AFP
NOS Wielrennen•vandaag, 06:29
Cycling appears to be the next big sport that could be shaken up by significant investment from Saudi Arabia.
A package of 250 million dollars (233 million euros) would be on the table during negotiations in London today and tomorrow, Reuters news agency and the Belgian newspaper HLN reported.
Cycling teams, including the Dutch Visma-Lease a Bike, have been working on plans to drastically reform the sport for some time and have united under the name One Cycling. In the search for investors for a ‘Super League’ in cycling, they ended up with a Saudi investment company.
That party (SRJ) is affiliated with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has entered the sports world with hundreds of billions.
Football, golf and tennis
Major footballers were brought to the Saudi league and top golfers left the PGA tour for lucrative offers from the Gulf state. Formula 1 has been given a race in Saudi Arabia and numerous major boxing matches are being held there.
Clement: ‘A lot is possible after 2025’
According to NOS cycling analyst Stef Clement, the fact that the future of cycling is being discussed now, at the start of the new cycling season, is no coincidence, but logically timed.
“Cycling as we know it will cease to exist at the end of 2025, because then the licenses of teams in the WorldTour will expire,” said Clement.
“We are now working hard to reform the sport. From 2026 it is possible to take a different path. This has to happen quickly in order to get everything done in time. Some of the teams are trying to do that now with One Cycling.”
Richard Plugge, director of Visma-Lease a Bike, and Zdenek Bakala, owner of the Belgian Soudal-Quick Step, are reportedly the driving forces behind One Cycling.
One Cycling’s plan
They want a smaller, clearer cycling calendar, in which it is clear to the public where and when the best riders will compete against each other. Only in races that really matter, without overlap as currently exists between Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, both WorldTour races of a week.
Plugge has been saying for some time that it is high time for major changes in cycling. According to the boss of the successful Dutch team, reforms are necessary for a sustainable future, in which cycling becomes a recognizable and financially strong product.
“The world around us is changing and our opponents are not the other teams, but other sports: football, rugby and Formula 1,” Plugge said in the RadioCycling podcast. “We have to become future-proof and ensure that cycling will be bigger in five years than it is now. We all benefit from that.”
AFPRichard Plugge (right) with Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard
Growth that benefits everyone hits a sensitive point in cycling. Major competition organizers such as the ASO, RCS and Flanders Classics have a lot of power in the sport. ASO is the organizer of the Tour, Vuelta, Paris-Nice, Paris-Roubaix, Dauphiné, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Flèche Wallonne and manages the income from those competitions.
Teams believe that they do not see enough of the money that organizers raise. Their survival depends on sponsors. Even the Visma team, by far the most successful team in the world in 2023, had to look for new sponsors after Jumbo dropped out.
By setting up a Super League, the aim is to give teams more say in the distribution of the money involved in the sport.
EPAASO-director Jean-Etienne Amaury
But the ASO, a key player with two of the three major rounds in its hands, does not seem to have any intention of even talking about a new format. The wealthy Amaury family owns ASO and safeguards the Tour de France as French heritage.
Amstel Gold Race in Super League?
For the time being, Flanders Classics appears to be the only racing organization on board with the plans for a new format.
But whether and when that will actually happen remains to be seen. That depends primarily on the discussions that will be held behind closed doors in London on Wednesday and Thursday.
European Court ruling can help
Recent rulings by the European Court of Justice may work to the advantage of cycling teams that want to establish a new competition.
Football clubs were ruled in favor of the court in a case against UEFA, which planned to punish or exclude clubs and football players who want to set up their own competition. Former skater Mark Tuitert and former short tracker Niels Kerstholt were ruled in favor of the court in a similar case against the ISU skating union.
That is why One Cycling will feel strengthened to implement its own plans, with less fear for the world cycling union UCI and Tour organizer ASO.
2024-02-07 05:29:09
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