Kirch to be Bernie's last stand?

FIA president Max Mosley has hinted that the problems surrounding the Kirch media group could bring about a change of control in Formula One, and prompt the beginning of the end of Bernie Ecclestone's reign.

Speaking at a specially arranged press conference at the San Marino Grand Prix at the weekend, Mosley intimated that, far from being a problem for Formula One, the collapse of the Kirch empire - overburdened by the purchase of expensive sports broadcasting rights - could actually benefit the sport by preventing the five motor manufacturers involved from forming a breakaway series. He also predicted, however, that it could begin the gradual easing out of the Ecclestone era.

The ACEA group, formed by the manufacturers over concerns that F1 may be taken exclusively to pay-per-view television by Kirch, has yet to make any formal announcement over the abandonment of its proposed rival to F1, due to begin in 2008, but Mosley is confident that, with Kirch's administrators looking to off-load expensive assets such as its F1 share, the split can be prevented.

"I think it is more likely, rather than less likely, that a deal will be come to because, instead of negotiating with a major media magnate, with all that goes with that, the manufacturers will be negotiating with the banks," he explained, before expressing the hope that the uncertainty over Formula One's future could be laid to rest in the interest of the sport..

"I think everyone, particularly the manufacturers themselves, appreciate that the discussion about two championships is beginning to have a negative effect in Formula One, because we are now getting into the last five years of the Concorde Agreement and a lot of sponsorship contracts are three to five-year contracts. People start to wonder whether the situation is sufficiently stable to justify the sort of money that they can and would spend, so there is now an increasing pressure from all sides to resolve the matter and get a clear deal, and I think that will happen."

Should the manufacturers decide to acquire Kirch's stake in the sport, which amounts to some two-thirds of holding company SLEC, it could spell the first shift in power in F1 for many years. According to insiders, Ecclestone cannot be removed from running the sport at present, even if Kirch goes under completely, thanks to a shareholders agreement whereby he will be unaffected by the company's demise. However, should the manufacturers take control, it may be that 'the ringmaster' is eased out to make way for a new man.

"The situation is interesting, because as I think everybody knows that the group, one way or another, owns 75 percent of SLEC, which is the business that Bernie has built up, and which has the commercial rights to the Formula One World Championship for the next 108 years," Mosley said.

"As far as we are concerned, I don't think [the situation] makes a great deal of difference, at least at the moment. It is a huge problem for football, because there are a number of football teams that depend on Kirch for their income. Formula One is the other way around. Formula One doesn't get money from Kirch, Kirch gets money from Formula One."

The president added, however, that the FIA retained the power to prevent the rights being sold to a party it believed to be bad for the future of the sport.