UCI Publishes Cycling Independent Reform Commission Report

The UCI publishes Cycling Independent Reform Commission report

The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has today published the report and recommendations of the Cycling Independent Reform Commission (CIRC). The CIRC’s Terms of Reference were to investigate “the causes of the pattern of doping that developed within cycling and allegations which implicate the UCI and other governing bodies and officials over ineffective investigation of such practices”. A copy of the 227 page CIRC is available below.

The CIRC was established by the UCI in January 2014 and has since completed a rigorous 13 month investigation wholly independent from the UCI. The CIRC was chaired by Dr. Dick Marty, a former Swiss State Prosecutor, supported by two Vice-Chairs – Prof. Ulrich Haas, an expert in anti-doping rules and procedures and Mr. Peter Nicholson, a former military officer who specialises in criminal investigations.

During its investigation, the CIRC undertook 174 face-to-face interviews, some of which lasted for several days and took place in different locations across the world. Those interviewed included UCI personnel, teams, federations, medical practitioners, riders/former riders, anti-doping organisations, national law enforcement agencies, sponsors, event organisers and journalists. A full list of interviewees who have agreed for their names to be disclosed is present on page 224 of the report.

Commenting on the CIRC report and its recommendations, UCI President Brian Cookson said:

“I would like to thank Dick Marty, Ulrich Haas, Peter Nicholson and CIRC’s staff for all their extensive work in producing such a comprehensive and rigorous investigation. Very few, if any sports, have opened themselves up to this level of independent scrutiny and while the CIRC report on the past is hard to read for those of us who love our sport, I do believe that cycling will emerge better and stronger from it. I made a promise before I was elected that I would ensure as a priority that under my presidency a respected and fully independent commission would investigate the UCI’s past and I am pleased to have delivered on that promise, on time and on budget. We gave the CIRC access to all our files, a complete copy of all the electronic data which existed when I was elected and full co-operation from all our staff. I said from the outset that the UCI would publish the CIRC’s report and recommendations to ensure transparency and that is exactly what we have done today.

“It is clear from reading this report that in the past the UCI suffered severely from a lack of good governance with individuals taking crucial decisions alone, many of which undermined anti-doping efforts; put itself in an extraordinary position of proximity to certain riders; and wasted a lot of its time and resources in open conflict with organisations such as the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). It is also clear that the UCI leadership interfered in operational decisions on anti-doping matters and these factors, as well as many more covered in the report, served to erode confidence in the UCI and the sport.

“Since I became President in September 2013, the UCI has not only completed this unprecedented exercise of openness and transparency, it has also:

-Commissioned a full audit of its anti-doping operations by the Institute of National Anti——- -Doping Organisations (iNADO) and implemented their recommendations;
-Established a strict internal governance process to ensure that the President or administration cannot interfere in operational anti-doping matters and that there is external oversight of all – -key decisions plus an audit trail of results management;
-Ensured the complete independence of the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CADF) to plan and execute anti-doping tests on behalf of the UCI;
-Ended the conflicts with key stakeholders and established a much stronger working relationship with WADA, USADA and other NADOs whose support and cooperation is essential for us to be effective in our anti-doping efforts;
 -Established an Anti-Doping Tribunal that will allow consistent, clear and fast decisions on cases for international riders, putting the UCI in line with almost all other international federations and ending the process whereby cases were referred to the rider’s national federation for judgement;
 -Worked with the professional teams and independent experts to establish clear new internal operational requirements for teams (the “cahier des charges”) to ensure that all riders are properly supported and supervised and that the right structures are in place to prevent riders doping;
 -Actively established an unprecedented number of intelligence and information sharing agreements with National Anti-Doping Agencies;
 -Introduced new Anti-Doping Rules with longer sanctions (4 rather than 2 year standard ban) and stricter obligations in line with the new WADA Code and put in place a new regulatory framework (the “Testing and Investigation Regulations”) which further promotes effective and qualitative testing and investigation;
 -Introduced innovative and far reaching sanctions on teams with riders who are found to have doped (suspension from competition plus a fine of 5% of the team budget);
 -Invested more than ever in staffing and resources allocated to anti-doping;
 -Launched a process of revising and updating the UCI Constitution in order to improve the good governance and transparency of the UCI at all levels, especially with regards to the UCI  Presidential election;
 -Established important new governance measures including a newly reinvigorated Ethics Commission, a Remuneration Committee to set senior remuneration and delivered on the commitment to provide more transparency on financial matters.

“I am absolutely determined to use the CIRC’s report to ensure that cycling continues the process of fully regaining the trust of fans, broadcasters and all the riders that compete clean. I committed to this process before I was elected President and I’m pleased to see the CIRC complete its work. I shall be giving some more detail on how we will implement recommendations from the report during the course of this week.

“Lastly, I would like to thank WADA whose support was essential in establishing the CIRC and also all the NADOs, in particular USADA, who have contributed to the strengthening of anti-doping in cycling.”
Notes to Editors

The CIRC’s Terms of Reference under which it operated included:

 -The main focus of the investigation was to determine the processes and practices in professional road cycling that allowed the culture of doping to perpetuate over a sustained period of time, in particular to discover the main providers and facilitators of doping in cycling especially in the period 1998-2013. Investigation into UCI past wrongdoings was also a core part of the CIRC mandate;
 -The investigation’s primary objective was not to punish anti-doping offences by single riders, but rather to identify and tackle the practices and networks that have instigated and/or facilitated doping in cycling over the relevant period;
 -The final objective of the investigation was the production of a comprehensive report illustrating the causes of, and responsibility for, the doping practices that took place within the relevant period and to make targeted recommendations to the whole cycling family;
 -The members of the CIRC operated on a completely independent basis and did not take any instructions from the UCI in the course of their investigation;
 -The report as published is exactly the one delivered by the CIRC to the UCI President. In the entire report, a small number of lines have been obscured following external legal advice.

Dr. Dick Marty is a well known political figure both in Switzerland (as a member of the Parliament) and in Europe (as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe). He holds a doctorate in law from the University of Neuchâtel. In 1975, Marty was nominated state prosecutor of Ticino, in which post he was specially noted for his energetic activities fighting organised crime and drug abuse. In 1987 he received an Award of Honour of the United States Department of Justice and a special award of honour by the International Narcotic Enforcement Officers Association. In 2005, Marty was appointed to lead an investigation by the Council of Europe into alleged illegal CIA secret prisons in Europe. On 14 December 2010, the Council of Europe entrusted Marty with investigating alleged inhuman treatment of people and killing of prisoners with the purpose of removal and illicit trafficking in human organs in Kosovo, involving politicians currently in power.

Prof. Ulrich Haas, a German national specialised in anti-doping rules and procedures has been Professor of Civil Procedure and Civil Law at the University of Zurich since January 2008. He studied law at the Universities of Regensburg and Lausanne, and after obtaining his Ph.D. and qualification as a university lecturer at the University of Regensburg, he became a professor at Martin Luther University in Halle and subsequently at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. Mr. Haas’ work and research has been concentrated on international civil procedure (including arbitration), company insolvency law and sports law. He is the editor of numerous publications in these areas and has worked for many years as a consultant and arbitrator. He is a highly respected arbitrator for the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the Deutsches Sportschiedsgericht and the Deutsche Institution für Schiedsgerichtsbarkeit eV (DIS).

Mr. Peter Nicholson LLM MBA is an Australian national, a former Army officer, and since then a specialist in criminal investigations. He has extensive experience as a senior investigator and analyst in both national and international jurisdictions. Mr. Nicholson was recently advising varying levels of government in Afghanistan on ministerial strategic leadership and policy development of the police forces, and on matters of governance in part to counter corruption, fraud and intimidation. Beforehand he advised the government of Pakistan on policy development in counter-terrorism issues. He was a United Nations Independent Commission Chief of Investigations in Lebanon investigating terrorism cases, and investigated crimes for the International Criminal Court in Uganda and in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was a team Leader at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and an investigator on the Srebrenica genocide case and others.

Full report can be read here:

Cycling Independent Reform Commission report