More UCI hypocrisy?

BikingBernie

As you probably know, Hein Verbruggen is the honorary life president of the UCI. A couple of years ago he was also closely involved in the attempts by the UCI to wrest control of TV rights to the sports major events away from the organisers. The UCI effectively claimed that the Pro Tour / World Tour was the primary 'brand' in professional cycling, and as such they should be free to sell the TV rights to all the major races to third parties, taking a cut of the proceeds. One group that Verbruggen was scheming with was the Rothschild and Gifted Group. For example see:

http://tinyurl.com/2bt5hn

Now it seems that the same group that Verbruggen was negotiating with is in the process of setting up a similar deal directly with the teams. See:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/radiosh ... ing-league

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/breakaw ... rothschild

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/details ... e-revealed

Of course, the UCI now claim that such a deal is 'unworkable'. (I guess actually meaning 'As we are not the prime beneficiaries, we will do everything possible to stop it happening'). However, I do wonder how much the groundwork put in by Verbruggen has aided the setting up of this plan, and whether or not Verbruggen is still involved somewhere.

morstar

The UCI simply want the Ecclestone model where they can get filthy rich off the back of the sport.

RideOnTime

morstar wrote:

The UCI simply want the Ecclestone model where they can get filthy rich off the back of the sport.

Yep, I think so...

RichN95.

If someone tries something and fails to make it work and then calls it 'unworkable' when someone tries the same thing, I can't quite see how that it hypocrisy.