• IAAF president suggests Logan should stick to Match of the Day • Gary Lineker says Logan is ‘doing her job brilliantly as always’

The IAAF president, Sebastian Coe, has launched an extraordinary attack on the BBC and its presenter Gabby Logan for criticising the poor crowds at the World Athletics Championships in Doha.

Coe said he had a “problem” with how the sport was being portrayed by the BBC and then singled out Logan, who he suggested should stick to football, given her comments about the poor crowds in the Khalifa International Stadium.

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“It’s very easy to sit there and make all sorts of Gabby Logan-type judgments over three or four days and clear off back to Match of the Day,” said Coe, seemingly ignoring the fact that Logan also presents the BBC’s coverage of Diamond League athletics, Six Nations rugby, and other sports.

“But it’s really important that we see the long-term development of our sport,” added Coe. “That’s not going to be done because we have challenges over ticketing in a stadium for three days. The problem I’ve got with that is it’s the way our sport is being portrayed by some of the people in that studio.”

Poor crowds have been a major talking point, especially on Sunday when Dina Asher-Smith won a 100m silver medal, leading to the former Olympic heptathlon champion Denise Lewis accusing the IAAF of letting athletes down.

However, Coe believes that the BBC would be better served talking about the athletics. “I’ve got people, whose judgment I do trust, who are saying it would be great if a 1min 42.4sec run and some great performances were being dissected,” he said. “The crowd is an easier subject to talk about rather than some of the more insightful stuff around the events. I accept that, that’s the world we live in.

“There are places which are going to take longer for us to go to, but people have to believe this sport is theirs, it’s not just rooted in a handful of European capitals.”

The BBC declined to comment but the Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker said that Coe had made a mistake. “Picking the wrong target in Gabby Logan,” he tweeted. “She’s just doing her job brilliantly as always. Maybe look closer to home.”

However, Coe insisted again that athletes have been happy in Doha. “I was on the indoor, the outdoor track, they are not talking about the crowds. Can I just be a bit blunt about this, the athletes talking about externalities are probably not the ones who are going to be walking home with medals from here. Go figure.”

Coe’s attacks on the BBC came less than 24 hours after its commentators Steve Cram and Paula Radcliffe, both friends of Coe, were criticised on social media for appearing to give Alberto Salazar, Mo Farah’s former coach, an easy ride on Tuesday night following his four-year ban from the US Anti-Doping Agency.