Cracks in Mitchelton-Scott takeover deepen as Manuela Fundación express confusion at Ryan comments
By Cyclingnews
'We've come into this team to be owners, not just sponsors' insists Spanish NGO

Potential rifts in the takeover deal between the Manuela Fundación and the Australian Mitchelton-Scott team deepened considerably on Wednesday as the Spanish NGO responded sharply to Gerry Ryanās insistence that he still owned the team licence and that he was still negotiating with other sponsors.
Emilio RodrĆguez, the Manuela Fundaciónās head of sport, told Spanish state news agency EFE that he was "surprised" and "frozen" by the comments.
"We have been caught offside, but this will sort itself out" RodrĆguez said, using a football-inspired metaphor to suggest that Ryanās comments had caught his organisation wrong-footed.
"We've come into this team to be owners, not just a sponsor."
RodrĆguez said he had been surprised by the second dramatic development at Mitchelton-Scott in less than a week – the first being the supposed takeover itself – claiming that an agreement between the two teams over the change of owner had been signed on June 5, and that it was 'to be respected'.
"They'll know why they said that, but we agreed to form part of the GreenEdge company" – which owns Mitchelton-Scott – "from that day onwards."
The team is expected to race as the Manuela Fundación from July 1, while Shayne Bannan, the Mitchelton-Scott general manager, is due in Granada next week to discuss the logistics of the deal.
On Wednesday, Ryan said that he still owns the team license, and that the announcement of the sponsorship deal had been premature. RodrĆguez, however, had a different view.
"We agreed we were the owners, and that as from January 1, 2021, we would also own the licence once all the paperwork had been handled by the UCI," RodrĆguez said.
"We came in to save the team, but with our own conditions."
Sign up to the Cyclingnews Newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more information about how to do this, and how we hold your data, please see our privacy policy
Thank you for signing up to Cycling News. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.