches and volunteers has been destroyed at a stroke. Worse may come if leaks from French Police around Lamine Diack – president for 16 years and now replaced by Coe – are remotely accurate.

Yet that is not the biggest question mark after yesterday's damning report from the World Anti-Doping Agency's independent commission in Geneva.

Its chairman, Richard Pound, delivered what we predicted last week: a watershed moment, a game-changer. Yet his remit was merely to examine doping corruption in Russian athletics.

With the commission's revelations surrounding the conduct of Grigory Rodchenko, director of the Moscow accredited anti-doping laboratory, there must be more forensic and wide-ranging examination. What other sports may have fallen under this influence?

This is not just about extortion, and bribes to evade detection. There is the prospect of a state-orchestrated national doping campaign to match that of the former East Germany. WADA must dig deeper.

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The presence of Russian security services in the accredited Winter Olympic laboratory in Sochi last year had nothing to do with track and field. "I don't think we can be confident there was not manipulation," said Pound. "It supports allegations of state influence in sports events."

And not just in athletics. It can surely be only a matter of time before these doping questions spill over into other sports.

Yet six international laboratory presidents oversaw proceedings in Sochi.

Sir Craig Reedie, the Scot who is president of WADA, said there were no plans to investigate further just now. "This is enough to swallow at the moment," he told the Herald. "The 2014 statistics on numbers of adverse analytical findings was noticeably better than in 2013. We can tell you by sport, and by country, who tested positive. Clearly it's not all Russia. What's hellish here is the combination of a laboratory, a national anti-doping organisation, and the track and field federation conspiring together to cheat the system."

Pound has been at the centre of such seismic moments before. He was the lawyer on the 1988 Canadian Olympic team charged with defending unfrocked 100m champion Ben Johnson when he was caught using steroids.

The resultant inquiry was supposed to end the cheating culture, but did not. Nor have other high-profile doping issues. The Festina Affair in the Tour de France did nothing to prevent Lance Armstrong logging seven subsequent drug-fueled victories. The Balco scandal in California brought down multiple Olympic champion Marion Jones, World 100m record holder Tim Montgomery, and GB sprinter Dwain Chambers. It's worth noting that it was lying to the FBI which saw Jones jailed, and not the 167 tests which failed to detect serial cheating. Did corruption in high places help keep Jones away from a drug conviction?

Not even FIFA's reeking cesspit has been implicated in influencing and altering results on the field of play. Reigning Olympic and World heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill lost the 2011 world crown, beaten by Russian Tatyana Chernova, who has since served a two-year suspension.

Many athletes, past and present, will feel betrayed and let down by the very organisation it counted on to protect them.

Scotland's Lynsey Sharp experienced it first hand. Runner-up for the 2012 European 800 metres title in Helsinki, she was crowned champion only when the IAAF biological passport scheme caught Yelena Arzhakova the following year. She was denied the podium moment, the Union flag and her national anthem. And she was denied the appearance fees and potential advertising endorsements befitting a European champion.

Drug cheats have routinely denied honest athletes their rightful place in world rankings, similarly impacting on income. Look back to the 1986 Commonwealth 100 metres final in Edinburgh. The gold and silver medallists were Ben Johnson and Linford Christie – both subsequently convicted drug cheats. In fifth place was Scotland's Elliot Bunney. Might he have won bronze in an honest race? We, and he, will never know.

Glasgow's Lee McConnell was denied an Olympic 4 x 400m relay medal by a US team which had a drug cheat. The IOC declined to disqualify the US and give McConnell the medal she deserves.

UK Athletics said last night that the WADA report was: "hugely significant and devastating for clean athletes" and called on the IAAF "to implement the recommendations in full to ensure clean athletes can compete in major championships against athletes and nations who embody the integrity of clean sport."

Yet British athletics continued to employ the late Andy Norman as the most powerful figure in the sport - and the IAAF did so as a consultant - despite hearing testimony that he made drug test results disappear for UK athletes. And UKA sees nothing wrong with convicted doping offender Christie operating today as a coach.

There is much ambivalence which Coe must ensure ceases. It is transparent that self-policing does not work. A wholly independent body must be created.

The comments of Russia's sports minister, Vitaly Mutko, last night, are not encouraging. Far from accepting blame, he denied everything, said Russia was being "persecuted" and, threatened to cut all government funding for anti-doping.

But if athletics can't put its house in order, UK Sport may take a hard line, and hit athletics in the pocket. The fall-out from yesterday will take a long time to clear.