Richard Bath: 'It's time to chuck the cuckoos out of the nest and get back to the racing'

Published on Saturday 13 June 2009 21:14

THE SHODDY conduct of those running Formula One would shame the House of Commons. Instead of a genuine sport, we now have showbusiness on wheels, a sporting sham in which the only thing that really matters is money, in which power is simply a means of laying hands on the folding stuff.

That much has been laid bare by the diktat that will create a two-tier competition for next season. The plan put forward by the sport's two guv'nors, Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley, says that the motor manufacturers can continue to spend like Croesus should they wish, but that teams which stay within a spending limit of 40 million will be given a competitive advantage to allow them to compete.

This is, by any standard, unfair and unsporting. Possibly the only similar scenario in sport is in horse racing, where high-performing thoroughbreds are weighed down to provide an artificially equal contest, but then horse racing is primarily a business too. Formula One may not be a sporting contest as we generally accept it – otherwise how could Lewis Hamilton have gone overnight from hero to zero while Jenson Button made the opposite journey? – but at least its rules have always been applied consistently to all competitors.

But then one of the key motivations behind the two-tier concept is not fairness and the creation of an Indycar-style series but to consolidate the power of Ecclestone and Mosley, Formula One's very own Dastardly and Muttley, by neutering the powerful motor manufacturer-backed teams. Bringing down the amount needed to compete has allowed three independent teams – Campos Grand Prix, Manor and US F1 – to be unveiled as new F1 outfits this week in a clear attempt to pull the rug out from under FOTA, the F1 teams' organisation which has been challenging Ecclestone and Mosley's unfettered governance of the sport.

So far the motor manufacturers and FOTA are presenting a surprisingly united face, with only Williams and Force India breaking ranks and agreeing to unconditionally enter the 2010 championship. Ferrari, Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso have been placed on next year's grid by Mosley's FIA, but dispute that the FIA has the authority to do so. They and the rest of the teams have until Wednesday to confirm that they will enter the Championship on an unconditional basis.

Now we come to the rub. FOTA's teams say that they'd rather leave and set up their own championship than have the rules dictated by Ecclestone and Mosley. The subtext to this is the fact that only 50% of the sport's television income goes to the teams, with Ecclestone's portion of the remainder making him one of the wealthiest men in Britain with a fortune estimated at almost 2.5 billion before his recent divorce, while Mosley is kept in place by compliant motoring organisations such as the RAC and has recently signalled (much to the teams' horror) that he's standing for another five-year term.

So in the week when Jenson Button could build up a virtually unassailable lead in the drivers' championship in front of his own fans at Silverstone, the whole sport has once again been consumed by a political firestorm that has money at its roots.

Ecclestone and Mosley have done much to turn Formula One into an all-conquering motorsport behemoth, and their role in bringing the often unruly teams into line and maximising the sport's commercial potential was invaluable, but their time has passed. The debacle of Indianapolis, the vengeful prosecution of McLaren, the disgraced Mosley's refusal to step down, and the arbitrary rule changes that have dismayed fans – all show that the pair are now doing more damage than good.

Yet while they continue to make vast sums of money from their cash cow, there's very little chance of them walking away. As things stand there's very little chance of deposing either man, and their uncanny collective nose for last-minute compromise may yet allow some sort of deal to be struck.

But it is high time both men were retired and the sport reclaimed by those who pile their money into it. If it takes the Armageddon scenario of a new Ferrari-led Championship to achieve that end, then so be it. It's time to chuck the cuckoos out of the nest and get back to the racing.

Arise, Sir Selfish

SIR Nick Faldo? Surely some mistake. Can this be the same Nick Faldo who conducted himself with such a staggering degree of arrogance, aloofness and churlishness throughout his playing career that he's little short of a pariah for players of his own generation? Or the Nick Faldo who has gone through three marriages, had his Porsche smashed up by his mistress and been described as "socially, a 24-handicapper" by his ex-wife? Or the Nick Faldo famous for his charity work? Surely those we revere, those who are worthy of an honour to go with the riches and fame success brings, are those who combine the necessary self-obsession with at least a veneer of grace and humility. Faldo emphatically doesn't fit into this category. I wonder what Tommy Armour, James Braid, Harry Vardon, Sandy Lyle, Peter Thompson, Greg Norman et al make of it…

Pretty, but not perfect

SO, Tony Mowbray looks like being Celtic's new manager. That'll be the man whose Hibs side played pretty but ineffectual football that left them in mid-table. That'll be the only one of the three managers to come up from the Championship who failed to keep his team in the Premiership this season. After all the bleating of the highly-successful Strachan years, it'll be interesting to see how devoted Celtic fans really are to the beautiful game if Mowbray doesn't deliver silverware as well as pretty patterns.

Beckham better than Maradona. Who says so?

WE ALL enjoy bar-stool debate, which is why lists are so popular. The "top ten" of anything and everything is a staple of all sporting literature and magazines, but the device can be taken too far. Take online fixtures service sportingfix.com, which has polled its users to come up with its version of the top 20 footballers of all time and the ten greatest goals, and instead of building up business, has seen its credibility torpedoed below the waterline.

Its poll places David Beckham as the third-best footballer of all time, two places ahead of Maradona. Not only that but Wayne Rooney is apparently a better player than Johan Cruyff, Ryan Giggs knocks spots off Alfredo di Stefano and, er, Gazza and Alan Shearer comfortably eclipse Kenny Dalglish. As for the goals, they reckon Beckham's free-kick for England against Greece is the greatest ever while Michael Owen has apparently scored three of the top ten goals of all time. All of which may come as a surprise to Messrs Messi, Van Basten, Bergkamp, Jairzinho, Muller and several hundred other footballing legends.

Chief among the thousands of questions thrown up by the list is this: just who the hell voted here?