Grapevine: Premier1 Delays Kickoff for Another Year

The proposed new Premier1 Grand Prix championship, which hopes to appeal to both soccer and motor racing fans, has pushed back its kickoff by another year to 2004.

The series, involving leading soccer clubs with each backing a car in its colours, was originally scheduled to start in July 2002 but was then initially postponed to March 2003.

"Premier1 Grand Prix has revised and confirms its start date as 2004," organisers said in a statement on Thursday. "Several factors have hampered progress in recent months but the process of delivering this bold new series is proceeding with renewed vigour and success.

"The bankruptcy of designated chassis supplier Reynard Cars, the football clubs' attention on the 2002 FIFA World Cup and a reorganisation of Premier1's operational structure and policies have all contributed."

Operations director Robin Webb said Premier1 had closed down their Swiss office and relocated to Britain.

He said the series would involve at least 14 countries throughout Europe, South America and Asia and added final contracts had been agreed "with some of the biggest names in international football".

"Perhaps some sceptics may have thought that the Premier1 program had faded away. But quite the opposite, we have just been getting on with achieving what we need to do in order to put it all in place," said Webb.

Clubs who have announced their participation include England's Leeds United and Chelsea, Portugal's Benfica, Feyenoord of the Netherlands and Belgium's Anderlecht.