As announced by the UCI in a statement, the UCI Management Committee have today determined, among other things, that the action against Paul Kimmage has been “suspended” pending an investigation by an independent commission to be completed in the future.
Finally, while continuing strongly to maintain the merits of UCI’s case, the Committee decided to seek to suspend the UCI legal action against journalist Paul Kimmage, pending the findings of the independent Commission. UCI President Pat McQuaid and Honorary President Hein Verbruggen who are individual parties to the case will similarly seek to put their cases on hold.
While this is a welcome development and a small step toward the organization regaining credibility with the cycling public at large, it fails to acknowledge the damage the UCI has inflicted upon a journalist who chose simply to perform his job in pursuit of the truth.
The fact the UCI chose to engage in legal action against Kimmage in the first place demonstrates their wish to control and restrict dialogue in the sport. This is the type of action a sport governing body should not have undertaken in the first place, and by announcing a suspension rather than ending the suit it means that individuals within the UCI still do not have as their central theme the best interest of the sport at heart.
We feel the suspension was nothing more than an attempt to draw attention away from the legal action which has in recent weeks garnered headlines the world over, putting the UCI in an unfavorable light. Based upon their comments and activities the unfavorable light was justified.
Upon learning the news of today’s committee meeting results, Kimmage expressed via Twitter that he plans on “unleashing hell” upon the UCI. Our resolve in exposing the true nature of the actions by this organization against the entire sport has never been more firm. We will continue to operate the Kimmage Fund in order to prepare not only a possible defense against unjust actions by the UCI, but to explore with Paul his legal options to take the fight to the UCI.
We are disappointed with this half measure by the UCI in order to save face rather than do what is necessary to return the organization to a position of integrity. This lack of integrity in having the best interest of the sport at heart was never more clearly highlighted than when President Pat McQuaid referred to two of the witnesses in the Armstrong investigation as “scumbags” and indicated that it was necessary to persist in pursuing legal action against Paul Kimmage while claiming it had nothing to do with the USADA investigation.
We thank the UCI for uniting those who have been oppressed by their actions into an unified group, one which will bring to light the darkest reaches where those in Aigle wish us not to tread.
The Kimmage Fund will press on.
3 Comments
Thank you to both Cyclismas and NYVelocity for bringing so much organization to the revolution, and for providing a platform for those that would speak against Armstrong, Bruneel and the UCI. Consider it a small battle won….but the victory is yours.
[…] we’ll see and certainly the commission should call Paul Kimmage for a chat. In the meantime the fund will “press on”. There was an attempt at today’s UCI Management Cttee meeting by more than 1 member to have […]
What a complete farce. The UCI statement can be roughly translated as “we’re going to set up an independent committee to report back in 8 months time but we’re going to wait a month or two for the mainstream press to get bored with the story so we’ll only have the poxy cycling press up in arms when we reveal that independent was a typo and we really meant internal.” It is the duty of the cycling press to keep the mainstream media interested so Pat and Heinie can’t just keep their heads down and wait for it all to blow over. They really have to go.
It seems odd that they can suspend a libel/defamation action once it has started and had a date set – doesn’t that amount to a unilateral adjournment by the plaintiff – in most countries it’s a judge that does the adjourning. Can anyone with a bit of (other peoples’) cash in Switzerland simply keep an action ticking over ad infinitum with no consideration for the defendant? Surely, as Greg would (probably) say, they have to sh*t or get off the pot (and pay Paul’s costs).
I find it unbelievable that the country with the most famously secretive banking system in the world is home to all the most notorious sports governing bodies in the world. IOC (Lausanne), FIFA (Zurich) and our own dear UCI. All these organisations are known for their dubious financial dealings but nothing ever gets proved because they’re all located in a country where you don’t need brown envelopes stuffed with cash – you can pay your bribes by cheque.