Federations urge McQuaid to seek court ruling on election

Embattled UCI president Pat McQuaid has been challenged to prove his commitment to good governance by taking a dispute over theforthcoming election to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

USA Cycling, with the backing of several other national federations — Russia, Canada, Finland and Algeria — had written to the Irishman, who heads the UCI, asking for the CAS to rule on the case and avoid any future legal battles.

McQuaid is being challenged by British Cycling’s chairman Brian Cookson and the dispute centres on whether McQuaid should be allowed to stand for re-election despite notbeing nominated by his homefederation Ireland nor Switzerland where he lives. McQuaid has instead been nominated by Thailand andMorocco and will ask the UCI Congress in Florence on September 27 to ratify a rule change allowing this.

The letter from USA Cycling’s president and chief executive Steve Johnson states: “The cycling world has been watching the UCI presidential race carefully and its reaction has varied from amusement to outrage, from bewilderment to astonishment. We believe strongly enough about the legal principles involved to ask a court to resolve this constitutional dispute in due course.

“We also care enough about our international federation to try everything in our power to avoid a protracted battle that might cast theresults of the election into doubt for many months to come.”

The letter points out that the US Olympic Committee (USOC) agreed to let CAS rule on the body banning drugs cheats from the next Games — the USOC’s law was overturned by the court.

Johnson said his view was not an attack on McQuaid but an attempt to clarify the UCI’s rules.

He said: “This is not about one candidate or the other, this is about an open and fair and legitimate election. I think a fresh approach is needed, and first and foremost is transparency and good governance.”

The five federations’ letters, addressed to McQuaid and UCI director general Christophe Hubschmid, call on McQuaid to “demonstrate his allegiance to the UCI constitution” by agreeing “to forego the spectre of any post-election litigation over Article 51.1 for the certainty of a pre-election, binding decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.”