The future of Movistar Team, the longest-running in professional cycling, has been cast into doubt by reports that the title sponsor is reconsidering its backing and even looking to sell off its existing contract.

Bloomberg, a leading financial news organisation, broke the news on Saturday, reporting that telecoms giant Telefónica – the parent company of Movistar – wants out amid shifts in its own business operations and in the landscape of pro cycling sponsorship. These reports have been corroborated in the Spanish press.

According to multiple anonymous sources cited by Bloomberg, Telefónica “is seeking to either sell its sponsorship contract […] or to bring on other sponsors to share costs”. It was indicated that sports consultancy firm YouFirst has been enlisted to lead this search.

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Telefónica’s contract with Abarca Sports, the company that owns the men’s and women’s WorldTour teams, is said to be worth €25m annually and is set to run until 2029.

That means the teams are financially secure for the next three years on top of this one. However, the news casts doubt on the long-term future of a squad that traces its origins back to 1980, while also raising questions about what the team might look like in the interim if replacement sponsors are indeed lined up for Movistar’s early exit.

The South American factor

Telefónica has been the sole title-naming-rights sponsor of Eusebio Unzué’s men’s cycling team since 2011, and of the women’s team since its creation in 2018. So for the past 16 years, the team as a whole has carried the Movistar name and ‘M’ logo of the company’s leading network provider across Spain and South America (it also runs O2 in the UK).

It’s that South American market that’s key, according to Bloomberg, which notes that Telefónica has been selling off the majority of its operations there and focusing on Spain. The sponsorship was arguably at its peak when the Colombian Nairo Quintana emerged as a megastar at the 2013 Tour de France and went on to win the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España.

Telefónica is reportedly revising its marketing budget as part of a wider overhaul of the business, and executives have reportedly been influenced by the shifting sands of pro cycling sponsorships.

WorldTour budgets have skyrocketed in recent years, with big money pouring in from the Middle East and a new development in major corporations not only sponsoring teams but taking ownership of them, as in the case of Red Bull, Lidl, and Decathlon.

At the same time, Movistar’s men’s team have slipped in status since Quintana’s glory days and since the retirement of stalwart Alejandro Valverde four years ago.

The women’s team, meanwhile, have risen to establish themselves as one of the sport’s leading forces, winning the first edition of the Tour de France Femmes with Annemiek van Vleuten in 2022 and now counting the likes of Marlen Reusser and Cat Ferguson in the squad.

Cyclingnews has contacted Movistar Team for comment.