Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone will have to wait another few months before the Bavarian regional court in Germany decides whether or not to indict him on bribery charges.
The court announced last week that it was still waiting for further submissions from Bernie's lawyers and, because of the need to change one of the five judges involved in the case, the whole process will be put back while the replacement gets acquainted with the details. The chief judge in the case remains the same.
The new delay means that F1 will remain in a state of uncertainty about the future because so much hangs on the outcome of the case, and people involved are loathe to make any big decisions unless they absolutely have to because they do not know what is going to happen. This has led to something of a stagnation in F1 in recent months.
On paper, CVC Capital Partners is still trying to sell its remaining shares in the Formula One group. The idea of a flotation is on permanent hold (although no-one will admit that) and the firm has struggled to find anyone interested in a private sale, despite the fact that the Formula One company's profit margins are a private equity dream.
What is really interesting is the news the other day that CVC is going to be bidding to buy sports marketing agency IMG. This story has been kicking around for a while but the announcement that its bid is in league with Bahrain’s Mumtalakat Holding and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has made it rather more interesting because both of these companies are very active in F1 and want to see the sport in good hands.
Not surprisingly, this has led to suggestions that CVC could end up doing with IMG what it did with the Formula One group and combining different assets in order to create a nicer-looking package to sell to the world. An IMG which is looking after Formula One would be worth a great deal more than an IMG without it.
CVC's primary aim is to create value in its businesses and this would work well because F1's value has suffered because of the trials and tribulations in Germany. It should be remembered that when CVC bought Formula One it then quickly added Allsport Management and the GP2 company in order to increase the value in the business.
Ecclestone himself says that he is disappointed that the case has been delayed because he wants to get it over and done with and get on with running the business. In the interim he now has to sort out the civil case in London from German media group, Constantin Medien, which is claiming damages of at least $171 million, on the basis that the Formula One group was undervalued when it was sold to CVC Capital.
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Talk to the lawyers?
If Bernie is indeed "disappointed that the case has been delayed because he wants to get it over and done with and get on with running the business", then perhaps he should be on the phone to his lawyers to ask why they're dragging their feet in making these further submissions. Getting things sorted on that front would probably speed up the rest of the process a fair bit.
Otherwise, yes, the sport is pretty much stagnant when it comes to big decisions. The fact that a new Concorde Agreement still hasn't been agreed upon, and if anything looks even less likely to come into existence, is pretty farcical and the less said about the absence of an agreed tyre contract with Pirelli for next year the better really. If ever there was time for a new broom approach to be taken, this is probably it.
The difficulty is that it
The difficulty is that it faces another 'Schumacher era' with Vettel winning everything, turning off viewers.
Though it does remain a popular sport, broadcasters taking an interest. Something that can't be said for WRC, or BTCC which despite half decent coverage doesn't seem well advertised and hidden away on ITV4.
Over the years they've managed to get a lot of income from licencing.
20 years of video games licenced to include official tracks, cars and drivers.
Not to mention the gift sets - over the years I've received keyrings, clothing, deodorant etc bearing the F1 logo.
You can talk!!!??????
Well, actually, we can't, we can speculate,but in the end we are not privy to the details.