Anti-doping developments

Significant changes to the existing Code include the implementation of a medical passport for athletes; a ban of up to four years for those committing offences which involve aggravating circumstances (such as doping rings); and a withdrawal of accreditation to compete in the Olympic Games for any athletes receiving a doping ban in excess of six months. However, the plans to introduce a "whereabouts" system of out-of-competition testing whereby athletes must be available for one hour each day have been discarded because of concerns that sophisticated modern evasion techniques would beat the one hour per day testing policy.

UK Sport, the national anti-doping organisation, has expressed disappointment at this volte-face, suggesting that the possible alternative 24/7 system (whereby athletes must acknowledge their whereabouts upon request at any time) is unfair. A consultation process is continuing.

The Conference took place amidst news that the Australian former finance minister John Fahey became President elect when the pre-election favourite, French Sports Minister Jean-Francois Lamour stepped out of the race to succeed Dick Pound, which has led to threats from some European countries to shun the new WADA Code in protest.

The fears add to the concerns shared by WADA and European Union sports ministers that many European national governments are still to pass the UNESCO convention that makes it mandatory for countries to pass the necessary legislation to adopt the Code. During the course of 2007, WADA and the Council of Europe adopted a firm stance by suggesting that countries failing to comply with this requirement by 1 January 2009 (when the revised Code is due to come in force) would be precluded from bidding for the right to host major sporting events such as the Olympic Games and other world championships. WADA and the Council of Europe have since tempered their approach, suggesting that such countries may or may not be precluded from bidding for such events.

There has been a mixed reaction amongst sports governing bodies to the revised Code. Various leading world golf tours, including US PGA Tour and PGA European Tour, have not adopted the Code preferring instead to create their own list of banned substances, and the Football Association is to continue with its own bespoke anti-doping policy. FIFA, which previously criticised WADA for the inflexibility of the Code, has welcomed the revisions whilst maintaining reservations about the provisions under which banned players are prevented from training with their clubs during the period of their suspension. Unlike individual athletes, FIFA claims that team players are unable to train adequately on their own.

The fight to prevent doping in sport and punish those who use prohibited substances continues. China has recently established a national anti-doping agency whilst UK Sport is creating a new UK anti-doping panel, to be run by the Sports Dispute Resolution Panel, which shall be independent of UK Sport. Marion Jones, the former US sprinter who won 3 gold medals at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, has been stripped of her medals and had all results annulled for a period of two years from September 2000. Cycling is set to increase the number of doping tests from 1,500 in 2007 to 7,000 in 2008 while the 2008 Beijing Olympics will involve 5,000 doping tests, doubling the number of tests that took place at Athens in 2004. Elsewhere, a Belgian court has decided that it is not competent to consider the legal challenge brought by the Kazakhstani cyclist Andrey Kashechkin against UCI, cycling's world governing body. Formerly a member of the Astana team, Kashechkin, banned by UCI for prohibited substance use, is demanding that governments and not sports governing bodies should conduct anti-doping as otherwise it constitutes an invasion of privacy. He is currently represented by the legal team who acted for Jean Marc Bosman in the landmark European employment football case.

WADA has looked into the possibilities of securing sponsorship in order to increase the annual budget of US$25,000,000 it currently receives from the IOC and national governments as Dick Pound identified the need for a "paradigm shift" in funding. However, concerns over conflicts of interest with potential pharmaceutical sponsors and the lack of marketable rights to offer to other sponsors may lead to WADA pursuing charitable donations.