In 1996, the BCF incurred large debts as a result of a legal dispute with Tony Doyle, who resigned from his position as President of the Federation shortly after its Board attempted to remove him. Doyle had been elected to the Presidency in late 1995 on a platform of increasing transparency and accountability in the Federation: the campaign to remove him was based on claims that he had failed to declare his role as a consultant to a company that wanted to act as the promoter for the 1996 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Manchester. In December 1996, the report of auditors from the UK Sports Council into the Federation's finances and management found that there were serious shortcomings in its procedures for accounting and control of finances and potential conflicts of interests between board members and leading companies in the cycling sector. The board were then removed by the membership and replaced with an emergency management committee. As a result of the report, Minister for Sport Iain Sproat warned that the BCF's Sports Council grants could be withdrawn and that it could be banned from applying for Lottery money. Brian Cookson was elected as President soon afterwards: he described the organisation's situation at the time as "close to bankruptcy, 14,000 members and falling, one Olympic gold in 76 years and not much