Irish Continental team EvoPro Racing has said it has “been drawn into a controversy not of our making” over its proposed deal with Cycling Ireland and has issued a statement to stickybottle seeking to address some of the claims being made about the deal.
As reported first on stickybottle two weeks ago, Cycling Ireland contracted chartered accountants BDO to review the deal it was working on with EvoPro Racing.
That deal would have supported the team this year; specifically it was intended a Cycling Ireland Academy would have been created within the team that young Irish cyclists would have been placed into.
The review of the proposed deal being carried out by BDO is now complete and it appears some of its findings will be published. The agreement envisaged between EvoPro Racing and Cycling Ireland will not go ahead. However, the team still opened its 2022 season today in Belgium, riding Grote Prijs Jean-Pierre Monseré (1.1).
The Sunday Times has today reported concerns were raised within
Cycling Ireland over two aspects related to EvoPro Racing and its potential
contract with the national governing body.
The first concern was that former FAI chief executive John Delaney attended a meeting between EvoPro Racing and a potential commercial backer. The second concern was that a company owned by one of EvoPro’s co-founders Morgan Fox – called Tyberry Ltd – was linked to the team and had a deficit on its books of €389,000.
In a statement to stickybottle this evening, EvoPro Racing said it had been “drawn into a controversy not of our making”. It added the team had been “invited by Cycling Ireland to address an obvious shortcoming” relating to the absence of a pathway for young Irish cyclists to progress to an elite international standard.
The team insisted it was still “available to fix” that issue via
an academy towards the pro ranks and also by helping young Irish riders who
wanted to develop to top amateur level.
“EvoPro Sports is a newly formed company set up specifically
with the highest standards of corporate governance in mind to ensure progress
for Irish cyclists,” the statement said. “Whilst EvoPro certainly have a need
for money to facilitate this project, our coaches, mechanics, management and
everyone else is more or less voluntary.”
The statement also addressed the reference to Tyberry Ltd; the
apparent financial deficit on its books and links to the team.
“Tyberry limited is a sponsor, and contrary to reports doesn’t have any significant real debt,” the statement said. “That company had nothing to do with the Cycling Ireland deal. The main creditor of that company is a principal of EvoPro.
“EvoPro has no interest in suing Cycling Ireland. We know that
everyone has good intentions and we all want to support and help young cyclists
and remain available to be part of the solution. PJ Nolan and Morgan Fox have
financed EvoPro for the most part out of their own pockets to help and assist
in the development of cycling in Ireland.”
On the issue of John Delaney and the assistance he appears to
have offered to the team to put in place a commercial deal, the team said: “(John
Delaney) has not received any funds from EvoPro and has no role with EvoPro.
However if he secured a commercial partnership it would be remiss of us to
ignore that or if anyone else in sports funding came forward.”
The team added it had a proven track record of running a squad that had helped develop young riders, some of whom had gone on to World Tour level (a reference to Australian Harry Sweeny, formerly an EvoPro rider and now with Lotto Soudal). The team added any dispute or litigation between any of the officials or former officials within Cycling Ireland was not its concern and did not involve EvoPro.
The team remained “open and available to putting in place a mutually beneficial structure” towards assisting young Irish cyclists to progress and develop.
The background
The ongoing media coverage and this evening’s statement from EvoPro to stickybottle stems from an agreement signed between the team and Cycling Ireland late last year. The heads of an agreement – which appears to have been an agreement to strike a more detailed deal – was signed between the two entities in December.
The signatories on the EvoPro Racing side were team founders Morgan
Fox and PJ Nolan and on the Cycling Ireland side by chief executive Matt
McKerrow and then president of the national governing body Liam Collins.
The agreement would have created a Cycling Ireland Academy
within the team, enabling young emerging cyclists to compete with EvoPro Racing
in Europe this year. This would have aided their development and the idea was
that the team could become a pathway for young riders to move up to the
professional ranks in time. EvoPro was also lined up to provide vehicles and
staff to Cycling Ireland when national teams were competing in Europe.
While numerous sums have been reported in the media,
stickybottle understands the deal would have been worth approximately €300,000
this year, including €100,000 for bikes and equipment which would be retained
by Cycling Ireland.
However, early in the New Year a dispute emerged within Cycling
Ireland over aspects of the deal. This included a range of issues from how the
initial agreement was reached to how much it would cost and the selection
criteria for riders who were already told they were part of the team. There was
also disquiet, especially at board level, about why more information related to
the deal was not shared within the organisation before it was publicly
announced just before Christmas.
Furthermore, some of those within Cycling Ireland were concerned
the funds intended for the academy within the team would be used to fund the
team generally. To be clear, there was no allegation of any wrongdoing. Rather,
the concerns were around how the deal would work, how it was structured, its
cost and precisely where within the team the money would be spent.
Completely separately, it emerged publicly in late December that
Cycling Ireland had in 2020 applied for Department of Sport grants, for
equipment, using false quotations.
A dispute between board members spilled over publicly earlier
this year – with conflicting statements published by the board and by Liam
Collins. Another statement was later issued by Matt McKerrow calling for the
issues within the board to be resolved.
However, while many people in the Irish cycling community
believed those deteriorating relations within the board related to the false
quotations controversy, it was the dispute over the EvoPro deal that was
driving those issues.
