The proposed Bahrain team is busy making arrangements to become the first WorldTour from the Middle East in 2017. It has chosen Brent Copeland to manage its team and met with the UCI to explain its project. Copeland will leave WorldTour team Lampre-Merida at the end of 2016 to manage Prince Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa’s project, an insider confirmed to Cycling Weekly.

Scores of riders have reportedly been linked to the new team. Astana’s Vincenzo Nibali, winner of the Giro d’Italia last month, is one of the more illustrious names to be associated with the new team.

Should Nibali make the switch, it seems likely that he will be joined by domestiques Alessandro Vanotti and Valerio Agnoli. In addition, the new team will need to fill a 25- to 30-man squad, which could also include Rafal Majka, the 2014 Tour de France mountains classification victor currently riding for Tinkoff.

The prince will reportedly launch his campaign into cycling with a budget of £11.5 to £13.7 million (€15 to €18m), said an insider. Team Sky, in comparison, counts around £24 million. The team will fly the Bahraini flag, but base itself in Bergamo, Italy. Copeland lives in the same region, an hour’s drive away in Como.

Two of the 18 WorldTour licences will be available in 2017 with Tinkoff and IAM Cycling folding, the prince wants one of them to put Bahrain on cycling’s map.

However, recently human rights groups have been attempting to curtail the prince’s ambitions. They asked the UCI to not allow any such team because of Bahrain’s actions during the 2011 anti-government protests and assertions that the prince was openly involved with the suppressions.

The team has until August 15 to submit its request for a WorldTour licence and if the licence commission believes there are ethical issues, they will consider the groups’ letters and the team’s response.

Any official announcements regarding the signing of riders will have to wait until August 1 because of the UCI’s transfer rules, but Prince Nasser will release other details at a press conference during the Tour de France’s first rest day on July 11.