The Astana Pro Team has acknowledged reports in the Spanish newspaper AS (opens in new tab) that it has not paid its players and staff for the past two months, but the team's 2020 budget has been approved by its main backer, the Kazakhstani sovereign wealth fund Samruk Kazyna He claimed that it had been approved.

Last week, the team decided to withdraw from the race until March 20 due to a coronavirus outbreak.

AS reported that Astana has yet to pay its 2020 athletes and staff due to delays in funding from the team's state patron. In a statement released by Astana on Monday, team manager Aleksandr Vinokurov insisted that the issue would be resolved this week.

"We confirm that the Astana Pro team has not yet been able to pay all 2020 wages. The payments were made in part. We would also like to confirm that the total budget of our main sponsor, Samruk Kazyna, has been successfully approved."

"The Astana Pro Team is already in its 15th season and during this time our main sponsor Samruk Kazyna has provided the necessary funds. Because we are sponsored by a public government organization, the paperwork for approving funds takes time, which sometimes delays payments.

Samruk Kazyna owns Kazakhstan's state-owned business association, which has supported the Vinokolov team, named after the capital of Kazakhstan, since it took over sponsorship from Liberty Seguros during Operacion Puerto in 2006. During the period of the government fund's sponsorship, there were occasional delays in payments.

In May 2009, during Lance Armstrong's brief stint with Astana (coinciding with the last of Vinokurov's two-year doping ban), riders wore jerseys with the name of the team's Kazakhstan sponsor faded out at the Giro d'Italia and protested unpaid salaries. The issue was resolved by that year's Tour de France after the UCI threatened to revoke Astana's ProTour license.

In February 2018, Vinokourov himself sounded the alarm in a carefully worded interview with Kazakhstani publication Vesti.kz, describing the team's financial situation as "critical" and highlighting delays in salary payments. Vinokourov's intervention succeeded in extracting the necessary funds from Samruk Kazyna, who insisted that the team's outstanding salaries for 2020 would be paid this week.

"Last week the team received official confirmation that the matter will be resolved by the end of this week and that they will have funds to cover their February and March wages," Vinokurov said. 'We are confident that the problem will be resolved by the end of this week and that we will be able to perform in the upcoming races.'

Vinokourov added that the team's financial situation did not affect its decision to withdraw from the race until March 20 due to a coronavirus infection. Astana was one of seven WorldTour teams to abandon Paris-Nice due to concerns over the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus.

"We would also like to clarify that our current withdrawal from the race due to the coronavirus has nothing to do with financial delays.

The Astana Pro team won six races in 2020, with Jacob Fursang winning two stages and the overall at Ruta del Sol.

Last month, Fuglsang and teammate Alexey Lutsenko denied reports that they had frequented the banned Dr. Michele Ferrari after being linked to a leaked CADF report. The anti-doping agency subsequently decided not to pursue any disciplinary proceedings.