WADA President Craig Reedie has "called for sponsorship revenue from cheating athletes to be diverted to the fight against doping and for a levy on TV rights deals as part of a huge increase in the organisation's resources," according to Owen Gibson of the London GUARDIAN. Reedie has for the first time "made specific proposals for vastly increasing" WADA's income outside its current funding model. Reedie said that while WADA "could be proud of how far it had come since its formation in 1999, it was time for a step change." He suggested that sponsors "should write a clause into the contracts of athletes they back that would divert endorsement fees into the fight against doping if they were found cheating." Reedie also "endorsed another idea" that has been intermittently proposed by WADA execs but has "gained traction in recent months as the scale of the global challenge has again become clear." Noting that the revenue from global broadcasting rights is estimated at $35B per annum, Reedie suggested "a levy on each deal to boost" WADA’s existing $30M-a-year budget. Reedie: "To impose, for example a 0.5% tariff on this $35B annual media rights figure would instantly put $175M more in the anti-doping coffers, increasing WADA's budget five-fold." He also said that sponsors "should take more responsibility for the fight against doping." There is "widespread acceptance" that WADA needs more funds if it is to conduct "more proactive investigations of the kind led by an independent commission chaired by Dick Pound that uncovered widespread systemic doping in Russia." However, others in the anti-doping world argue that WADA "has become too bureaucratic and beholden to its paymasters and must prove first it is capable of spending additional funds wisely." Reedie said, "We need to rally all sport's stakeholders -- including broadcasters and sponsors -- to the clean sport cause" (GUARDIAN, 5/8).
