Nigeria risks missing out on major games and championships as WADA refers doping case to CAS
The World Anti-Doping Agency said it has referred the national anti-doping agencies of Nigeria and Venezuela to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over their alleged non-compliance.
The agencies were sanctioned by WADA in November for failing to address “critical requirements”.
Both agencies have disputed WADA’s allegations.
In a statement on Tuesday, WADA said it “filed the two separate requests for arbitration with CAS on Feb. 9, 2024… The allegations of non-compliance and the consequences would not take effect until CAS makes its ruling.”
The punishments recommended by WADA’s Compliance Review Committee state that Nigeria and Venezuela’s flags would not be flown at competitions and the nations would be ineligible to host major sporting events until reinstatement conditions were met.WADA refers compliance cases against the Nigerian and Venezuelan NADOs to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Read the full WADA statement below:
Further to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA's) Executive Committee (ExCo) meeting of 17 November 2023 and subsequent update of 8 December 2023, WADA wishes to provide a further update regarding the ExCo’s decision to endorse the recommendations of WADA’s independent Compliance Review Committee (CRC) and allege the National Anti-Doping Organizations (NADOs) of Nigeria and Venezuela as non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code (Code).
The alleged non-compliance in the Nigeria case is due to the NADO still not addressing several critical requirements to its anti-doping program following an audit carried out by WADA in late 2022, while the Venezuelan NADO has not addressed several critical requirements that came from the Code Compliance Questionnaire exercise.
Under Article 9.3.1 of the International Standard for Code Compliance by Signatories (ISCCS), the NADOs had 21 days following the date of receipt of the formal notice of non-compliance to dispute WADA’s allegation of non-compliance, as well as the consequences and/or the reinstatement conditions proposed by the Agency.
Before that 21-day deadline, WADA received formal notification from the two NADOs that they disputed the allegations of non-compliance against them, as well as the proposed consequences. Accordingly, and in line with Article 24.1.7 of the Code, WADA now publicly announces that it filed two separate requests for arbitration with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on 9 February 2024. As set out in Article 24.1.7, certain Signatories have the right to intervene in the CAS proceedings as a party whereas other persons may apply and be permitted to intervene under certain conditions. As per the same article, the notice of intervention or the application to intervene must be filed within 10 days of the publication of this notice.
The allegations of non-compliance and the consequences would not take effect until CAS makes its ruling. Further details regarding the cases including, in particular, the consequences and reinstatement conditions can be found by clicking on their country name here: Nigeria and Venezuela.
