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Questionable team jerseys in French
cycle race sponsorship row
Organisational and control issues between organisers over French
gambling advertising rules meant that riders in the Unibet.com cycling
team had to start last week's GP de La Marseillaise in France with
the team name replaced by an eye-catching question mark on their
jerseys.
The silent protest made news headlines across not only France but
Europe too, focusing attention on an apparent conflict between cycling’s
international body, Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), and the
organisers, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO).
ASO say UCI wants to keep control of the sport while UCI says it
maintains the integrity of the teams participating in races by applying
strict criteria to the award of their racing licences.
The upshot of the row was that Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO),
had to request the Unibet team to cover up its logo because foreign
betting and gambling operators are not allowed to advertise on French
soil.
However, Enrico Carpani, spokesperson for UCI, accused ASO of confusing
the situation as it was ASO, rather than the French authorities,
that asked for Unibet’s logo to be covered.
“UCI starts from the principle that if there are legal issues
we will always respect them,” he said. “But this wasn’t
a problem last year, and if that was the case, Unibet would have
known about it and its participation in the ProTour would have been
assessed differently.”
He also praised Unibet’s attitude and behaviour during the
whole affair. “Unibet has acted in exemplary fashion and with
great dignity,” he said. Carpani would also not comment when
asked whether the French gambling monopoly Francaise des Jeux (FDJ)
had asked ASO to apply the ban.
Petter Nylander, chief executive of Unibet, said that for the first
time ever, an online betting operator was getting positive coverage
from the French mainstream media and described this week’s
events as a potential tipping point. “In the long term this
could be the starting point for a broader discussion in France as
the man on the street and even journalists realise how outdated
the attitude of the French authorities is.”
On top of the amounts of news print and advertising Unibet garnered
this week, Nylander said he felt the FDJ and PMU were fighting to
the last to protect their monopoly status. “We want dialogue,
not confrontation, and this could be catalyst for more open debate,”
he added.
Also making the advertising news, but taking a low profile and declining
to comment officially was the Austrian publicly-listed betting group
Bwin. The company refused to be drawn into confirming or denying
a rumour that it had signed a three year, Euro 25 million shirt
sponsorship with the famous Spanish football team Real Madrid.
In an indirect confirmation, a company spokesman said that an announcement
would only be made once a contract had been signed, adding that
Bwin was always interested in doing deals with top European football
clubs. Bwin company executives were detained in a confrontation
last year with French authorities relating to Bwin's shirt sponsorship
of a Monaco football team.
__________________
"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how
close they were to success when they gave up"
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