Katowice (Poland) (AFP)
The future president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Poland's Witold Banka, has appealed for the organization's budget, saying it is "ridiculous" that it is lower than that of an "average football club" on Tuesday at the opening of the World Conference on Doping in Katowice (Poland).
Former 400-meter runner and current Minister of Sports in his country, Witold Banka, 35, first welcomed the new tools available to WADA, adopted after the scandal of institutional doping in Russia, to enforce the World Anti-Doping Code to its signatories, international federations or national anti-doping agencies.
"WADA should impose sanctions more often, not just by waving the finger," said Witold Banka, a member of the organization's executive committee, to be elected on Thursday.
"But for this and other activities to be possible, WADA needs a huge budget," he added, finding "ridiculous ... an organization with global regulatory status. has a budget lower than 40 million dollars "(35.9 MEUR).
"An average football club has a bigger budget," added the minister, who will take up his post at WADA on 1 January and leave the Polish government.
"So I appeal to sport leaders, but also to my colleagues who represent governments and private companies: if you want the sport to be clean, you need to increase the financial support for the fight," he said. he adds.
Funded by its two pillars, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the states, WADA has a general budget of approximately $ 36 million (EUR 32 million) in 2019, but its contributors have promised an annual increase 8% over five years (2018-2022).
In his campaign for WADA, Witold Banka focused on creating a solidarity fund to help developing countries build stronger anti-doping systems by opening leads to funding by private sponsors.
But "it will be a long way," he acknowledged Tuesday, during a round table after his speech.
© 2019 AFP