Legal Status of the World Anti-Doping Agency

Doping is one of the major problems of modern sports. For a long time, the IOC tried to deal with this problem on its own, but in 1999 it was decided to establish the World Anti-Doping Agency. Despite the Agency’s initial successes, today the confidence of Member States in WADA is only shrinking every day. In 2019, the issue of reforming the Agency was on the agenda. Based on the analysis of the activities of the World Anti-Doping Agency, we conclude that today a number of problems have emerged that prevent WADA from pursuing an effective anti-doping policy in the field of sports. These problems require urgent reforming of the Agency. The main problem is the lack of a clear definition of the legal status of WADA, both at the national and at the supranational level. A secondary problem is the desire of WADA to become the dominant, leading organization in the field of regulating sports activities. Moreover, there is a problem in reforming the financial component of the World Anti-Doping Agency.