Doping concerns end T-Mobile's sixteen-year sponsorship of professional cycling

Deutsche Telekom AG has elected to end sponsorship of professional cycling with immediate effect. This decision was taken by the Board of Management of the Bonn-based telecommunications group, which had been a sponsor of professional cycling since 1991. The company's sponsorship of both the men’s and women's teams is ended with this action. "We arrived at this decision to separate our brand from further exposure from doping in sport and cycling specifically. This was a difficult decision given our long history of support for professional cycling and the efforts of Bob Stapleton in managing the team in 2007", said Deutsche Telekom Board member and CEO of T-Mobile International, Hamid Akhavan. “We have an obligation to our employees, customers and shareholders to focus our attention and resources on our core businesses”, added Akhavan. "We have worked very hard with the current team management to promote clean cycling sport but we reached the decision to continue our efforts to rid all sports of doping by applying our resources in other directions. Deutsche Telekom AG wants to make it clear that this action is not based on any disagreement with or misconduct by team management”, Akhavan emphasised. Nothing has changed in Deutsche Telekom's belief that sponsoring activities also entail taking responsibility. "We will continue to fulfil our obligations to the fight against doping, to which we contribute a significant amount of resources", declared Akhavan. Bob Stapleton added, "We hope to go forward independently with the team to achieve our goals of continued competitive success and being a leader in anti-doping efforts in professional cycling." Over the past few days the Group has been negotiating with Neuer Straßen Sport, the operator of the T-Mobile Team, for the termination of the contract that was set to run until December 31st, 2010. Both parties have agreed to keep the details confidential.   E&OE