{"id":159344,"date":"2025-09-25T10:38:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T10:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/159344\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T10:38:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T10:38:15","slug":"the-name-of-the-team-is-no-longer-sustainable-israel-premier-techs-title-sponsor-joins-calls-for-team-to-drop-israel-from-identity-and-brand-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/159344\/","title":{"rendered":"“The name of the team is no longer sustainable”: Israel-Premier Tech’s title sponsor joins calls for team to drop ‘Israel’ from identity and brand image"},"content":{"rendered":"

Premier Tech has\u00a0become the latest company to call for the word ‘Israel’ to be dropped from the name and identity of the team it\u00a0co-sponsors.<\/p>\n

Premier Tech’s statement comes days after the team’s bike supplier Factor made a similar statement<\/a>\u00a0arguing that bike sponsorship was “too controversial” with the team in light of widespread protests.<\/p>\n

Factor\u00a0CEO Rob Gitellis also appeared willing to cancel the verbal agreement made in the summer that the company would continue to support the team into next season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

road.cc\u00a0also understands that other sponsors have been in touch with the team in recent weeks to discuss the terms of their partnership agreements\u00a0for next season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Israel-PremierIsrael-Premier Tech 2025 Tour of Britain (credit: SWpix.com\/Simon Wilkinson)<\/p>\n

In a statement first reported by Radio Canada<\/a>, Premier Tech said: “We are sensitive and attentive to the situation on the international scene.<\/p>\n

“Premier Tech has always placed the development of the sport and Quebec and Canadian cyclists at the heart of its involvement.<\/p>\n

“The current situation regarding the name of the team is no longer sustainable to achieve our goal, which is the very reason for our involvement in cycling.<\/p>\n

“Our expectation is that the team will evolve towards a new name that excludes the term Israel, and that it will adopt a new identity and brand image.”<\/p>\n

Israel-Premier Tech are owned by Canadian-Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams who has described the team as “ambassadors for Israel”. The team has also received a small amount of\u00a0funding from Israel’s Ministry of Tourism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adams\u00a0attended the disrupted Vuelta\u00a0earlier\u00a0this month and stated that the team would\u00a0“never surrender to the terrorists”<\/a>. They were supported in this position by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

\"NetanyahuNetanyahu praises Israel-Premier Tech (credit: Twitter)<\/p>\n

However, the public statements made by several sponsors and partners suggest this stance may be softening. In a statement to\u00a0road.cc, Israel-Premier Tech said\u00a0“The team is currently in the planning phase for 2026 team branding and will communicate any potential changes in due course.”<\/p>\n

Premier Tech is\u00a0a Canadian agricultural company who sponsored the team then known as Israel-Start Up Nation in 2022, after a tempestuous season sponsoring Astana. Since coming on board, the team have\u00a0adopted a more Canadian identity with former Tour de France stage winner Steve Bauer joining the backroom staff, and the team winning Tour stages with Canadians Michael Woods and Hugo Houle.<\/p>\n

There are currently six Canadian riders on the team’s roster including national champion Derek Gee\u00a0whose contract is in dispute<\/a>\u00a0after “certain issues simply made continuation at the team untenable”. The company also sponsors Continental and development teams in France and Quebec.<\/p>\n

\"Israel-PremierIsrael-Premier Tech ride past Palestine flags, stage 11, 2025 Vuelta (credit: Zac Williams\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

Premier Tech’s statement\u00a0is the latest fall-out from the\u00a0heavy protests that disrupted the Vuelta a\u00a0Espa\u00f1a\u00a0causing stages to be shortened, neutralised<\/a> and cancelled<\/a>, as well as riders to crash. Protests were aimed towards the team’s participation in light of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza. Last week\u00a0the UN\u00a0Human Rights Council’s\u00a0independent commission concluded that Israel’s actions constituted a genocide, a claim Israel denies.<\/p>\n

Israel-Premier Tech have since used monogrammed kit in races which doesn’t contain the word ‘Israel’, bringing the riders in line with team vehicles and staff clothing that removed all reference to Israel<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

The President of the French cycling federation, responsible for organising the European championships in two weeks time, has also confirmed that there will be no Israeli entries in the time trial events, where riders are most vulnerable to being individually targeted. The Israeli team was briefly halted during their team time trial at the Vuelta, with the individual TT\u00a0also shortened to better ensure rider safety. Israeli athletes will still be competing in the road races.<\/p>\n

“The time trial is still really complicated to secure,” Michel Callot told L’Equipe<\/a>. “It’s a relief for me, as an organiser, that we don\u2019t have any Israeli entries in the time trials, which was the biggest concern.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Premier Tech has\u00a0become the latest company to call for the word ‘Israel’ to be dropped from the name…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-159344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}