WADA and Conflict of Interest

The funding structure of an organization will always effect its decision making. This is simple logic. A funder provides the revenue to an organization in order to further its interests. The decision by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to reinstate Russia after its state sponsored doping scandal was inevitable. This is because the International Olympic Committee (IOC) provides half of the funding for WADA and the IOC wanted Russia reinstated.

If you want to have a watchdog group, then you have to find a way to fund it so that the group can maintain their independence. What this story highlights for the rest of us – is that if you take money from a funder, you have to do what that funder wants.