CVC is now a huge multinational finance house with many contracts other than Bernie’s F1. How he controls the company with only 5% shareholding is a mystery since he is heavily outmatched in share power. I think you will find that CVC do not hold the rights, they are split between the many companies in Bernie’s Alpha and Topco and Bambino groups all of which have some connection or are part owned by either CVC or directly by Bambino. The subject is almost worthy of a book in itself.

Madoff pah! he knows nothing! A Ponzi is bound to collapse, but a Bernie is self supporting.

I think the only ones in this whole business that are not getting money from CVC are the fans and the racetrack owners.
Everyone else that participates in this theater show gets an envelope from CVC

“. . . completed negotiations on the lease sale of the FIA’s interest in the commercial rights of the FIA Formula One World Championship resulting in a windfall payment of US$313 million to the FIA.”

It fails to mention that this was for 100 years. Nor does it carry any details about the methods of tender used. Nor does it mention the fact that 14 years’ worth of the rights, that’s around 14% if my maths doesn’t fail me, were sold to a company which, with the rights being their only major asset, were valued at £1.4 billion.

The vast majority of this ‘windfall’ of £313 was used to set up a trust, the point of which is delightfully vague, “wide variety of activities”, on his CV, and he became a trustee of the fund.

Just after this ‘windfall’ the EU Commission looked into the dealings of the FiA under Mosley’s stewardship and their published conclusion was not so much highly critical as damning.

This decision by the EU is also not mentioned on Mosley’s CV.

JAMES: Would you like me to dig out the decision and add it to your blog?

No secret was made of the gift of money from Bernie to Max.

Max’s CV is a classic of it’s kind and well worth reading. Anyone who has had to sit on a recruitment panel will love it. One rather tasty bit towards the end of the piece goes on at some length about how clever he was to introduce KERS.

I would have had great fun leaning across the desk and saying to Mosley: Now I understand you were able to force through this KERS against the wishes of the majority of the teams. I wonder, could you tell me the current situation with it?

There is an incredible amount left out of the CV.

As for Max not being paid: there are a considerable number of other posts he feels he is the person most suited:

President of the European Parliament Automobile Users’ Intergroup, Expert Advisory Safety Committee (subsequently evolved into the FIA Institute for Motor Sport Safety), chairman of European New Car Assessment Programme (EuroNCAP), Chairman of the Formula One Safety Commission, Chairman of the Supervisory board of ERTICO, Trustee of the FIA Foundation, Created the FIA Academy, President ERTICO, something to do with the FIA Institute for Motor Sport Safety, member of the Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Epinière, member of the European Commission’s CARS 21 High Level Group, honorary President of the Road Safety Federation of Armenia, patron of eSafety Aware, Honorary Member of ERTICO.

The assumption is that some of these posts might carry a fee, or at least a retainer.

One wonders how many of these posts will disappear when he is no longer president.

Please clarify, are you suggesting an IPO for the commercial rights to F1 or an IPO for CVC, I am guessing that they, CVC, are not already quoted on the stock exchange.

Shame that the FIA did not exercise the veto when CVC bought out from Bernie, Kirch, the banks etc, do you know why this was?

A brighter note for all those who object to the money CVC are dragging out of F1 to service their debt, the loan was from Royal Bank of Scotland, I believe, and we, the UK taxpayers, now own 70%-ish so we indirectly benefit from the CVC loan and the interest on it.

With apologies to the many readers of this blog who are not UK citizens, you are still being fleeced by CVC.

I was under the impression that KERS was / were being scrapped before 2010 season begins, also Monte saying KERS “Is not helping us” or words to that effect.

But now I hear that Massa thinks it’s great.

Anybody know what’s going on?

‘Bernie, as we all know, is coin operated !’

Absolutely brilliant !

CVC partners have, as has frequently been pointed out in the financial press, no interest whatsoever in F1 except as a fat profit making milch cow. They bought Ecclestone’s controlling interest at the top of the market and now, like a lot of other greedy exploiters they’re in serious doo-doo.
The fat profits aren’t there any more and as soon as they can they’ll look for the least worst option to sell up and get out from under.

So, in an odd way, the strife and uncertainty which all F1 fans hate could well be to the long-term benefit of F1, it’s teams, circuit owners, and last but certainly not least the people who never seem to get a proper shout, the amazing fan base ! If CVC get really p***ed off with Ecclestone and F1 they may well be forced to sell at considerable loss and hopefully F1 will win back control
of operating costs and get us back to the historic circuits we love.

So Kristian is right to point out that all the attention is focussed on the appparent row between the teams and the FIA, when in reality the people killing our sport are the greedy partners in CVC.

Translation: “This has everything to do with me as an individual, it is not about the independence of the FIA and its member clubs as defenders of the motorist and arbiters of international motor sport. Someone said mean things about me, and they must pay.”

What??

The arrogance of this man beggars belief.

I should have chucked him into the harbour when I had the chance 3 years ago.

Yuck I shook his hand. *shudders *