This weekend. the World Anti-Doping Agency will meet in Glasgow to discuss a new system of sanctioning domestic anti-doping organizations for non-compliance.
According to a report from InsideTheGames.biz, this new system would have three levels of violations: the lowest level dealing with administrative and procedural issues, a middle level for testing and education problems and a highest level for “serious faults such as the government’s interference and direct manipulation of the system,” such as the McLaren Report describes Russia.
According to Nick Butler, “sanctions will rise from warnings to escalating fines to, in the most serious cases, a suspension of athletes’ eligibility to compete in a specific event.”
This would mark an increase of WADA’s power as the organization would now have direct sanctioning power, not just make recommendations. This comes just days after WADA was heavily criticized at the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) General Assembly for overstepping its bounds in proposing Russia be banned entirely from the Rio Olympic Games.
ANOC President Sheikh Ahmad and IOC President Thomas Bach both criticized WADA for that proposal, as did Spanish Olympic Committee President Alejandro Blanco, who said, according to InsideTheGames.biz, “What is the objective of WADA? It must not be to tell sports institutions what they should be doing, like telling the IOC to sanction all Russian athletes.”
Read more from InsideTheGames.biz here.
WADA needs to stick to its job & leave sanctions to the Gov bodies of each sport.