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news
HSBC UK logo at 2019 Track Cycling World Cup in Glasgow (picture Alex Whitehead. SWpix.com)Blow to British Cycling as it confirms HSBC UK to end sponsorship four years early
British Cycling has confirmed that HSBC UK is terminating its sponsorship of the governing body, spanning the national team and grassroots activities, four years early.
The announcement was made in response to a report by BBC Sport editor Dan Roan this morning, with the organisation confirming that the bank has invoked a break clause to give notice of its early termination of the contract, which had been due to run for eight years.
According to British Cycling, the decision was taken “due to a shift in UK marketing and partnership priorities” at the bank, whose parent group announced earlier this month that it is cutting 35,000 jobs worldwide following a slide in profits.
HSBC UK officially replaced Sky as British Cycling’s sponsor with effect from 1 January 2017, although news of the deal had emerged the previous September, shortly after the Rio Olympic Games.
The sponsorship deal kicked in during a period of turmoil at the governing body, with a UK Sport investigation under way into allegations of bullying and poor governance, and UK Anti-doping conducting a probe into possible wrongdoing.
> Ukad says Jiffy bag investigation was "hindered" and "potentially compromised" by British Cycling
There was also a shake-up in the governing body’s senior management, with former CEO Ian Drake already confirmed as leaving by the time HSBC UK’s sponsorship went live, with Julie Harrington replacing him in March 2017.
Since then, the organisation has featured more in the sports pages for ongoing tribunal cases than for the exploits of the Great Britain Cycling Team.
Last December, former track cyclist Jess Varnish was given the go-ahead to appeal against the decision of an employment tribunal in January last year that she was not an employee of British Cycling or UK Sport at the time she alleges she was discriminated against and unfairly dismissed from the Olympic programme.
> Jess Varnish given go-ahead to appeal employment tribunal decision in British Cycling case
Meanwhile the medical tribunal into former British Cycling doctor Richard Freeman was adjourned before Christmas due to his health and is unlikely to resume before May.
> Dr Richard Freeman tribunal adjourned on medical grounds – unlikely to resume before May
Commenting on the end of the sponsorship, Harrington said: “On course to get over 2 million people cycling regularly, British Cycling’s partnership with HSBC UK has delivered lasting benefits for our sport and for communities up and down the country.
“We will part with HSBC UK as firm friends and, in the meantime, look forward to working with them to support our riders to achieve their best in Tokyo.
“Over the last 20 years, British Cycling has enjoyed extraordinary success - both in terms of winning on the global stage and in using that inspiration to encourage more people to cycle more often.
“We are an ambitious organisation with a proud tradition of setting and hitting big targets and we know that more people on bikes is the solution to many of society’s biggest challenges,” she added.
“As we look to 2021, we will be actively engaging the market to find a new partner to be part of the next stage of our exciting journey.”
News of the early termination of the sponsorship comes in the same week as the UCI Track Cycling World Championships, the final competition for Great Britain’s cyclists before the Tokyo Olympics.
The country has topped the medal table in cycling at the past three Olympic Games and in the current four-year cycle receives £29.6 million in funding from UK Sport, second only to rowing.
Funding for the next four years will be dependent on performance in Tokyo, meaning that together with the loss of a major sponsor British Cycling could face an income crisis on two fronts should the medals not come in Japan.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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17 comments
I feel sorry for hard working athletes, office and support staff, and local volunteers who will be impacted.
However it seems like a completely toxic organisation so no tears here in that regard. At best it was always just cash driven flag waving exercise.
You’ve got to smile at the comments some people put on t’interweb.
HSBC see a slide in global profits and decided to reduce their total workforce by 35000 people and cut their cloth accordingly. Part of this process has an effect on HSBC(UK) which, in turn, affects BC.
This prompts plenty of knock BC comments from those who are jumping to their own conclusions.
It might be that HSBC wanted to stay with BC but couldn’t justify the spend when they are cutting staff and costs so the opt out was activated. If you worked for HSBC how would you feel if your employer stayed sponsoring an organisation or event when profits are down and cost savings have to be made? Maybe their actions let BC down.
There are always lots of different sides to every story.
P M S L if you actually think this is about 'HSBC letting BC down'. BC has been on notice to clean its act up since 2017 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/british-cycling-could-lose-funding-if...
It actually amazes me, the cult-like adoration of cycling bros of a machine that has bullied and abused athletes under falsified 'freelancer' contracts, used corporate resources to source viagra, and whatever other nasty antics are going to come out in the wash in the next five-ten years. You are deluded. Funny how everyone is to blame except the middle aged men running the show.
This is a safe place, show me on the dolly where BC touched your woke lycra...
I can see you're going through the 'denial' stage of the cycle of grief, where you just refuse to accept that the game is up and the house of cards of bullying and substance abuse is coming crashing down. https://www.instagram.com/p/B9Am4All4I1/
I think this is the nail on the head.
Will the viagra-addled, bully boy psychopaths responsible for this reputational meltdown be held accountable? Don't bet on it, sports fans... If I were an HSBC I'd want to be getting as far away from this toxic mess before the Varnish and Sutton stuff fully comes out in the wash too.
It's community volunteers like breeze ride organisers and volunteer commissaires/race organisers who'll be left in the lurch. The usual old boys will be laughing all the way to their next commentary/talking head/sponsored podcast spots in the industry no worries.
I think you need to stop watching sport...
Yeah clearly the whole situation is completely under control and the late middle aged white bros have everything in hand
The white middle class bros rule the world, well them and the sheiks. Have you considered the widespread use of drugs in athletics, the cartel of football, racism, debt et al. If you think BC has major issues I'm simply suggesting sport isn't for you, you'll only be disappointed...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
Like I said, sport isn't for you - or is it just British sport, or British success. The track programme has been 20 years plus in the making and some of the technolgies, training changes, investment et al that BC has put i place has made us the pinnacle of the sport.
Our record in grand tours has been exceptional, multiple riders in multiple teams achieving things never done before by British cyclists.
In all high level sport there's grey areas, complexities of funding, things we like or don't like and question. It's sport!
It has made cycling a laughing stock and a byword for sleazy, inept boomers running a crime operation that even HSBC decided it couldn't support. It is a joke and so are you.
The track programme has been a success, in what is a small world. And at what cost? Some of the other disciplines have been disgracefully ignored, paticularly the off road disciplines.....
And there tolls the British Cycling death knell.
This was totally expected with the past few years of greedy lawyer types, internal infighting, and shady leaks to the press as the cycling media went into a feeding frenzy of PR (road.cc excepted).
It genuinely feels like there's been a conspiracy to bring down BC, if proof of crimes was wanting, bad press will do them in.
Yep. Typical lifecycle of an organisation:
I think it's pretty obvious that there are some dubious practices that have gone on within BC in the past, maybe now still.
Sadly this is a reflection of its management, which at the end of the day are passionate bikers and not business leaders... I'm generalising there I appreciate.
However I agree, that there has been a witch hunt. To me it's another example of a trait I do not value, namely; ride the contaminated wave as long as it suits your needs, then as soon as you're done, cry foul and ruin it for everyone else.
In hindsight, I admire Nicole Cooke... she came, she saw, she didn't like, so told them to sod off and did her own thing.
I note however that HSBC have ended their deal after an Olympic year, which to me makes sense. I'm sure the two olympic cycle contract was never really on in either parties minds, it was just agreed to enable HSBC to win the thing in the first place.
Ho hum.