FIA moves to safeguard WRC future

The agreement was made at the FIA World Council meeting on Wednesday, according to sources close to the sport's governing body.

The news, coupled with the FIA's statement confirming that the World Motor Sport Council has directed the governing body to finalise negotiations for the appointment of a central promoter for the sport, has given the sport's manufacturers much-needed stability to plan their long-term competition strategies.

It is also hoped that the new regulation framework will entice new car-makers into the WRC arena.

And while the FIA's statement on Wednesday confirmed neither decision officially, both, according to autosport.com's sources, have been agreed in principle.

"The so-called Super 2000-plus plan [set to replace the current WRC rules] for 2010 has been given a green light," sources told autosport.com. "There is some fine-tuning to be done, but that's all that it is. There's agreement on this.

"This is very good news for the sport, it's offering the kind of stability which the sport's future needs."

Ahead of the meeting, the manufacturers participating in the WRC had sought two key decisions. One was a finalised set of 2010 technical regulations and the other, the employment of a global promoter for the sport.

North One Television, the firm which owns International Sportsworld Communicators - the commercial rights owner of WRC - is believed to be the candidate most likely to take on the role of global promoter of the WRC.

The source added: "Their agreement hasn't been confirmed with North One, but I would be surprised if that agreement wasn't reached and rubber-stamped at the next World Council meeting.

"There are still quite a number of details for the FIA and North One to discuss before agreement can be reached. What we do have an agreement on is the need for the promoter - that's something which was confirmed this morning."

Ahead of the meeting, both Citroen and Ford had warned of the possibility of them withdrawing from the WRC, had these decisions not been taken.

Without official confirmation of WMSC decisions, neither manufacturer was willing to comment on the record, but sources within both have confirmed these were the decisions they had hoped for from the meeting.

"There's more work to be done," said a Citroen team member. "But we know what the future is now. We have an idea of what WRC after 2009 will be like. Now we have the information to make some decisions."