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McQuaid and Bruyneel (copyright aerocha:Flickr)Pat McQuaid denies breaking or bending rules in UCI presidential battle
Pat McQuaid took to RTE radio yesterday to defend himself against accusations of manipulating UCI rules in order to stand for re-election as president of cycling’s world governing body.
“I have not solicited this at all,” Mr McQuaid told The Pat Kenny Show’ Myles Dungan. “I have not broken any rules. I have not bent any rules.”
Earlier this year Mr McQuaid failed to gain nomination as a presidential candidate from the Irish cycling federation, his home organisation. He was then nominated by the Swiss federation, but that nomination is subject to a legal challenge.
The latest twist in the tale is that the Malaysian cycling federation has tabled a rule amendment that will allow a presidential candidate to be nominated by any two federations. If that rule change is passed at the UCI Congress on September 27, it will be made retrospective so that Mr McQuaid’s nominations from the Moroccan and Thai federations are considered valid, even though they were put up after the original closing date.
Mr McQuaid’s rival for the presidency, British Cycling’s Brian Cookson, has called this “an attempt to change the rules during the game.”
Three nominations
Defending his position, Mr McQuaid said: “I have three federations which have nominated me – Thailand, Swiss and Morroccans – so I have enough nominations to stand for the presidency of the UCI. You have to remember that I am in the middle of a presidency election and there are two candidates. The other side is trying to twist things to their advantage.”
Mr McQuaid denied that he had anything to do with the proposal to change the rules.
“I have not solicited this at all,” he said. “When the Malaysian federation saw what was happening back in January with myself and the Irish federation, they felt it was wrong. They decided to put that proposal forward. The UCI Congress will decide if they want to accept that proposal or not. I could not say I do not want to put that proposal on the agenda.
“I have not broken any rules. I have not bent any rules. Democracy is best served by having numerous candidates. If we were to follow your interpretation then I would just stand aside and let Brian Cookson walk straight into the UCI Presidency. My federations around the world would not thank me for that.”
Globalisation
His record as president of the UCI for the last eight years is the basis of his campaign for re-election. Mr McQuaid said that work was the reason why federations such as Morocco’s, Thailand’s and Malaysia’s had lent him their support.
“I refuse to step aside because I am standing on the work I have done in the past eight years and the globalisation of the sport is completely changed.
“I’ve built up this organisation over the past eight years, I have developed this organisation over the past eight years, I’ve globalised this sport all around the world and I’ve got a lot of support all around the world and I will continue to do that.”
The rule
He denied that seeking nomination from federations other than Ireland was a breach of the UCI Constitution, Article 51.1 of which says: “The candidates for the presidency shall be nominated by the federation of the candidate.”
Mr McQuaid said: “It states that any federation can nominate one of its members to be a candidate for the presidency or for the management committee of the UCI.
“It doesn’t state anywhere that any person cannot be a member of several federations as indeed I am.”
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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20 comments
And now Makarov has weighed in, threatening a legal challenge to Pat's goalpost shifting. Hooray for Igor! (What am I saying?)
BTW, I do hope you are not trying to blacken Mr McQuaid's good name by picturing him with the author of the well known tome 'We might as well dope'?!
I love a good Pat story - he is by a mile the funniest thing in world cycling at the moment. Can't understand for the life of me why he's so unpopular!?
I don't understand why Pat's over complicating this so. He simply has to get the Papua New Guinea cycling federation to table a motion banning men with beards from standing for President. (NB Pat, I do expect a kickback if this idea works...)
I think it's a good idea, but applying it retrospectively is completely ridiculous.
How is it a good idea? The only person who would need a nomination made via this method would be a person who is so unpopular that their own National Federation has disowned them.
Well, IMO, it will allow Federations who feel they don't have a suitable canditate within to take part in the democratic process and seek representation.
In addition to this a National Federation may vote for a canditate based on their own self-interest when a better candidate (for world cycling) may be a member of that same Federation.
I fail to see how opening up the process to the possiblity of more nominees is a bad thing.
Isn't seeking representation the same thing as self-interest?
The problem with what you are suggesting is that a smaller Federation might nominate a candidate (who's own National Federation will not), not for the good of world cycling, but in the sure expectation of a quid pro quo.
And it isn't as if CI put up another candidate out of parochialism, irrespective of how good McQuaid is. It's that they would rather have anyone at the helm than Pat. Even an Englishman.
Yeah I guess there is some overlap
The proposed system isn't perfect (although I belive it requires 'non-member' nominations to be supported by two federations?) but neither is one that only produces 2 nominees, and one of them the incumbent (again IMO).
But I can definitely agree with the 'anyone but Pat' sentiment!
He didn't solicit the Malaysian proposal, I'm sure. Maybe Hein gave them that idea. Enough, all this chicanery needs to stop. Clean fight? Who was kidding who when that was said?
The only clean candidate would appear to be Brian Cookson.
If he wins, he will probably get a bit dusty when the cupboards are opened in Aigle and old skeletons fall out!
The man is obviously a candidate for the for the next general election, a natural selection for the 'Monster Raving Loony' party.
Being nominated by a handful of federations is one thing, securing enough votes to win: how likely?
The core idea is sound, having 2 federations being able to nominate a candidate. The issue is that this is being proposed as a change to the current election process, rather than the next one. And as for not having a hand in it, who does Pat think he's kidding?
Pat says he "hasn't solicited this at all". I don't see him having the good grace to say "No, this is wrong" though.
Look Pat just Feck Off!
Here's a spade Pat, keep digging.
If there's any justice in the world, we'll all look back on this shortly as the death throws of the McQuaid/Verbruggen axis of evil at Aigle.
The longer this issue remains top of the agenda, the less chance he has of succeeding. Hopefully.
Pat, you've gone mad with power. Let Brian Cookson take over for the love of God, and inject some sanity into this affair.
It's worse than that Rumpo - Velonation include a quote which isn't above:
"The fact is that I am the president of 175 federations."
No, really, I'm not kidding. The man is hallucinating.
I noticed that one too, and thought to myself "surely Pat isn't saying that this makes him technically a member of every federation?" but I guess in Patworld, anything is not only possible, but likely. I'd agree that Pat's behaviour of late cannot be explained solely by the fact that he is quite spectacularly corrupt (something we're all used to). Most democracies have a procedure whereby an elected official can be removed if psychiatrically unfit for office. Does the UCI not have anything along these lines?
So Pat now claims to be a member of "six or seven" Federations. His words. Six OR seven. It's getting worse.