According to an internal document, WADA plans to extend senior management terms from six to nine years – a plan that has potentially major implications for the fight for clean sport.
The process is somewhat typical of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). He confirms the prejudices of all critics who accuse her of a lack of transparency and a penchant for backroom deals. The explosive internal document from March 27th is camouflaged with the harmless description “Discussion paper on the terms and elections of the WADA President and Vice President“. The paper, which is exclusively available to the ARD doping editorial team and which is intended to expand the president’s powers, is apparently not intended to be made public for the time being.
Probably for a good reason: “The question arises as to whether the President and Vice President are treated differently given the recent governance reforms and the nine-year limit now set for the ExCo and board members and should remain at a maximum of six years“, it says, “or whether their terms should be extended to a maximum of nine years to align with ExCo and Board members.“
“IOC’s Lapdogs”
It’s probably no coincidence that this backroom initiative, along the lines of “make nine out of six,” came about during President Witold Banka’s term of office. In his first three-year term of office, which ended last December, the former Polish sports minister was conspicuous by the fact that he seemed at least uninspired, but rather uninformed, in open question and answer sessions in which he could not just read the answers from paper.
Barely a year in office, Banka had had to deal with a frontal offensive. Among other things, at the end of 2020, athletes called for reforms and more say. The media summed up the performance of the agency responsible for justice in the global fight against doping with unflattering slogans: “Inactive, dependent, overwhelmed” (Deutschlandfunk). And the head of the American anti-doping agency (USADA), Travis Tygart, even blasphemed in the ZDF “sports report”: “Unfortunately, WADA has become the lapdog of the International Olympic Committee.“
And what did WADA President Banka say? Demands to remove sport representatives and IOC members from the panels would undermine WADA structures. But one will”intensively on transparency and reformsHis understanding of transparency can be found in the secret paper: Behind closed doors, the power and influence of the WADA President are to be secured with an extension of the term of office.
“Six years is enough, nine years would be too long“, says the Heidelberg sports lawyer Michael Lehner, head of the German doping victim support association, the ARD doping editorial team: “This is based on the terms of office in the IOC, where the president can be elected for a total of twelve years. That too is too long.”
“There was never anyone who would have moved anything big”
Since 1999, WADA has now had its fourth President. The office is held alternately by the two 50 percent financiers of WADA, the International Olympic Committee and the governments of the world. Under this system, it was hoped, neither side would gain too much dominance.
But since founding boss Richard Pound of Canada, no one has made a particularly positive impression on the post – neither former Australian politician John Fahey, nor Scottish Olympian Craig Reedie or the current incumbent Banka. “None of them were particularly creative. Sometimes I have the impression that this is a post that is somehow given away. There was never anyone who would have made a big difference“, says Lehner, who has been an expert on the sport-political scene for decades.
Lehner was also disappointed by the WADA leaders chosen by the states, who should be more independent because they don’t come from organized sport. His explanation for this is simple: “Laziness, lack of interest, the office is not that important, you just have to break it down.“
100,000 Swiss francs annually
The authors of the discussion paper anticipated that the initiative to extend the mandate could meet with headwind. A proposed solution, the paper said, would be to retain a two-term system, but “with a longer total number of years for the first term“, consisting of six years for the first and three years for the second. In the document it is added: “If there is no willingness to extend the total number of presidential and vice-presidential terms, a single six-year term could be another option.“
“cooling time”
Reforms that came into force last year stipulate that a candidate must have a twelve-month “cooling time“, a kind of waiting year, before taking office. The paper argues that this, along with the three-year term, means that an elected president “had to campaign again almost a year after taking office in order to run for re-election two years after taking office.”. This is “highly unproductive for the organization and does not give the newly elected president sufficient time to achieve meaningful goals before having to campaign again”.
The argument may be correct in theory, but it is irrelevant in practice: the past presidents, including the current chairman Witold Banka, had no opponents for their second term and were unanimously confirmed in office. Conversely, this means that in future even a less than convincing president should be allowed to stay in office for at least six years.
The venture is also internationally controversial. “Our opinion on the electoral periods, based on principles of good corporate governance, is that six or nine years is too long. So we would always support a shorter time span. For example three years“, says Kim Højgaard Ravn, head of the Danish anti-doping agency, the ARD doping editorial team, “otherwise the danger is that you will not be held accountable for your work.“
Banka and his vice-president, the former Chinese IOC member Yang Yang, differ in their roles from the honorary status of all other elected officials anyway: They receive a fixed annual compensation of 100,000 and 50,000 Swiss francs (equivalent to about 102,000 and 51,000 euros respectively). . And: It is not clear whether Banka and Yang will even be able to run for a third term if the new proposal is accepted.
“Unloved Child”
Above all, critics such as Lehner complain that institutions such as the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and WADA are still not independent of the powerful IOC, even after decades. “I think that sport is basically not very interested in investigating doping offenses – only if it has to be“, says Lehner: “The interest of the IOC is primarily of a commercial nature, and WADA must function accordingly. Basically, this whole doping issue is an unloved child.“
Upon request, WADA confirmed the corresponding reform plans to the ARD doping editorial team. The Executive Committee on Tuesday “some proposed changes to the terms of office of the President and Vice President related to recent governance reforms” discussed. The proposal will now be submitted to the Board of Trustees for examination.