A British billionaire, and keen leisure cyclist, has been linked to Team Sky in a new deal that would maintain its place as the world's richest cycling team despite being in search of a sponsor at present.
Britain’s richest man has been mooted as the new sponsor of Team Sky which is looking for a sponsor to enable it continue beyond the end of this year.
The WorldTour team will need to announce a new deal on the next couple of months or face some of its riders going elsewhere.
While the riders are paid far more than those in any other team, with ten said to be on more than €1 million per year, the transfer market has been very difficult in recent years.
And that means of the Team Sky riders wait for a longer period for Team Sky’s Dave Brailsford to find a new backer, they may find themselves on the transfer market all at the same time with limited places available elsewhere in cycling for big salary riders.
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Sky has decided to back out of its sponsorship of the team at the expiry of its deal at the end of this year. It was taken over by Comcast and the new entity is less keen on the cycling team, which has been beset with controversy for over two years.
However, if the latest reports turn out to be true, the team will have no such worries. And it would have just as much money to spend next year as it has in recent seasons.
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Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Britain’s richest man, has now been linked to the team by The Times newspaper in the UK. The report says he may stump up the full £35 million annual budget for the squad.
The newspaper reports that Ratcliffe, chairman and majority shareholder of the Ineos chemicals company, is work £21 billion.
He backed Brexit but has relocated to Monaco where he has continued to cycling as a leisure rider and where Chris Froome lives.
Track record with big money sports deals
It has been reported Ratcliffe (66) offered Roman Abramovich £2 billion last year to buy Chelsea football club. And two years ago he acquired a controlling stake in Lausanne football club in Switzerland.
Interestingly, last year he invested £110 million in Sir Ben Ainslie’s Ineos UK; a sailing team that bears his chemical companies name.
And he insisted no other sponsors were permitted because he did not want his backing of the team becoming complicated.
Because Brailsford and the team spent so much time in Colombia last month, meeting the president and other dignitaries, it was speculated that it may be backed by oil interests in that country.
However, one of Team Sky’s directors, Matteo Tosatto, told the Spanish media last week a new sponsor was about to be unveiled and would be from closer to home; certainly Europe.
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