The takeover and new sponsorship deal at WorldTour team Mitchelton Scott has hit conflict and appears in disarray as two of the main parties in the transaction have contradicted each other.
Well known Australian businessman Gerry Ryan has owned
the team for some time and he has insisted he still owns it despite Manuela
Fundación expressing confusion about his remarks.
The team – GreenEdge – is sponsored by Mitchelton, Ryan’s
winery and spa hotel, and Scott bikes.
A deal that would see Manuela Fundación, a Spanish NGO,
take over title sponsorship was announced last week out of the blue. It was
stated the charity was taking over as title sponsor for the rest of the season
and beyond.
Little was known of the new deal but Manuela Fundación has responded in the Spanish media to remarks made by Ryan, saying it was coming into the team to both sponsor and own it.
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Ryan gave an interview to Australian-based Ride Media
this week. That interview was apparently designed to clarify what was going on
but in reality raised more questions than it answered.
Ryan said news that Manuela Fundación was coming on board
– with the team itself announced on its social media accounts last week – had been
released prematurely.
He added the Australian WorldTour outfit’s general
manager, Shayne Bannan, was still in Spain working out some details and
explained other sponsors were also being sought for the team.
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“I own the team,” Ryan told Ride Media when asked about comments by Francisco Huertas, from Granada, the man behind Manuela Fundación.
“I think that one of his junior people spoke to the media
about potential opportunities they’d like to see: a training base in Spain… but
there’s certainly no ownership changes at this stage.”
He added that if the team was to switch ownership that
would require a process. Ryan added he was keeping his options open, explaining
that he had been approached by a number of other commercial entities.
He reiterated that the press release sent out last week
announcing the new deal with Manuela Fundación had been “sent out very early”.
Now Emilio Rodríguez, Manuela Fundación’s head of sport, has
told Spain’s state media, EFE, he was
"surprised" and "frozen" by Ryan’s remarks.
"We have been caught offside, but this will sort
itself out. We've come into this team to be owners, not just a sponsor."
He said that on June 5th, almost two weeks ago,
a deal was agreed that would see Manuela Fundación form part of the GreenEdge
company that owns the team and as far as they were concern that deal was
effective immediately.
"We agreed we were the owners, and that as from January 1st, 2021, we would also own the licence once all the paperwork had been handled by the UCI. We came in to save the team, but with our own conditions," Rodríguez said.
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