WHEN Svein Arne Hansen was elected president of European Athletics 10 months ago, it was on a manifesto entitled Leading Change. How prescient the Norwegian was. Track and field has been compelled to alter its DNA with utmost haste, a necessary transformation if the sport is to rid itself of the stench of corruption and the suffocation of doping that has left it gasping for air.

Hansen, a stamp dealer by trade, has quickly left his imprint. Formerly the meeting director of the Bislett Games in Oslo, the 69-year-old was among the loudest voices to call for change when fault lines in the IAAF’s drug-testing process were exposed. And again when the extent of Russia’s systematic cheating and the involvement of those in power were laid bare.

Trust has been eroded, confidence hit, with last week’s revelations that Kenya has been placed under investigation by the World Anti-Doping Agency barely meriting a shrug. Yet, Hansen asserts, the insistence from IAAF president Sebastian Coe that the few are tainting the many should offer cause for hope than fear.

“I agree with Seb,” he says. “Ninety-nine per cent of athletes are clean and these are the athletes we have to protect so they fight on equal terms. We believe in more education and more testing and dedicated testing. I believe in longer penalties so people understand they cannot sit out for two years and steal money from clean athletes and then come back again.”

Life bans are contentious and thus far, legally unenforceable. Loopholes are being sought. UK Athletics have tabled a contract that would see those convicted of a serious doping offence forego their right to compete internationally. Hansen, who has proposed that European records are reset and renewed, suggests a tangential plan of attack.

“I look towards 2019 and one of the ideas we have is that the athletes then must have undergone a certain number of tests in the preceding eight months before championships,” he says. “Some might say, ‘what if there’s a new guy coming through now?’. They’ll just have to go through the testing. If they haven’t, they’ll not be allowed to compete.”

The scheme would standardise the hoops athletes are made to jump through to prove their probity. In the UK, the Whereabouts system demands availability on a daily basis for testing, an inconvenience but a mandatory sacrifice. Other nations are less arduous. It will take money to level the field, Hansen acknowledges. It will be found, he promises.

Russia, currently under suspension, has left the blackest stain. Six months out from Rio, there is no guarantee their athletes will be allowed to compete at the Olympic Games. “We haven’t had any reports back yet but we will get one at the next IAAF council meeting in Monaco in March,” Hansen says. “Before I will vote for them to come back, they will really have to show they have done the things the IAAF asked them to.”

In their absence, the show carries on. On Saturday in Glasgow, the starriest indoor meeting of this winter will be held at the Emirates Arena, the Grand Prix a magnet for much of the talent, Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford included, who will hope for golden paths towards Brazil.

Event organisers will carry an additional burden. Seventy-six days from now, Hansen will chair a meeting of his governing council at which the hosts of the 2019 European Indoor Championships will be decided. Apeldoorn in the Netherlands, Belarusian capital Minsk and Torun in Poland will vie with Glasgow to stage the showpiece. The proposals have been lodged. The lobbying has begun. Impressions will count.

“What we ask for is people who are good at organising because we want our European events to be of the highest quality,” he says. “I met some people from Glasgow earlier in the week in Berlin. They were good people, they were enthusiastic, and soon they will have to present to the council. I will stay neutral. I might give some directions to the council when we have heard from the bid cities and the evaluation commission has presented. But I will try to stay out of it unless it is a tie.”

Norwegian diplomacy, perhaps. Hansen’s tenure has been a year of peace-keeping, of mending what is broken, of fighting fires which might still enrage. He touches on one final contentious issue. Senior officials from Scottish Athletics have petitioned to participate separately from Great Britain and Northern Ireland at certain events, notably the Euro Cross that comes under his purview.

Politics is his forte. Domestic disputes? For others to resolve, he laughs. “One reason why Scotland is very good at organising events is because they want to show what they can do. But for the moment, they have to compete as part of the UK.”