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≡ WADA EXECUTIVE BOARD ≡
The continuing conflict between the World Anti-Doping Agency and the U.S. government on the non-payment of dues was not resolved at Tuesday’s meeting of the WADA Executive Board, held online.
Instead, the matter of non-payment by any government will be discussed further later:
● “The ExCo discussed the issue of the voluntary withholding of contributions to WADA by Governments, following which, it referred the matter for further discussion at the next meeting of the ExCo in September 2026, and subsequently at the Foundation Board level.”
● WADA Director General Olivier Niggli (SUI) explained: “The withholding of contributions by Governments for political or other voluntary reasons remains a serious topic of concern for all WADA’s stakeholders. Funding instability has a direct effect on the functioning and development of the World Anti-Doping Program.”
The Agency issued an unhappy statement last Friday concerning an Associated Press story that “WADA might ban United States government officials from the LA 2028 Summer Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup over unpaid dues,” and that a proposal to do so might come out of the Executive Board meeting. Such an action could only be taken by the WADA Foundation Board, which will not meet until November.
The Friday WADA statement noted specifically “that the rules would not apply retroactively, the [2026] FIFA World Cup, LA [2028] and Salt Lake City [2034] Games would not be covered.”
The AP story quoted WADA communications director James Fitzgerald (IRL) and added in the WADA-noted statement in an updated version of its story.
At the root of all of this is the continuing fight between the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy and the U.S. Congress over WADA’s actions – or lack thereof – over the mass-positives incident involving 23 Chinese swimming stars in January 2021. WADA accepted the China Anti-Doping Agency’s conclusion that the positive for the banned substance Trimetazidine were due to food contamination and did not insist on provisional suspensions as required under the rules of the World Anti-Doping Code, or appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
In the meantime, WADA confirmed dues payments owed by the United States Office of National Drug Control Policy to WADA as:
● 2024: $3,624,983
● 2025: $3,842,482
● 2026: $3,957,756
The total is $11,425,221, in limbo as the fight continues between WADA, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, the U.S. Congress and the U.S. ONDCP.
¶
The WADA Executive Committee did give the go-ahead for discussions with Saudi Arabia on the establishment of a regional office in Riyadh (KSA), with the Saudi government to “provide USD 14.25 million over five years to set up and operate the regional office and to support the implementation of anti-doping capacity-building, educational programs and related activities in the MENA region.”
This regional office would be focused on anti-doping programs in 20 Arabic-speaking countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
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