The new era of British athletics began yesterday with the candid admission that the coaching system needs a radical overhaul. Niels de Vos, the UK Athletics (UKA) chief executive, may have flat-batted every question about who will succeed the departing Dave Collins, but he did not mince his words when it came to addressing the deeper issues.

“There has been an emerging split between the professional ranks of coaching and the amateur ranks,” he admitted. “If we don't have coaches to develop younger ones, we won't have elite athletes to turn into world champions. There has been too much focus on athletes and not enough on the coaches of those athletes.”

De Vos was speaking after confirming the end of Collins and the role of performance director. The new man, widely believed to be Charles van Commenee, will instead become head coach. “Performance director is just too broad and wide a role in a sport as complex as athletics,” De Vos said. “Dave did a very good job at putting systems in place, but, at the end of the day, systems do not win you medals.”

De Vos denied that Collins had been sacked and instead termed it evolution. He also claimed that the change would have been made even if Britain had brought home 20 athletics medals from the Beijing Olympics rather than four. “I've had conversations with him over a long time about what is needed and we've agreed it's not him,” De Vos said. “It's not about me saying, 'Dave was 100 per cent wrong' because 75 per cent was right. But I knew where we wanted to go.”

De Vos said that it had taken him six months to get to the point where he could make changes because the most sought-after candidates were on four-year contracts. “If you want to bring in the best in the world, it does not happen overnight,” he said.

De Vos refused to say whether the job had been offered to Van Commenee, Holland's chef de mission in Beijing and the former coach of Denise Lewis and Kelly Sotherton, or anyone else, but said that an announcement would be made within a few weeks. That, most likely, will coincide with the end of the Paralympics and Van Commenee's duties with the Dutch Olympic Committee.

Certainly, De Vos's remarks about scouring the world for the best and the prospect of Van Commenee's arrival have raised optimism for an improvement in results. Rapid strides need to be taken if athletics is to become the most successful British sport in 2012, but neither De Vos nor Van Commenee is the sort to shy away from harsh decisions, as evinced by the redundancies at UKA this year and the hardline stance on Dwain Chambers.

Explaining the change, De Vos said: “It's about recognising what the rest of the world told me and that was very clearly that - you guys have the talent and must not miss the opportunity'.

If a single thing prompted it, it was 2012. We have four years to make a major difference and where I think the sport needs strengthening is in the very best coaching of it.”