The WRC stand-off has to end

I wasn't alone. The scene was straight out of the mind of Alfred Hitchcock. And then, out of the mist, it arrived. Momentarily, we stood. Rooted. Staring at each other. Him taking me in and me unable to focus on anything other than the size of his horns.

Rooted.

Running.

Fortunately, the Highland cow in question elected to finish off a largely grass-based lunch rather than give chase. His view might have been slightly less sanguine had he known I'd tucked into a large quantity of one of his colleagues the night before.

I found my way back to the car. The view could wait for another day. And, anyway, this was the Inner Hebrides in April, so the view was largely obscured by low cloud. And here, low cloud is around knee height.

Just a day after landing from the last round of the World Rally Championship in Portugal, I was on a boat out of Oban, bound for Mull. I was out to follow Mull Rally chiefs Iain Campbell and Andy Jardine for an insight into what it takes to put on one of only two closed-public road rallies in the season (the other being the Jim Clark).

Rally fans have stayed loyal to their sport © McKlein

I've always been a huge fan of Mull and its roads. It's impossible not to be. But, I have to be honest, post-Portugal, I could have done without a dash up and around the Highlands and Islands. Or so I thought.

Portugal had taken its toll. Political discord in global sport is a given, but when it's sufficiently rampant to be talked about more than the sport itself, something has to give. Trouble is, neither the manufacturers nor the firm charged with promoting the sport, namely WRC Promoter, looks ready to give right now.

In Faro, we saw the promoter put the metaphorical gun to the teams' head on Friday - when video footage wasn't supplied - only for those roles to be reversed the following morning when Volkswagen, Citroen, M-Sport and Hyundai turned their combined guns on the WRC Promoter. The statement was clear: "Our drivers won't talk to you, until you give us the footage. And without our drivers, you've got no product."

This 'misunderstanding' was straightened out in a 20-minute meeting between stages on Saturday. The drivers would be back in front of the cameras and the footage would be up on the teams' websites that night. Happy days.

As is always the case following a big news week, it's hard not to drag one's mind away from the story. In Portugal, I had tried to play devil's advocate with the teams over the improved state of the TV coverage this year.

The manufacturers played hardball in Portugal © McKlein

"The television is better," I ventured. "We have live and we have good coverage in the UK."

Oops. Would appear I might have touched a nerve.

Turns out, according to the other side, Citroen's signing of Kris Meeke and M-Sport's signing of Elfyn Evans sorted television out in the UK. Without those two, TV coverage would have been as woeful (for woeful read non-existent on round one) as last season.

In for a penny...

"But does it really matter," I ventured, naively with afterthought, "how the TV gets sorted, as long as people can watch it?"

Volkswagen's big-bucks spending eased the Polo R WRC into German households last season just as the brace of Brits back at the top sealed the BT Sport deal in the UK this year. And these are two of the success stories, according to the teams, that WRC Promoter routinely trumpets.

What the teams want is to get past the television, past the apparently impressive Facebook numbers or the shiny new website and into the future. They want to know where we're going. They want to know how we're going to get there and they want to know who's paying the bus fare to take us.

The FIA awarded Red Bull Media House and The Sportsman Media Group a 10-year global promotion deal for the WRC. The new company, WRC Promoter, stepped out last season and immediately announced it would be taking stock. It needed time for feet to be found. Fair enough.

Feet found, the manufacturers say nothing has changed. We've gone nowhere.

One senior source well versed in the commerce of the world championship laid out a fag-packet business plan, which, quite frankly, looked frightening.

The WRC needs investment © McKlein

"A sensible financial forecast," the fag packet owner revealed, "is to be starting to turn profits at the end of the 10-year agreement.

"What's needed now is five years' consistent and high-level investment into the WRC.

"You have to build value into a product before you try to sell the arse out of it. Five years, you're looking to really hit the market hard with a top-level series that's got massive manufacturer interest, is in the right regions and is knocking out a blinding conventional and new media offering.

"Get that right and the promoter will have investors and potential local rights holders knocking their door down in a decade. Get it wrong and we're doomed."

And how's that scenario playing out?

The response isn't really one for a family-oriented website. Reading between the lines, I think fag packet might be of the belief that we're slightly wide of his perfectly perceived investment structure.

The good news is, we have a staging post. Both sides will meet before the end of this month to find some common ground. And if the teams don't like it, then... who knows?

Teams want answers from the promoting company © McKlein

Should we feel sympathy for the promoter? Potentially, yes. There are those of the opinion that the promoter has taken on the shop only to be told exactly what it can and can't sell. For many, the FIA's World Rally Championship officials need to take a lead from Formula 1, where the divide between sporting governance and commercial affairs couldn't be clearer.

Back on Mull, we'd come across a couple of rally fans. Spotting Campbell's Mull Rally jacket, they zone in and offer a view or two on the state of our world.

Again, a tidied-up resumé is probably best here: make it better and make it more like it used to be.

It was hard to argue. So I didn't. It was just a shame that brief discussion took me back to the problems of Portugal and away from the magic of Mull. If you have a rally car, you should be duty bound to fit some slicks and take the boat to Craignure in October. And if you're a fan watching one rally this year, make it Mull - you won't regret it.

And with that, the takeaway end of the Toberymory distillery beckoned. But the similes kept on coming. The Tobermory 10 single malt, the assistant told me, is a very good use of 10 years.

Know anybody who needs a plan for 10 years?