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Katusha WorldTour licence appeal upheld by CAS

Knock-on effect likely with UCI previously telling road.cc that one team would drop down if Katusha won

Katusha has won its appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the decision late last year of the UCI's Licence Commission not to award it a UCI WorldTour licence for the 2013 season. The full reasons behind the CAS decision will be relaeased in the coming weeks, but the effect is that Katusha will be registered as a WorldTour team for this season.

Reacting to the news, team owner Igor Makorov, the energy billionaire who is also president of the Russian Cycling Federation and a member of the UCI's management board, said: "We can confidently say, that the whole world’s sports community followed the situation of Katusha Team during the last weeks.

"Katusha Team received a lot of sympathy and support out of different circles: sports officials and the trustees of the Russian Global Cycling Project as well as famous athletes, mass-media and fans.

"On behalf of both, Katusha Team and the whole Project I would like to express our deep gratefulness to all, who sincerely empathized, hoped and believed that the justice will be restored!

"This CAS decision is absolutely objective and justified. This proves once again the impartiality of the supreme juridical body of the world of sports."

In a brief press release issued this morning, the giverning body said: "The UCI will now evaluate the consequences of this ruling and will communicate further in coming days, as soon as such evaluation has taken place."

The Russian team's readmission to the WorldTour will have a knock-on effect, with the UCI having previously told road.cc that in the event of Katusha winning at CAS, several teams that had already been granted a WorldTour licence would have to have their applications scrutinised again, since there can only be 18 WorldTour teams.

However, that could potentially result in legal action on the part of whichever team was forced to drop out, particularly more than a month into the season.

The decision also has ramifications for race organisers. Last month, Katusha failed to get a wild card entry for the Giro d'Italia, but with its WorldTour status regained, it has a right, as well as an obligation, to participate in all WorldTour races.

While it was given wild card entry to Milan-Sanremo and, later in the season, the Giro d'Italia, it also missed out on a place at Tirreno-Adriatico, and reacting to news of the CAS decision on Twitter, Michele Acquarone of organisers RCS Sport said "So, @katushacycling is back. And now? What a big mess! In three weeks we are supposed to run the @TirrenAdriatico..."

There has been speculation in recent days that Jouaquim Rodriguez, who finished the 2012 season as the world's number-one ranked rider, might head to Lampre with several team mates if Katusha lost its appeal. That prospect appears to have receded with today's decision.

The Licence Commission had made the shock decision not to award Katusha a WorldTour licence on what the Russian team initially claimed were financial grounds, although the UCI has confirmed that ethical reasons lay behind it.

While the Licence Commission is independent of the UCI's management, today's CAS decision will be widely viewed as a further dent in the credibility of the governing body.

Today's statement from CAS confirming its decision says, in full:

Lausanne, 15 February 2013 - The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has upheld the appeal filed by Katusha Management SA (Katusha) against the International Cycling Union (UCI) in relation to Katusha’s application for a license to participate in the UCI World Tour 2013 season.
 
Further to an investigation by the Auditor appointed by the UCI, the UCI Licensing Commission issued a decision on 10 December 2012 in which it refused Katusha’s application for the UCI World Tour 2013 season. On 20 December 2012, Katusha filed an appeal at the CAS against such decision requesting that it be set aside and that Katusha be registered as a UCI ProTeam for the 2013 season. On 14 January 2013, the UCI has granted the Continental licence to the team.
 
A CAS hearing was held on 8 February 2013 during which the parties and their representatives were heard by the CAS Panel in charge of this matter: Professor Luigi Fumagalli (Italy), President of the Panel, Mr Luc Argand (Switzerland) and Mr Michele Bernasconi (Switzerland).
 
In its deliberations following the hearing, the CAS Panel did not reach the same conclusions as the UCI Licensing Commission and decided to uphold the appeal. According to the CAS decision, the application of Katusha Management SA to be registered as a UCI ProTeam for the season 2013 of the UCI World Tour is granted.
 
In view of the urgency of the matter, the Panel has issued its decision today, without the grounds, which will be issued in writing in a few weeks.

 

 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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25 comments

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bendertherobot | 11 years ago
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Open Canyon style.  4

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Sudor | 11 years ago
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Just how many inept cock ups does the UCI congress need to endure before they invite Pat out the door?

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Lungsofa74yearold | 11 years ago
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I think these guys use the same butchers as Bertie  19

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skippy | 11 years ago
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About Mid Nov 2012 , UCIless announced 15 Teams that were to be Pro World Teams in 2013 !
On what basis was this decided ? You will see that UCIless said it was as a result of the Licensing commission , so WHY , did the UCIless decide to withdraw Katusha's reg. ? It would appear that phat mc splat , has issues with the Russian ?

What is needed now is for the UCI Executive , to call in the Auditors and determine the expenses created by this Personal Vendetta ! When this is decided , phat can put his hand in his pocket , or hit the road ! This is another example of the criminal waste of UCI Members contributions. Furthering the mismanagement of UCI , by the aigle tag team duo , is their attempt to attack Ashenden , for revealing the defects in the Bio Passport , which WADA has also highlighted during the time of the " UCIIC " , now derailed as it sought the truth .

Makarov should Immediately call an Extraordinary Meeting of UCI Executive , present the evidence and depose the aigle tag team duo , before they create more Mayhem !

This year there will have to be 19 Pro World Teams , since there would be an impossible choice to make regarding which Team should be DUMPED , through no fault of any , other than one Irish delinquent ! Perhaps the Grand Tours could live with 8 man teams but that will require the Tour Owners to show a degree of Latitude ?

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Metjas | 11 years ago
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I'm sure if UCI try and throw out another current WorldTour team to get back to 18, we'll see more legal wrangling, and less money available that the UCI should be spending on promoting cycling - no doubt some refamiliarization required with the latter concept...

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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I knew this was going to happen. Katusha had a very good case, UCI are useless are per. Now its going to be lucky dip to see who goes back down.

Argos are the favourites in my book

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arrieredupeleton | 11 years ago
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Well I never. When I am rich enough to bankroll a Pro team, I'm going to call them Nyeeeow Boom. Military noises is where it's at.

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Simmo72 | 11 years ago
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UCI - I know what the C stands for!

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ch | 11 years ago
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Good news. I was fearing the Red Army would start rolling in from the other side of the iron curtain any day now, on bicycles of course.

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wwfcb | 11 years ago
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I really do dispair with the UCI they make FIFA look intelligent  40

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Metjas | 11 years ago
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surely you'd imagine that the UCI would be forced to rewrite its rules re WorldTour team selection after this debacle.

Good to see CAS doing the right thing here, how can the IOC express confidence in Pat and UCI, just utterly incomprehensible.

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Simon_MacMichael replied to Metjas | 11 years ago
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Metjas wrote:

surely you'd imagine that the UCI would be forced to rewrite its rules re WorldTour team selection after this debacle.

Yes, while McQuaid et al weren't involved in the decision, they are responsible for the way the process works.

Imagine if Barcelona or Chelsea were told weeks before the Champions League started that they couldn't take part?

Then took it to CAS and won while the first round was under way?

And Celtic or Valencia, say, were told they'd have to make way?

Slightly different situation because the Champions league is a season-long competition, but you get the point.

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Simon_MacMichael | 11 years ago
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OT but this thread takes me back to when I was briefly learning Russian in 2001 and the main character in the course book, Ivan, talking about his job.

Whereas in a French text book, Monsieur Lenoir might be a "boulanger" or in an Italian book Signor Bruno an "giornalista," our Russian hero proudly declared his profession as "beez-neez-mannn!"

I think that says a lot about the Russia of the time  3

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andyp | 11 years ago
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cheers. Been bugging me for aeons, that.

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Dog72 | 11 years ago
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Here's a crazy idea, WTF can't they have 19 teams? . Have UCI ever given a solid reason why Kat got dropped in the 1st place?

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cavasta | 11 years ago
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Katusha was a devastatingly effective rocket launcher used by the Russians during WWII. Just the sound of these things launching their deadly salvo was enough to scare the s**t out of the Nazis. 'Katiowa', I'm guessing, is the Russian spelling of 'Katusha'.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyusha_rocket_launcher for more details.

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andyp | 11 years ago
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Aside from the farce-ness of this, can anyone tell me why they're called 'Katusha' but their jerseys say 'Katiowa'?

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cavasta replied to andyp | 11 years ago
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andyp wrote:

Aside from the farce-ness of this, can anyone tell me why they're called 'Katusha' but their jerseys say 'Katiowa'?

Also, see here: http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=5884

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Simon_MacMichael replied to andyp | 11 years ago
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andyp wrote:

Aside from the farce-ness of this, can anyone tell me why they're called 'Katusha' but their jerseys say 'Katiowa'?

It's Cyrrilic script, not Roman - Катюша

It's the diminutive of Ekaterina, so Katusha translates as Katy or Cathy etc.

Katusha was title heroine of a patriotic song during WW2, and it was after her that the rocket launcher was named.

You'll almost certainly have heard the tune before. There's an MP3 of it here:

http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/sounds/lyrics/katyusha.htm

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cavasta replied to Simon_MacMichael | 11 years ago
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Simon_MacMichael wrote:

It's the diminutive of Ekaterina, so Katusha translates as Katy or Cathy etc.

The result is that there's a pro team called Katy  1

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ubercurmudgeon replied to cavasta | 11 years ago
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cavasta wrote:
Simon_MacMichael wrote:

It's the diminutive of Ekaterina, so Katusha translates as Katy or Cathy etc.

The result is that there's a pro team called Katy  1

I think I saw a documentary about it on Dave (actually it was on its sister channel, Yesterday, but until they rename it Sally that ruins the joke.)

On the topic of this latest UCI clusterf*ck, I believe only one course of action makes sense anymore .

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cavasta replied to Simon_MacMichael | 11 years ago
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Simon_MacMichael wrote:

You'll almost certainly have heard the tune before. There's an MP3 of it here:

http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/sounds/lyrics/katyusha.htm

What an excellent website! Thanks for that. Those soviets knew a thing or two about writing and belting out some cracking tunes. I've got a double cd of the Red Army choir - magnificent stuff.

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Kolovrat replied to andyp | 11 years ago
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their jerseys say 'Kaтюшa' in Russian.
It is a pet name for Catherine.

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cavasta | 11 years ago
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F***ing UCI. Useless, embarrassing, shameful.

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notfastenough | 11 years ago
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What a f***ing farce.

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