MONTREAL -- The World Anti-Doping Agency gave governments an
additional six months to pay their 2004 dues and threatened to
impose penalties on those who miss the deadline.
Countries will now have until June 30, instead of Dec. 31, to
pay their 2004 dues. WADA president Dick Pound said deadbeat
countries could lose their seats on the agency's board and
executive committee.
Other possible penalties for nonpayment could include the
International Olympic Committee refusing accreditation to
government officials for the Athens Games and prohibiting use of
the national flag at opening, closing and medal ceremonies.
"There should be no reason for governments not to make their
payments on time," Pound said following a meeting of WADA's
executive committee in Montreal.
Pound said the United States, Italy and Ukraine were among the
major countries yet to pay their annual dues to WADA, which is
jointly funded by the Olympic sports movement and national
governments.
The United States annually provides $800,000 in direct funding
to WADA through the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy.
WADA has received $13 million, or 65 percent, of its 2003 budget
with just one month remaining before countries were scheduled to
make their 2004 contributions.
Governments have paid only $6.5 million of their total share of
$10.1 million.
The financial crunch means WADA will set its budget based on
receiving only 80% of its dues, Pound said after the agency
announced that its 2004 budget would see no increase from this
year's $21.5 million.
WADA was set up in 1999 and financed solely by the International
Olympic Committee in its first two years. Since 2002, the agency's
funding has been split evenly among sports organizations and
governments.
Pound says relations with U.S. counterparts are "confusing"
after days in which a U.S. board member consistently abstained or
voted against all resolutions of substance without offering an
explanation.
"How do you get where you want to be when no one wants to
talk," Pound said.
The U.S. Olympic Committee assured IOC president Jacques Rogge
in a letter Thursday that the United States will pay its WADA dues
within the next three months, after the passage of a
Treasury/Transportation bill currently making its way through
Congress.
Rogge had told the U.S. to pay its dues or forget about bidding
for the 2012 Games. New York is one of nine cities in the running
for the event. The IOC will select the host city in 2005.
Pound is confident WADA's funding problem will resolve itself in
the long term after an international convention -- currently being
drafted by a United Nations agency -- makes WADA payments legally
binding and the anti-doping code part of domestic law.
The global drug code, endorsed by sports bodies and governments
in Denmark in March, sets out uniform anti-doping rules for all
sports and all countries.
WADA and the IOC's Rogge have said all Olympic sports must adopt
the code or risk being dropped from the games.
WADA and soccer's governing body, FIFA, this week settled their
differences over drug punishments, clearing the way for the sport
to stay in the Olympics.
More than 98 sporting organizations have adopted the code and 89
governments have pledged to accept it. WADA is hoping most will
have signed on by next year's Athens Games.