You are viewing the Eleventh Annual Report from the Anti-Doping Authority of the Netherlands. This is the sixth Annual Report to be published exclusively in digital form.
During 2016, the 'Racing for clean sport' project, which was completed in 2015, was succeeded by the 'Together for clean sport' project. This project was launched formally at the end of 2015 and it is being implemented in close collaboration with NOC*NSF, the KNVB, the Athletics Union and Fit!vak. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport is also providing financial support for this follow-up project. There are various activities (prevention and control) targeting football, billiards, athletics and fitness. The aim is to establish models tailored specifically to team sports, sports with a high percentage of inadvertent doping violations, sports with a relatively high doping risk, and fitness. The models will be used by other sports associations and organisations in these categories to improve their anti-doping policies.
Given the ongoing intensive contacts with the press in 2016, it would seem fair to conclude that the high profile of the Doping Authority is a fact of life that does not depend on the seriousness or extent of current doping cases. It is not possible to respond to all requests for information and comments, and so a selective approach is unavoidable. Nevertheless, the aim is to provide the fastest and most complete possible service for the principal media (national newspapers, radio and television). The numerous contacts with the media resulted once again in an extremely large number of publications and broadcasts that included the Doping Authority's views and the information we provided. More than in previous years, the media reported on the organisation of the doping policy in an international context in direct response to the very serious doping issues in Russia and often on the basis (in part) of information provided by the Doping Authority.
The nature and extent of the Russian 'doping scandal', and the range of responses in the international sports world, also had a major impact on the Doping Authority. WADA involved the Doping Authority in different ways in a number of projects focusing not only on finding solutions for the short term but also on the implementation of reforms in the global anti-doping world in the longer term. At the same time, there was also the rapid development of a new form of cooperation between national Anti-Doping Organisations (NADO Leader Summits). These summits produced analyses and explanations that now play a major role in international decision-making.
During the first half of 2016, the Doping Authority was involved in extensive consultations with our policy partners about the need to extend the national doping control programme in order to catch up to some extent with other elite sports countries. Once again in 2016, there was a reduction in the Lotto funding received via NOC*NSF (3.5% on this occasion) that necessitated cutbacks in the prevention programme targeting elite sports. Fortunately, however, the General Meeting of NOC*NSF decided in May 2016 to raise the Lotto budget for 2017 and 2018, and so the prevention programme can be returned to the original level, with the number of doping controls in those years increasing. A start was made with the extension of the national control programme in the second half of 2016, as a result of which the number of controls was well above the target of 1710 (2061 national controls were conducted).
The Anti-Doping Policy Implementation Bill was submitted to the Lower House of the Dutch parliament by the Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport in September 2016, together with the recommendations of the Council of State. The bill, which (at the time of writing) is expected to go into effect in 2018, will have a major impact on the work of the Doping Authority. This legislation will result in the establishment of the Doping Authority as an independent governing authority which will take over the work currently done by the present Doping Authority. During the course of 2015, a review was conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport of the impact that these changes will have on our organisation and these matters were looked at in greater detail in 2016. The transfer of tasks, personnel and resources from the present foundation structure to the independent governing authority will require thorough preparation but these matters can only be settled and arranged in concrete terms when the exact details of the new law (and any associated decrees) are known. This stage had not yet been reached at the end of 2016.
Despite the ongoing struggle to balance the responsibilities of the organisation and the available resources, we believe that we made an important contribution to the fight against doping in sport once again in 2016. We hope you will agree with us after reading this Annual Report.