The world of sports has lost one of its legendary and most scandalous bosses. Former member of the leadership of the International Athletics Federation and the European Athletics Union Ilka Kanerva has died at the age of 74. The cause of his death was an illness, the nature of which has not been officially announced.
From 1991 to 2005, he was President of the Finnish Athletics Federation and left immediately after the European Queen of Sports Championships in Helsinki.
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Kanerva was a former member of the Council of the International Federation between 2003 and 2011. From 1999 to 2003 he was part of the Council of the European Athletics Union. From 1993 to 2008 he was Vice-President of the Finnish Olympic Committee.
Ilka Kanerva has extensive political experience in Finland. He was a member of the local parliament from 1975 until his death. In 1991, he was even caretaker prime minister for a period of four months. In the period 2007-08 he was Foreign Minister. In 1990-91 he was Minister of Transport, and then for four years Minister of Labor.
His political career is not without scandal. In 2008, he was forced to resign as foreign minister for abuse of office. The reason is the testimony of hundreds of messages with sexual content, sent to an erotic dancer from his office phone.
In 2012, he was accused of corruption for receiving large gifts from various businessmen. He received a 15-month suspended sentence, which was later overturned as Ilka Kanerva won the appeal to the Court of Appeal.
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