Fuerteventura-Canarias to fight UCI decision

Spanish team Fuerteventura-Canarias has announced on Saturday that the squad will take legal action against the UCI. On Friday, December 23, the UCI issued the list of Professional Continental team licenses for 2007, which lacked Fuerteventura-Canarias despite a legally valid application, according to the team.

In a press release, the team management stated, "The International Cycling Union sent the team a letter, explaining that the only reason of the refusal was that the team didn't comply with the regulations' deadlines. However, this same regulation does not include the possibility of a license refusal if the deadlines for presenting the documents aren't met."

Moreover, the team denied not having sent in its application documents in time. "The regulation of the UCI mentions economic sanctions for each day of delay, and has December 20 as the last deadline to submit the last documents. The team Fuerteventura-Canarias submitted all the documents 26 days prior to this deadline. Therefore, it is inadmissible from a legal point of view to deny the team a license."

Team managers vowed to send a complaint to the license commission on December 26, and have already asked their lawyers to work on "all legal possibilities, whether they are sports or civil law," according to the statement.