BROADCASTER WILL PULL THE PLUG ON TEAM SKY NEXT YEAR
LITTLE more than nine months after a parliamentary committee accused Team Sky of crossing an ethical line to dominate professional road cycling, the sky fell in on Sir Dave Brailsford and his all conquering riders yesterday.
The termination of Sky’s association with a sport and a team tarnished by controversy these past few years came as a shock to Brailsford and his staff and has immediately cast doubt over the future, not just of an organisation but of their riders.
In their accounts in June they said they expected the ‘title sponsorship commitment from Sky and 21st Century Fox’ to ‘continue in existence for the foreseeable future’. They also thought they had built a sufficiently strong relationship with Sky’s new parent company, Comcast.
But in the last few weeks, a decision made principally by the chief executive, Jeremy Darroch, concluded with the announcement yesterday morning that at the end of the 2019 season both Sky and 21st Century Fox are out.
They denied it was in any way as a consequence of the Comcast takeover, but sources suggested yesterday it was part of a review of their commercial partnerships after their £30billion takeover.
They also insisted privately that the decision had not been taken in anticipation of a General Medical Council hearing in February on their former doctor and a delivery of testosterone patches in 2011. Senior Team Sky sources admit that the Richard Freeman situation is one that greatly concerns Brailsford and his staff, but refused to concede there is any connection to yesterday’s announcement.
It nevertheless came as a hammer blow to Brailsford, not least because of the relationship he has long enjoyed with his boss. It was Darroch who stood by him even when, by Brailsford’s own admission, the team principal’s handling of the Jiffy Bag controversy inflicted further damage to an already battered reputation — and Darroch who would be there to celebrate another Grand Tour win, cracking open the champagne.
After chalking up a staggering 322 victories since their formation in 2009, Sky’s riders must now wonder what the future holds.
The media giants are not just the sponsors of Team Sky, they are the principal owners with an 85 per cent stake in the business — the other 15 per cent belonging to 21st Century Fox. If Brailsford and his lieutenants cannot now attract a new backer, riders like Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas will suddenly find themselves in a precarious position financially.
Thomas might have just been rewarded with a new three-year contract, worth in the region of £10million, but if a team no longer hold a World Tour licence — or cease to exist — it raises questions about obligations to pay up the remaining years of a rider’s deal. Four-time Tour de France winner Froome said the decision ‘came as a surprise’ and added: ‘We’ve got a year to replace (Sky). That’s not really for us as riders to be doing, but it will be at the back of our minds and if anything will serve as extra motivation for us.’
Brailsford and senior staff will lead the search for a new owner and they very much hope to have a deal in place by April. They also think, given the financial uncertainty around Brexit, they may end up losing status as a British team by attracting foreign investment.
If so it would be interesting to see if they remain in Cheshire — they have recently acquired offices in Wilmslow — having confirmed that they will leave the National Cycling Centre in Manchester they have shared with British Cycling for the past decade.
Brailsford has also cast glances in the direction of France, having spoken of wanting to end that country’s 33-year wait for another Tour winner. There is also interest from America.
Many cycling fans will not mourn Team Sky’s demise. It is not just the isolated incidents of abuse from the roadside, with riders being booed and Froome having cups of urine thrown at him. Their dominance has caused widespread resentment, from the fans to the office of the president of the sport’s ruling body, the UCI.
How easy it proves to find a new owner could well be influenced by the outcome of the Freeman inquiry, especially if it concludes with the former Team Sky and British Cycling physician failing to explain why he ordered that delivery of testosterone.
As a senior source told Sportsmail last month, it is a ticking bomb, a
situation that may eclipse the other controversies that have raised serious questions about Team Sky’s methods. To cover the cost of running a team with the biggest wage bill in professional cycling history, Brailsford needs to find an owner who is prepared to fund in the region of £30m a year. And it might well be that a major corporation is prepared to ignore the scandals if it means being associated with serial winners.
Brailsford and his team have already demonstrated a Teflon-like exterior. As recently as last month Brailsford was being celebrated by UK Sport as a standard-bearer and he was photographed with Gareth Southgate, the England football manager even accepting a Team Sky shirt with his name on.
If Thomas is crowned the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year this weekend, it will provide further evidence that enough people don’t actually care if doctors don’t keep records or face accusations of operating in sport’s grey areas.
If Brailsford actually has the appetite to keep going, and there are well-placed observers who question whether he too might see this as a chance to step away, it would be foolish to doubt his ability. He has won six of the last seven Tours with three different British riders, after all.
But with Froome now 33 and Thomas 32, a new owner might question how much longer they can dominate the peloton — even if that is not necessarily past it for a team leader. Froome stated yesterday that they ‘plan to be together in 2020 if at all possible’, and the fact that the supertalented 21-year-old Colombian Egan Bernal has committed his future to the team is a further cause for cautious optimism.
That said, Brailsford did not sound confident by his own bullish standards yesterday. ‘The team is open-minded about the future and the potential of working with a new partner, should the right opportunity present itself,’ he said.
In his statement issued yesterday morning, Darroch paid tribute to Brailsford and the riders and said what they had achieved was ‘beyond the dreams of many’. It didn’t persuade him to stick with it though.