Rick Delaney, the founder of Aqua Blue Sport, and its outgoing CEO Tim Timmerman have set out the financial position in a bid to show all salaries will be paid from its money on deposit with the UCI (Photo: Karen M Edwards)
Aqua Blue Sport sets out all salaries as proof of payment
Aqua Blue Sport has contacted its riders and staff and insisted that all salary payments will be met.
The team’s senior management has said the bank deposit with the UCI is enough to cover all outstanding payments.
In a strongly worded dispatch to all riders and staff today, the team’s founder Rick Delaney and its outgoing chief executive Tim Timmerman have set out the financial position in detail.
They have listed all riders and staff and their salary payments due in an effort to dispel the suggestion salaries would not be paid.
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But the message also said the matter is now one between the UCI and riders as it is the UCI that holds the funds that Aqua Blue Sport put on deposit to ensure the salaries would be paid.
Delaney and Timmerman have said there have been more than 10 contacts between themselves and the UCI to ensure the world governing body would pay the riders in a timely fashion.
The team had not replied to stickybottle's request for comment at the time of writing.
However, in the email to team personnel today Timmerman expressed his disappointment that some of the details around salary payment delays have emerged in the media.
And, he said, because he has become exasperated he has decided to step away from the chief executive role.
He added Delaney and his wife had being paying the salaries out of their pockets. Despite this, with the exception of a few people, the only contacts they had had was from people looking to be paid.
“The only thing that comes back is negativism, gratefulness has been farfetched, although it has been a great project for two years,” he said.
“I have to say, it has been an experience for me, not one I am going to forget lightly.
“People need to realise that solving issues is not done through media, but by discussing, looking at facts and finding solutions.
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“I truly hope I have clarified the facts and the current situation! In this type of environment, I can and will no longer work.
“I will therefore with immediate effect stop working for Aqua Blue Sport. Therefore, consider this my last email to you all.
“I wish you the best of luck in sorting things out together… UCI, riders and staff. No need to further contact me, as I will not be able to be of any assistance.”
In his absence, he said the matter of outstanding salaries was now one the riders must resolve with the UCI as it is the holder of the money the team set aside to ensure salaries were paid to the end of the year.
There are a total of 30 staff – either riders or management and support staff – listed in an email sent to all of them.
Each rider or staff member has been assigned a letter, which ensures the salary amounts for each cannot be match to a particular person, thereby respecting the privacy of those on the list.
The 16 riders were being paid a total of €87,412 per month; from €20,000 to €153,000 per year per rider.
And the salary bill for 16 other staff members reaches just under €67,000 per month; from €25,000 to €94,000 per year.
The riders are all contracted to the end of the year, meaning they must be paid to the end of December.
However, the staff were on different contracts, which came to an end with the September salary payment.
Rick Delaney had already said publicly the staff were on contracts that could be ended with a month’s notice. He made those remarks in an interview with The Cycling Podcast on September 1st, shortly after the team ceased.
In a lengthy and very detailed email to all riders and staff today, the team said it had put €400,000 on deposit with the UCI. It added all salaries had been paid in September.
This left three further payments – October, November and December – still owed; to riders only.
The team added the only other outstanding sums were monies owed to a number of races. These are modest and reach a total of €10,740 and have now been paid.
It says that when the salaries bill for riders and staff in September is added to the salaries due to riders only for the last three months of the year, there is a surplus of €829 from the €400,000 on deposit with the UCI.
In setting out the deposit amount held by the UCI and itemising every salary payment owed, anonymised, Delaney and Timmerman have sought to show that the sum with the UCI is enough to pay the riders and staff all of the monies they were owed from the moment the team collapsed.
And aside from the sum of €10,740 owed, and now paid, to three race organisers, there is no mention made of any other sums owed at present, apart from the riders’ salaries for the final three months of the year.
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