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news
Pat McQuaid at the Tour Down Under (photo credit credit Santos Tour Down Under : John Veage).jpgPat McQuaid's troubles deepen as head of Russian federation threatens legal action over rule change
UCI president Pat McQuaid’s re-election campaign troubles deepened yesterday when the president of the Russian cycling federation, Igor Makarov, threatened legal action if a proposed rule charge goes ahead.
The change to Article 51 of the constitution of cycling’s governing body would allow any two national federations to nominate a presidential candidate, and would be back-dated to allow the Thai and Moroccan federations to nominate McQuaid for this year’s presidential vote.
In a letter to Mr McQuaid and UCI director general Christophe Hubschmid, leaked to the Telegraph, Mr Makarov formally objects to the tabling of the rule change, and threatens to use “all legal means” to reverse the decision should it be passed.
Article 51 of the UCI constitution currently says that presidential candidates “shall be nominated by the federation of the candidate”.
The amended rule would set aside the traditional interpretation of Article 51, that this means only the candidate’s ‘home’ federation can nominate him, allowing candidates to seek nomination from any pair of federations. The rule change will require a 2/3rds majority of the 42 delegates at the UCI Congress on September 27.
Supporters of the rule change point out that it would allow a wider range of candidates if prospective UCI presidents can seek support more widely. Opponents say that it opens the potential for behind-the-scenes horse-trading of favours between candidates and minor federations, though there is no suggestion this has happened in the case of Mr McQuaid and the Thai and Moroccan federations.
Nominations and lawsuits
His home federation Cycling Ireland initially nominated Mr McQuaid, but that was overturned on procedural grounds and a vote of the organisation’s member clubs elected not to support his candidacy.
Mr McQuaid then sought and secured nomination from the Swiss cycling federation, on the grounds that he has lived there for two decades. However, that nomination is mired in legal action brought by three members of Swiss Cycling and financially supported by Jaimie Fuller of clothing company Skins, a long-standing critic of Mr McQuaid.
In his letter, Mr Makarov wrote: “I take the opportunity of this letter to inform you that should this unlawful process be maintained, I already intend to challenge, by all legal means, any decision taken by the UCI Congress in this respect and any other infringements to the UCI constitution.
“I am astonished that the management committee members, despite being vested with the most extensive powers as regards the management of the UCI as per the constitution and regulations, have not been informed nor consulted regarding such modification of the electoral process.
“I will always be opposed to any modification that aims to circumvent the democratic principles and to favour one or several individuals to the detriment of the whole cycling community.
“The only person who will take advantage of an ‘anticipated’ modification of Article 51 of the UCI Constitution is undoubtedly, exclusively, the candidate Pat McQuaid.”
For everyone who's starting to think this is like an episode of Dallas, don't worry. We have it on good authority Hein Verbruggen will step out of the shower next week and tell us the last 16 years were all a dream.
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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15 comments
The UCI meeting and vote is on 27th Sept.
I think the rule change motion will fail, and McQuaid will be moving to a country that does not have an extradition treaty with Switzerland/Ireland (Morocco ? Thailand ? Malaysia ?).
It's getting too complicated for me !
Wow - Pat versus the Russian billionaire, who, in case anyone has forgotten, had his Worldpro Team disqualified on 'ethical' grounds and then were subsequently re-instated after a legal challenge.
Pat's already lost once to this guy ... and he wants to try again? This is going to get sooo messy, and gloriously interesting. But mostly messy. Especially because Makarov is probably motivated by revenge, not fairness. And Russians are famously good at grudges ...
he will be remain in office. to many crooks involved from every federation for him to lose.
How long until he starts sending a private army to the ballot stations to stop people voting for the opposition with threats of kidnapping family members?
jim burn aka phat the rat mc q who is attempting to emulate the " dear leader " & robert mugabe is reaping what he sowed last December 2012 !
When he reviews the 1970s and his contempt for IOC Rules & Regs , should he be surprised that he has earned the ire of ALL Stakeholders ?
My comment elsewhere :
" WAS unaware of the 90 day rule until now ! However , i am not paid Salary to uphold the UCI Constitution , jim burn ( who thinks he is a combo of mugabe & “the dear leader “) aka phat the rat , certainly draws Salary , even if he chooses a devious course !
My petition today :
http://t.co/9ZAGyfohiI
deserves support , yet because people have to reveal their name , appears to be a non starter !
When phat is returned as President , it will give me great satisfaction to see people squirming for they are the beneficiary of his unethical behaviour in the future !
You reap what you sow ! Inaction will result in a lot of whining !
HOW MANY OF YOU WANT TO SIT BACK and let events pass you by ?
Sport dragged through the mire by desparate efforts to stay in office by what appears to be an international pariah as far as most nations are concerned. Will the Russain Federation objst as a federation, or is it just the president (who has probably got more financial resource than the UCI will ever have)? WHo next will be objecting, surely British Cycling will want to have something to say, and if they do, what then, US, European nations? This is bringing the who;e "democracy" of the UCI into horrible disrepute, because it looks like a dictatorship where the staff do what they are told and the committees are just ignored, or not even consulted? What (to quote a new OED word) an omnishambles!
Russian's going after McQuaid is like the pot chasing the kettle.
We've still got seven more weeks of this. Oh to be a fly on the wall in Aigle. It must look like the US Embassy during the fall of Saigon.
Don't worry Pat. Robert Mugabe's probably going to be too old by the time of the next election in Zimbabwe. As a time-served despot skilled in the art of corruption and manipulation, it's a gig you should seriously consider.
What a joker.
And Mr McQuaid very much looks forward to building some velodromes in Malaysia, Thailand and Morocco should they support him.
I can see this whole thing descending into farce and legal action and counter action for years to come.
I think we are already in farce and Swiss legal action aren't we?
Go now, Pat, and try to salvage some dignity.
what has he got hidden that's so important no one else
must get to be president !!!!!
Well Pat, it seems that if you eff with Katusha, they may remember it.
Wasn't it Malaysia and Morocco?
I think it was Malaysia who put forward the rule change, then the Thai and Moroccan federations jumped behind Mr Corrupt