In the wake of controversy surrounding the initial decision not to send an Irish team to the 2025 Motocross of Nations, Philip McCullough — a former Team Ireland manager — has taken the step of publishing his application for the role in full. Citing transparency, fairness, and a desire to restore confidence in the process, McCullough outlines his proposal, experience, and conditions should he be appointed once again. You can read his full statement below:
FAO MX Commission Chairman
As most of you know, I was a previous team manager for the MXoN. After the recent announcement by our governing body that they were not going to send a team to the USA this year, I must admit, I was extremely disappointed but this post is not about how I feel.
Our governing body, as most of you know, have now back tracked on their initial decision and are now asking for applications to be sent to them for the role of team manager for 2025.
Firstly, I want to say thank you to the dozens of tags, messages and phone calls I have received, regarding the role of team manager, and whether or not I would apply for the position. After careful deliberation and thought, I have now decided to put my name forward as well as my budget and proposals.
The announcement from the commission did not include an email or a postal address for applications to be sent to so I am making my application publicly. I have decided that in the interests of total transparency and fairness it is only right that the whole MX community of Ireland can see my application, what I am bringing to the table and my proposal for doing so.
This application is for someone to manage our country on the world stage and for total clarity it is my opinion that the country should have total clarity on the process which I will explain further within my proposal below.
Firstly my previous experience as Team Manager:
2016 – Italy
2017 – Great Britain
2018 – United States of America
2019 – Netherlands
Qualifying Record – 4 from 4
As you can see above, I have done this job before, taken a team to the USA before and I believe that I can do it again. The commission also asked to see a preliminary budget which I have noted below:
Total Budget – £30k + 3k surplus
As I noted above, I want to make sure there is complete transparency for the MX community so that the riders and supporters can see everything first hand.
With this in mind I also have certain stipulations that I would like put in place and agreed with the Motocross Commission.
These are as follows and are without prejudice:
1. In the spirit of our sport and for reasons of total fairness and transparency I would ask that the MX Commission pay £15k, exactly half of my proposed budget, plus a 10% contingency reserve for any unforeseen or surprise costs. I believe that this is a fair and reasonable request for sending a national team to an international event.
2. As team manager I will select the 3 riders, as well as the reserves riders
3. I will show no partiality in my choices. I do not care who a rider is related to, what side of the border they live on or what connections they may have. Riders will be picked based upon their current form, their work ethic, their mindset and whether or not I believe they are the best Riders available to represent Team Ireland.
4. I reserve the right not to choose riders solely based on results. A number of factors, some of which are listed above, will determine my final decision.
5. ALL communication between myself and the MX Commission will be made public. I would stipulate that I would like all correspondence to be via email so that the emails can be screenshot and published to social media (with email addresses covered to ensure privacy) so that the MX community can have complete transparency. In the event that a matter must be discussed via phone call then immediately after that phone call the minutes of the call will be put into an email, forwarded to the appropriate parties, and screenshot. This practice protects myself and the MX Commission in keeping dialogue and/or any negotiations fair and open. This screenshot rule also applies to texts, whatsapps and private messages. Again, phone numbers will be blanked out at all times.
6. I reserve the right to step down if I believe that the best interests of the riders and the MX Community are not being supported in any way. In the unlikely event that this does happen I will publish a post on social media detailing why I have made this decision along with screenshots of any supporting evidence.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I look forward to getting a response from the MX Commission.
Yours in sport
Philip McC
