Cycling Ireland EGM to reconsider McQuaid UCI nomination

Cycling Ireland has convened an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) that may result in its controversial endorsement of Pat McQuaid’s nomination to stand for a third term as UCI President being reversed.

The EGM has been convened by Anto Moran, the only one of the seven Cycling Ireland board members to vote against McQuaid’s nomination, which was carried by five votes to one, with one abstention. Moran subsequently resigned from his position as vice-president.

The backing of McQuaid for a third term saw Cycling Ireland’s board coming under heavy criticism from many of its members, as well as in the Irish press, one example being a column on Independent.ie which accused it of having dragged “the sporting good name of the country through the shit to get them.”

Cycling Ireland has said that details of its Board Meeting will be circulated to its members next week. If the EGM resulted in McQuaid’s nomination being rejected, the UCI President could potentially seek the endorsement of the Swiss federation, given he is a resident there.

In a statement issued via the UCI last night, McQuaid chose to focus on the technical issue which had enabled Moran to call the EGM, rather than the opposition to his nomination and the very real prospect it may be rejected, saying:

I was honoured that the board of Cycling Ireland endorsed my nomination as a candidate for the Presidency of the UCI earlier this month.

I understand that Cycling Ireland has now decided to refer the matter to an EGM as a result of a technicality arising from the fact that its President temporarily vacated the chair of the nomination meeting so that he could contribute to the meeting under the chair of the CEO.

This decision was taken on the basis of legal advice on procedural rules not on the merits of my nomination which the Board has endorsed.

We’ll find out shortly whether Cycling Ireland’s membership feels likewise.