FIA may pull European races from calendar

F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone is embroiled in a row with the European Commission over claims the sport has broken its competition laws.

Ecclestone has threatened to halve the number of races in Europe if the dispute cannot be resolved.

The European Union has published the findings of a two-year preliminary investigation.

Acting competitions commissioner, Karel van Miert, said, 'We have found evidence of serious infringements of EU competition rules which could result in substantial fines.'

F1's governing body, the FIA, has already moved its headquarters to Switzerland to escape the EC.

Now it is threatening to ditch several European races if the commission does not back off.

China, South Africa and Argentina are waiting in the wings, and a number of other countries, including the Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and India have expressed an interest in staging grands prix.

The long-running battle between the EC and the FIA, looks set to rumble on well into the next year.

The FIA can contest the report before the commission reaches its final decision.

After that, the FIA can appeal to the European Court of Justice.

The row has thrown serious doubt on the proposed flotation of F1 on the stock market, which could not happen while this dispute is going on.

The bond issue in which Ecclestone raised £875 million last month has also been called into question.

However, claims that some investors asked for the money they spent on the bond to be returned were denied by lead bank Morgan Stanley in the Wall Street Times last week.

The EC's report contained four main charges against the FIA:

- it uses its power to block series which compete with its own events;
- it has used its power to force a competing series out of the market;
- it uses its power abusively to acquire all the television rights to international motorsports events;
- it and Ecclestone's F1 promotions company FOA protect F1 from competition by tying teams, tracks and broadcasters to restrictive contracts.

The FIA denies all charges.