WADA Helps Pay for USADA Landis Doping Case
The Landis Doping Case has been recorded as one of the most expensive court cases in the history of sports legal action, amassing hundreds of thousands of dollars on both parties. Which is why the USADA (US Anti Doping Agency) made a well-deserved sigh of relief when WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) stepped in and provided considerable financial aid to the cause for the upcoming doping hearing against cyclist Floyd Landis at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
This hearing, which will span 5 days, will begin on Wednesday in New York, and the costs for prosecuting the 2006 Tour de France champion will add up again to the already extravagant six-figure amount they had to shell out prior to this.
USADA had received some help from WADA in the case last May 2007, where Landis was first prosecuted, a trial that resulted to some explosive publicity and lasted 9 days. They will receive more help in this hearing as well, and some indiscreet sources even went so far as to say that WADA may possibly shoulder the whole bill or at least most of it.
Whatever the amount, USADA will still be grateful for it, as it has already spent a sizable portion of its budget for Landis' trial. A conservative estimate of USADA's bill, including layer and witnesses fees, and expenses easily eats up 5 – 10 % of their annual budget, an amount too glaring to be ignored.
Why so much investment on this one case? WADA's official statement stated that "It became apparent, from the way in which the matter was being defended, that further efforts had to be made to ensure that all relevant information was put before the tribunal, and that the witnesses required could be present. This requires some assistance from WADA.”
However, the same could be said for Landis, who faces around a total cost of $2 million dollars, from the start of the hearing last May, to it's potential end this March. This decision was made after it had been found out that the International Cycling Union had refused to offer subsidies for the case, which WADA commented as very disappointing, considering the UCI's rules regarding the subject.
UCI responds to this by stating that Landis' prosecution is the burden of the USADA.
It is still unclear to the CAS who paid for what, as there is quite a significant number of CAS arbitrations where USADA was involved, which might provide some insights on the budget assigned to these cases. Matthieu Reeb, CAS spokesman had mentioned that CAS pays the costs and fees of the arbitrators who come from around the globe.
