UCI welcomes Saudi investment in cycling but not if it creates parallel breakaway league

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The head of world cycling's governing body said he welcomed investment from Saudi Arabia but on the condition it does not coincide with a parallel breakaway league.

Speaking to Bloomberg, UCI president David Lappartient said any new financial investment in cycling was positive and that he had met with Saudi officials in Paris during the ongoing Olympic Games.

But he added that any potential investors needed to work with the UCI, not in competition with it.

“When you have stakeholders that want to invest in our sport, I take this positively that there’s an interest in cycling,” Lappartient said.

"You are welcome to cycling, we need to work together, and you also need to respect what the red lines are for the UCI, and what are the key principles: that we will never support a clone league.”

The UCI WorldTour is the main elite road cycling tour, and has a clutch of teams supported by wealthy backers, including billionaire Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos Grenadiers and UAE Team Emirates, whose ace Tadej Pogacar won this year’s Tour de France. But many others struggle financially.

Reuters reported in February that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) had been looking to fund a rival cycling league that would boost income to teams and their riders. Other investors, including CVC, had also put forward a rival offer to fund the efforts spearheaded by some professional teams.

The SURJ, the sports investment arm of PIF, declined to comment on that Reuters report.

EY, which was hired to run an auction to find an investor for the league, is now working with a potential backer, Bloomberg reported in July.

“I don’t think there will be a Saudi breakaway league,” Lappartient added.

The Gulf kingdom has been pouring billions into a range of lucrative sports including football, golf and boxing and last month announced a multi-year partnership with the WTA tennis tour.

Saudi Arabia is also set to host the 2034 football World Cup after it emerged as the sole bidder for the global finals and in June hosted its first event for mixed martial arts lead promotion, the UFC.

The kingdom already hosts an annual cycling race, the AlUla Tour, in cooperation with the Saudi Cycling Federation and the International Cycling Union.

“We have to see together with the Saudis how they can join us, how we can work together without disrupting everything but something that will benefit all stakeholders,” said Lappartient, who is also the head of the French National Olympic Committee.