{"id":583802,"date":"2025-11-21T02:39:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T02:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/583802\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T02:39:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T02:39:12","slug":"israel-premier-tech-cycling-team-taken-over-by-andres-iniestas-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/583802\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel-Premier Tech: Cycling team taken over by Andres Iniesta’s company"},"content":{"rendered":"

The team formerly known as Israel-Premier Tech have been taken over by a branding company co-founded by<\/b> <\/b>Barcelona legend and World Cup winner Andres Iniesta.<\/b><\/p>\n

It was announced on Thursday evening the team had changed ownership and registered as Swiss, following their Israeli owners being the subject of several pro-Palestinian protests and the loss of their title sponsor.<\/p>\n

The team will now be known as NSN Cycling from 2026, and say they are “a Swiss team with a Spanish structure”.<\/p>\n

In a statement, which suggested they had been sold by the Israeli owners – although this has not been formally confirmed to BBC Sport after a request for comment – the team said they had made an “acquisition of the team’s [governing competition] licence, and subsequent role in the team’s operations”.<\/p>\n

NSN, which stands for Never Say Never, is a company co-founded by Iniesta, and claims to “connect global audiences through the power of sports and entertainment”.<\/p>\n

Former title sponsor Premier Tech ended its association this month, despite the team initially agreeing to remove Israel from their name.<\/a> <\/p>\n

The team had agreed to the change in October after public pressure from the Canadian company, citing pro-Palestinian protests during the Vuelta a Espana in September – many of which were directed towards Israel-Premier Tech.<\/p>\n

Canadian rider Derek Gee also cancelled his contract with the team days before the Vuelta, citing “serious concerns”.<\/p>\n

Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome signed for the team in 2020, but was released last week following serious injuries sustained in a training accident this year.<\/p>\n

Canadian-Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams has been co-owner of Israel-Premier Tech since 2014, but recently stepped back from day-to-day operations following controversy surrounding the team during the Vuelta as a result of the Israel-Gaza conflict. <\/p>\n

The conflict was sparked by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed.<\/p>\n

Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 69,00 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The team formerly known as Israel-Premier Tech have been taken over by a branding company co-founded by Barcelona…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-583802","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"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115585375520203345","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}