Brussels, 30/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, the European Commission considered as “unacceptable” the decision taken against the Unibet cycling team, sponsored by the on-line Maltese betting company of the same name. This means the team may not be able to take part in the departure of the Tour de France bike race this year.
This year, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), which organises cycle races, has already banned the Unibet team, recently renamed Green Cycle Associates, from taking part in the Paris-Nice, Paris-Roubaix, the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège races. The reason given for this was that French law does not allow betting on line. About two weeks ago, Commissioner Charlie McCreevy sent a letter of support to the team and to the Union cycliste international (UCI), stated the Commissioner's spokesman on 30 April. In the letter the Commissioner deplored the fact that the “coherence of the French approach is highly doubtful as other teams sponsored by French games operators, such as Française des Jeux, are allowed to take part and given that the main sponsor, the PMU, is itself a games operator”. “All this is in breach of internal market rules”, he continued, stressing that “no foreign team can be excluded simply because one does not like the sponsor”, and given that the organisers are imposing French rules in Belgium and the United Kingdom, from where the next Tour de France is to start.
The French sports betting market has been in the Commission's line of fire since last October when the Commission launched infringement proceedings against France, whose monopolies are challenged: the PMU for horse racing and the Française des Jeux for the sports lottery. It may, from “June or July” move on to the second stage of the procedure (reasoned opinion, the last stage before the matter is referred to the Court of Justice), including the case of Unibet. (ol)