Sebastian Coe has warned against calls from the Ukrainian president to boycott World Cup 2018 in Russia over the conflict between the two nations.
Lord Coe is challenging Ukraine's pole vault icon Sergey Bubka for the presidency of world athletics governing body the IAAF, to replace Lamine Diack, who steps down in August.
Coe, the former chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG), believes sporting boycotts only "damage competitors and athletes".
Ukraine president Petro Poroshenko told German newspaper Bild the country's allies should consider boycotting the 2018 FIFA tournament in Russia if Moscow does not pull all of its troops out of his territory.
"I will always oppose boycotts of sport, because I don't think they actually achieve what they set out to do," said Coe.
"The only people they really damage are competitors and athletes."
Poroshenko told Bild he will push Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel towards tougher sanctions against Russia, citing the fact Shakhtar Donetsk are forced to host matches 1,200km away in Lviv because their home city is occupied by pro-Russia separatists.
"I think there has to be discussion of a boycott of this World Cup. As long as there are Russian troops in Ukraine I think a World Cup in that country is unthinkable," Poroshenko told Bild.
Coe, however, believes politicians should use sport as a "soft power" to try to bring about change through inclusion rather than exile or boycott.
"I think it is far better to have sport as a soft power, helping change all sorts of things, and we can't pick, we can't a la carte menu sport," said Coe.
"You either believe in its power to change and to be a catalyst for social and political change or you don't.
"I happen to believe that sport has done far more to bring communities together than to isolate and separate them."
Coe was back at the centre of the triumphant 2012 Olympic Games on Monday, the Olympic Park, to launch the 2015 Morrisons Great Newham London Run.
The 10k run will be held on Sunday, July 19, and will be the first event staged in the former Olympic Stadium at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Coe rates coaxing more young people into athletics as the greatest challenge facing the sport, and his ideas to boost participation form the crux of his manifesto for the IAAF presidency.
The double Olympic gold medal winner said it was important he took time out of his hectic campaign schedule to continue the legacy work from London 2012.
"I will support anything, particularly running, but anything that adds to the lustre and legacy of this extraordinary park," said Coe.
"It's 10 years since the IOC's evaluation commission were through here.
"We've delivered a Games but that was never the end of the story, it was always about making sure this was a living, breathing community, with sport at its absolute epicentre.
"It's an extraordinary thing to help launch."
Attempts by the Football Association to resurrect the Team GB football side for the 2016 Rio Olympics look under threat, amid opposition from Irish and Welsh bosses.
The Football Association of Wales and Irish Football Association are understood to oppose any moves for the return of the Team GB XI.
Coe admitted the British Olympic Association (BOA), which he chairs, is locked in talks to back the FA's stance but refused to be drawn beyond that.
"The British Olympic Association is obviously in discussion, I chair the BOA and that's something we're looking at, and I know discussions are taking place," said Coe.
"But we will see where that gets to.
"I know from my own experience of having chaired the organising committee that that is a complex process, but I'll leave that to my colleagues at the BOA and the home nations to figure out.
"Consensus is always better than disagreement, but it really is a matter for the home nations and the British Olympic Association."
Source: PA
