EXCLUSIVE | Suspicions of corruption at the heart of Portuguese cycling - Money laundering, non-payment and chronic abuse in top teams

In the world of cycling not everything is perfect and in many cases - even when it comes to top teams - almost everything is far from perfect. CiclismoAtual spoke to several individuals who worked in Portuguese professional teams, where reports of abuse and mistreatment, suspicions of money laundering, wage arrears and many other problems revealed a situation of chronic chaos.

We started from a post on the Reddit platform that exposed several examples of mistreatment in a 'well-known' team in the Portuguese peloton. CiclismoAtual spoke to several individuals (male and female) who had similar experiences to the original author. Their relationship to their respective teams has been confirmed, and they are both past and present members of the teams. Several shocking accounts of chronic disorganization, abuse, late payments, suspicions of corruption and money laundering - in schemes in which several prominent national entities, both inside and outside cycling, are allegedly involved - have reached us.

Although Portugal is a country where soccer reigns supreme, cycling also has a considerable fan base - which grows with each passing year over the last decade and a half, taking into account the victory in the world championships in Florence, the growth of a new face capable of fighting for victory in Grand Tours such as João Almeida and even the substantial growth in track cycling with Maria Martins leading the women's side, while Iuri Leitão and Rui Oliveira gave the country great joy by bringing Portugal it's first gold medal at the Olympic Games outside athletics. 

There are many reasons why cycling in this small country can be at a fantastic level, but at the same time there is a black mark on it: doping. While internationally the number of cases has fallen since the end of the 2000s and there is a better reputation for the sport, this is not the case in Portugal.

Volta a Portugal winners such as Nuno Ribeiro, Raúl Alarcón and Amaro Antunes have had their titles in the Grand Tour withdrawn due to different cases. In fact, four of the last 16 Voltas don't have an official winner and four more were won by riders who were suspended as a result of the 'Operação Prova Limpa' that hit W52 - FC Porto: Ricardo Mestre, Rui Vinhas, João Rodrigues and Amaro Antunes. Add to these, other top names in national cycling such as Joni Brandão, João Benta, André Cardoso, César Fonte, Edgar Pinto, José Neves, Hernâni Broco, the brothers José and Domingos Gonçalves... Other big names in the peloton such as Vicente García de Mateos, Luís Mendonça, and more recently Nuno Meireles, Rafael Silva and Frederico Figueiredo have been in suspicious situations in the past or present... There is a huge problem in Portuguese cycling that has yet to be resolved.

Speaking to a source who wished to remain anonymous, we were told us a little more about his post. He told us that he had only worked with one team for a few months, but that he had still "lasted longer than anyone who has worked in that position in the last two years". He told us that right from the start he was asked to provide services for more than one organization, which was an eliminating factor, but that the focus would always be on the cycling team and that work outside the team would be a 'one-off service'. "I realized early on that I wouldn't have a timetable, as you'd expect," he confesses, "but that wasn't a problem for me, because I'd be working in an area that I enjoy and I'd be closely following the day-to-day life of a team that supposedly lives the passion for cycling as I do." However, the initial glimpse soon turned into a nightmare. In addition to the work he did that wasn't included in the employment contract he had signed, he worked an extraordinary amount of overtime, "sometimes including unpaid work from morning to night, at weekends and during vacation periods". All this for the minimum wage or close to it, applying to teams with different financial conditions.

They told us that they collected and paid traffic fines out of their own pockets when they were on duty and carrying out tasks at the request of the teams. In one case, when they went to ask the team for the money from the fine, they were met with a lot of reluctance and aggression when it came to returning the money to the official. There were also 'bets' on how long one of the individuals would be able to work in that post, and knowing afterwards that 7 employees had passed through the post he was occupying in a matter of just a few weeks. One employee reportedly "resisted" for half a day before leaving her post due to immediate and constant abuse and pressure.

They told us that from the start "disorganization was a constant, both in the way I was handed work and in the way the organization was run. In general: unnecessary expenses. The 'boring and time-consuming' work was 'passed around' until it reached me, losing most of the important information I needed to work. There was constant harassment for me to deliver results and resolve key issues for the club...", he continues, "Basically, it felt like they wanted me to build a palace without giving me the tools", he tells us. He tells us that he lost his desire to pursue a career when he realized that the people leading this type of project didn't know how to manage it.

"My days sometimes lasted 12 hours and the next day I was treated as if I'd left early." He told us that "out of necessity" he was responsible for transporting the club president to his appointments, having to "always be on hand". Screaming phone calls "in the middle of the night" were constant. He even got up at 5am to take him to different places, while telling us that "sometimes he demanded that I drive at excessive speeds and at the same time demanded that I send messages and make phone calls while driving", risking the lives of everyone involved. These experiences involved some employees of the entities involved and not exclusively the individuals with whom we had direct contact.

Another surprising detail was the revelation that although there were individuals who admitted to having to work and communicate with World Tour-level teams, the Portuguese Cycling Federation, etc., that they wouldn't even be provided with a cell phone tariff - the employee would have to pay to be able to carry out their own high-profile duties.

"I got to the point where I was afraid to go to sleep because I knew what was waiting for me the next day," he confesses, adding that during the week in which he made the final decision to resign, he tried to talk to his boss, pointing out the problems and possible solutions, without being heard. We asked him about the name of the team and who was responsible for the situation, but he was unable to answer.

Speaking to another person who commented on the social media post, we received a similar account. This person named a team for which he worked and some people who he admitted "were responsible for the backward, ruinous and futureless situation" of the team. This person told us about the regular use of the team's funds on a personal basis, by the president and other board members, for the most diverse reasons. This same team, which is prominent on the national scene, was allegedly experiencing financial difficulties. "The accounts didn't add up. Whenever there was talk of a new sponsor, everyone talked about the value it would bring, but then the invoices were always lower than they were supposed to be." He also told us that "people in the team's management had delicate financial situations and were even a little suspicious, because at that time they made very high personal expenses, beyond their means". We asked him if he knew of any clear cases of embezzlement, corruption or even mismanagement, to which he replied: "Apart from personal expenses using money from the club's account, I don't know anything specific. All I know is that there were always a lot of sponsors coming in, but there never seemed to be any money for anything."

Another individual commented on the similarities between his story and that of the author. He revealed that he was given a cell phone and his superior would call him in the middle of the night to "make sure he had it with him and was paying attention to it". "He was forced to be contactable at all times, regardless of the day, the hour or where he was," and he also guaranteed that other employees regularly experienced similar situations. "There were people working day and night who, when they asked for a day or two off, were harassed, humiliated and mistreated solely and exclusively for trying to enjoy a basic right."

Reports corroborate suspicions of embezzlement at a Portuguese professional-level race, but we were not told which event/s they were. "It's true that it's not a million-dollar business, but there are hundreds of thousands of euros involved both in the team itself and in organizing races," another source told us, "And I know that with every sponsorship, there were people making money on the side." We tried to get him to elaborate on the serious allegation, but he confessed that "I don't know how it happened, only that the same people who I knew were in ruin, with the entry of new sponsors, seemed to receive a check". From mobile phones, computers, jewelry and cars, several users of the platform confirmed that certain expenses only appeared after someone "injected capital".

One of the individuals revealed to us emails in which suppliers asked for the payments they were due, which were sometimes months late. Similarly, "there were contractual clauses with sponsors that were not complied with". A case was illustrated to us in which a supplier of material defined a contractual clause in which "the logo would be present on the team's clothes, bus and cars, but that never happened. It's absurd, the sponsor gave this material away for free in exchange for advertising and the team didn't even do that," he says. The refusal of teams to pay for their athletes' life insurance was also reported. We were also exposed to the situation of "significant salary arrears to racers, in the order of dozens of thousands of euros" including top figures in the Portuguese peloton.

Poorly paid, humiliated and without their efforts being recognized, they all reported that one of the requirements for a job like this is a love and devotion to cycling. It's not for everyone and most of them give up. Similarly, they justify the lack of sponsorship by the growing distrust of national companies in the face of the dishonesty of people who continually fail to make payments and other contractual responsibilities.