The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has upheld the appeal filed by Katusha against the International Cycling Union (UCI) in relation to Katusha’s application for a license to participate in the UCI World Tour 2013 season.

A CAS hearing was held on 8 February 2013 during which the parties and their representatives were heard by the CAS Panel in charge of the matter. In its deliberations following the hearing, the CAS Panel did not reach the same conclusions as the UCI Licensing Commission, who had denied Katusha a license in December 2012 on the basis of “ethical criterion”, and decided to uphold the Katusha appeal. According to the CAS decision, the application of Katusha to be registered as a UCI ProTeam for the season 2013 of the UCI World Tour is granted.

In an official response to the CAS verdict, the UCI says that it “acknowledges the Court of Arbitration for Sport decision to uphold the application of Katusha Management SA to be registered as a UCI ProTeam for the season 2013.”

The UCI also states that it will now “evaluate the consequences of this ruling and will communicate further in coming days,” once the evaluation process has been completed.