Formula 1's biggest scandal
The biggest controversy of the modern F1 era is not happening on track, but in the boardrooms of the sport's owners, argues DIETER RENCKEN
Unfortunately there simply is no polite way of stating this, but the overall implication of the end-2012 financial results lodged by the Formula 1 division of CVC Capital Partners, the investment fund which acquired a majority holding of the sport's commercial rights via a mix of invested capital and leveraged loans back in 2006, borders on the scandalous.
In fact, so blatant is CVC's exploitation of F1 and, by extension, the unbridled passion of the sport's fans, by the entity that acquired the rights purely for short-term gain - as is the wont of such funds - that in the scandal stakes it arguably ranks right up there with the original sale of the sport's commercial rights by the FIA's previous administration for over a century for less than three per cent of their intrinsic value.
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