KUALA LUMPUR: Team Corbusier will seek legal recourse for damages from Tour of Sarawak cycling tournament organisers Fadz Industries Sdn Bhd.
This, said its principal Safri Mohammed, followed a statement made by Fadz Industries managing director Mohd Fadzli Mat Yusof in a press conference held in Kuching earlier today, where the latter offered apologies to all involved in the fiasco.
"We don't accept his apology as this is becoming a legal matter for breach of contract," said Safri.
Kuching-based Team Corbusier had invested heavily in an expected challenge this season, beginning with the Tour of Sarawak, which was supposed to begin yesterday in Miri and end in Kuching on Sunday.
However, the organisers fell short of funds, which Mohd Fadzli said in the press conference was due to last-minute withdrawals of sponsors, although Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) officials present there said they had been told last-minute bail-out funds were coming from the state government.
In a press conference earlier, Mohd Fadzli had stated the organisers forked out their own funds amounting to RM500,000 to cover the cost of transferring participants from Miri to Kuching and for foreign teams to return home.
This has been strongly refuted by all participants contacted by the New Straits Times thus far.
"Our rooms were not paid for, we had to get our own transport for our transfer to Kuching, as they had arranged buses but we had to pay for it first. The main thing is we had to arrange and pay for everything ourselves," said Safri.
"We definitely do not have confidence that the organisers will reimburse all of our expenses within reasonable time. We are seeking legal recourse soon."
Asked how this was termed as a breach of contract, Safri said it had been stated in the invitation forms.
"They laid out their standard offers to teams like the transfer from airport to hotel, numbers of hotel rooms provided and meals. These constitute an offer which we accept by submitting our forms and accompanying details," said Safri.
"A breach of this contract first took place when there was no transport provided from the airport and that was followed by other logistical failures. These are breaches of contract. They offered, we accepted, but they didn't deliver."