Is Bernie Next?
 

FIFA President Sepp Blatter Will Resign Amid Soccer Corruption Scandal - NBC News

Given the level of the money sloshing around F1 directed primarily at Bernie, will his financial dealings finally come under scrutiny?

I thought he was sued a couple of years ago, and it all got swept under the rug.

I think he basically paid a bribe to get out of a bribe. (edit: Bernie, that is)

The reason Bernie is still around is that he single handedly built F1 from a bunch of hobby racers and iffy television rights into a massive, billion dollar business. The amount of money the sport has earned since his involvement is closer to a trillion than a billion.

Ecclestone Will Pay $100 Million to End Corruption Case - Bloomberg Business
embedded in the article NOTA posted

the 100 million is the german bank deal

the bambino trust is a UK tax court that wants 1.x billion back taxes

B E 's control has cost the tracks most of their income
while giving 100 million to the top teams to bribe them
while B E and CVC rank off more then 1/2 the income

result france has no GP
N-ring is broke
no dutch race
but lots of third world races
korea drop india drop turkey drop SA drop

burnie stole the TV rights and then the track ads,
made 4-5 billion and has almost broken the sport
with teams droping out and tracks unable to survive

the sport needs tracks and teams
it doesNOT need blood suckers like him and CVC

He made a deal or was told he is next one to be arrested...

I honestly don't get all the whining about Ecclestone... As was stated before, the guy basically built F1 into what it is today, while over the same period, countless other racing series have come and gone. Undoubtedly there's room for improvement, but the results speak for themselves.

Bernies job is to negotiate tough deals with the race promoters/

Yup. If you want to complain, do so about Jean Todt. That guy needs to be clobbered on the head with a stale baguette.

Were you around during the Jean-Marie Balestre era? Or Max Mosley?

You mean Max "Spank Me" Mosley? Yeah he was an idiot too. But the racing was a lot better. On second thought, he did away with single lap qualifying and V-10s didn't he?

Wow, something very warm just froze over....you and I agree totally on this one.

Dead on, and while I do believe when F1 was an unsafe, unprofitable deal, Bernie brought some structure and commercial sense to the deal, he is way, way, way past his best before date.

His rapacious plunder of F1 has brought the sport to its absolute knees, he is an evil, nasty person with all the morals of an alley cat and ethics that make Blatter look like a paragon of virtue.

Dennis

Formula 1 still a cash cow with Ecclestone milking it big | GRAND PRIX 247

From the article:

1999 revenue: 342 Million
2013 revenue: 1.7 Billion

Ok, so this is not a typical case of corruption and greed. Whatever your opinion of Bernie, there is some genuine entrepreneurial skill going on here.

just one small example of the screwed up finances in F-1

the world champ gets 0.00 for winning
now he may get endorsement deals become a ad spokesman
or get a contract bonus from his team
but there is NO prize money from the sport to him for the WDC

OR TO ANY DRIVER FOR A RACE WIN OR PLACE

yes the teams are paid for points at the year end
but not the drivers

Just because they are holding races in places not everyone is your skin color, or speak your language, doesn't make the people/economies represented any less important.

India is a much bigger deal than France. France is choking itself right now, India is growing, Korea is growing.

they may be growing
but they dropped F-1 quickly
as the cost is too high

"India is a much bigger deal than France. France is choking itself right now, India is growing"

Hmmm, India is a ****hole and a burden on the resources of the planet. It has more problems than I could list here if I typed all day. And, it has no real heritage related to cars or car racing, so why put a track there, if not for political reasons?

Hard to believe some of the opinions on this.

Bernie made some positive changes but there was no need to siphon so much money off of F1, to put into the pockets of entities that have nothing to do with the sport. If, instead, F1 earned less money and that money it did earn stayed in the sport, things would be a lot better. Sanctioning fees would be drastically reduced, with the end result that races could be held in historically important places, fans could afford to attend the races, there would be enough money for the lesser teams to survive, TV viewership could improve and I think the sport would be healthier.

What you have now:

Nobody can easily afford the sanctioning fees, except governments that use the F1 series as a paid advertisement for their ****hole country.

Fans can't afford the ticket prices, so attendance is low. Bernie doesn't give a ****, he just wants it on TV.

If you want to televise the races in your country, you pay big bucks for the privelege.

There are knee-jerk reactions to problems and a fair bit of artificial manipulation of the rules.

The money is distributed to teams in a way that the teams that can raise their budget through sponsorship get vastly more than the guys that can't. I understand rewarding sucess but they go too far.

If you don't lament the loss of classic tracks, in countries that have been a part of the sport for decades and have been significant contributors to the art of the automobile, you have no soul. F1 should not be for you.

JR

Is Bernie next? Damn I hope so!

You and most everyone else.

Bernie does not give a chit about racing, its all about the $$$ with him. He canceled Germany and France races because the middle east folks pay him more.

Its past time he retires and we get back to normal engines without all the crap hung all over them and the drivers "throttling" while racing to save gas...