Responding to claims of unfair dismissal by Yvon Sanquer, the former general manager of the Astana team, the Kazakhstan Cycling Federation has said that it is considering taking legal action against the Frenchman over the issue.
In a strongly-worded denial of his stated position, the federation has noted that his contract ran for the 2010 and 2011 seasons, but claimed that they “repeatedly noted management shortcomings” on his part.
One complaint was that the equipment and what it terms ‘sporting stock’ bought by him didn’t correspond to the level of the team. Another complaint was that it says it didn’t immediately inform the federation of Alberto Contador’s positive test for Clenbuterol. “The Federation was expecting a detailed report in writing by the General Manager, instead of learning the facts initially only from the media,” it stated.
The federation raises a third complaint, namely what it claims was an inability to ‘get in contact with the team.’ This is a little vague but in referring to what it calls conflicts between the general manager [Sanquer] and riders, team management and staff, it is appears to be referencing either communication problem or personality clashes.
The Kasakhstan Cycling Federation said that the team had made a complaint to it in writing, saying that it couldn’t work further with him. It adds that he “actually failed to perform managing Astana immediately after the end of Tour de France 2010; meanwhile getting wages until the end of 2010 season.”
Sanquer was hired in Autumn 2009 to replace Johan Bruyneel, who was departing the team for RadioShack. He had helped turn round the Festina team after the 1998 Festina Affair, and worked alongside top riders Alberto Contador and Alexandre Vinokourov last season.
At the end of November, Vinokourov disclosed that the team wanted to get rid of him. “We will most likely part ways with Sanquer, there is a problem,” he said in an interview published on Astanafans.com. "Today, the head coach is [Giuseppe] Martinelli."
Sanquer wasn’t impressed, claiming that the team essentially used him to gain its ProTour licence, then had no further use for him. “Once the team was ‘saved’, I quickly had the private conviction that the Kazakh management had hired me above all to be their moral guarantee and shop window,” he said in a written statement released this month.
“I thus feel that the Astana patrons’ decision to end their collaboration with me was taken early last season. I really felt that from the month of May onwards.”
He said that emails sent after a meeting at the end of the Giro went unanswered, and that he was told that the team no longer wanted him on August 3rd.
In today’s statement, the team claims that it was not trying to fire him, but to move him to an alternative position. “In December 2010, in order to reinforce management efficiency, the Kazakh Federation conducted the optimization of the staff schedule of Astana Cycling Team. In the new staff schedule, the position of the General Manager is not indicated – the commercial, economic issues and cooperation with sponsors, are being handled by the commercial director (Aidar Makhmetov), and the sports matters [by] Team Manager (Giuseppe Martinelli).
“Taking into account the shortcomings of the General Manager and at the same time, wishing to resolve this situation by serving interests of both parties, the federation management have repeatedly suggested to Mr. Sanquer alternative choices, including position of an adviser to the President of Kazakhstan Cycling Federation.”
It said that he was sent a draft of a new employment contract in December, but said that it hadn’t received any reply by mid January. It concluded by saying that it would resolve all the controversial issues ‘on the legal framework,’ and therefore couldn’t rule out taking legal action.