McCreevy attacks ban on Swedish cycle-team

Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy is poised to launch legal action against three EU member states for their exclusion of a Swedish team from major cycling events.

The team, which is backed by Swedish-registered betting company Unibet, was excluded from Belgian, French and Italian races because of national laws barring advertising by foreign gaming companies.

McCreevy now plans to extend an existing case against France for barring the team from the Tour de France event. A new case will be launched on 27 June against Belgium for its exclusion of the team from the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège races.

Italy decided to block the team’s entry to the Giro d’Italia event despite a European Court of Justice ruling in March that its laws were too restrictive. A Commission official said that the facts of the new ban would strengthen the Commission’s case against the Italian government.

Enrico Carpani, a spokesman for the international cycling union, expressed regret at the inconsistencies inherent in the French case. In February, the team had been allowed to enter a Marseille race on condition that logos were removed. But no such conditions were permitted for entry to the Tour de France, which is sponsored by lottery operator La Française des Jeux and horse-race betting group Pari Mutuel Urbain.

Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy is poised to launch legal action against three EU member states for their exclusion of a Swedish team from major cycling events.