World Anti-Doping Agency President Craig Reedie said that the organization "faces a challenge to tackle cheating in sport while it has an annual budget of less than the income of many top athletes," according to Clare Fallon of REUTERS. Reedie said that lack of money "could equally prove a handicap for a proposed independent testing authority" and expressed support for IAAF President Sebastian Coe and said WADA was in a state of "peace not war" with Coe's troubled sport. In an interview with Newsweek, Reedie said,
"I could do with a lot more money." The Scot said that "governments decided their own contributions to WADA's budget," which were then matched by the IOC.
He said, "The total is not nearly enough. WADA’s total annual budget of $30 million a year is exceeded by many athletes around the world who make more than that themselves in one year."
Reedie said that "he was impressed with the support within sport and from governments for an independent testing agency" as proposed by IOC President Thomas Bach but the question of funding it needed to be addressed. Reedie: "Who pays the bill is a crucial question" (REUTERS, 2/6).
