Can the WRC stand any more madness?

Just when we thought the whole thing couldn't get any more insane, a man walked past with a fish on his head. This was followed by a banana sitting down to a tea party shared by other former residents of the fruit bowl. At a slightly safer distance, a lager-fuelled gorilla was forward-rolling his way through the mud.

Madness. They call it madness.

And it was very much in evidence for the past few days in London.

My family and I had a fairly odd few days earlier this week. We joined a few people at the side of a river, stood for hours in the pouring rain and watched some boats go past. Then, having just recovered from the metropolitan equivalent of trench foot, we joined the queue to stand at the junction of the A4 and the A3212 in SW1. A queue that appeared to start somewhere just north of the white cliffs of Dover.

I was not, I hasten to add, driving in my car.

This was one step beyond. Having endured the sun and the rain, this was about to be one better day.

And it was. The Nutty Boys stood on top of the Queen's pile and belted out 'Our House'. In an instant, it became a house of fun. But, there was no doubt, there had been plenty of grade-A, top-drawer bonkers British madness going on in our capital. But, out of all that insanity, there was one person who made complete sense of it all. Love her or loathe her, the Queen remains a mighty impressive figure 60 years into her job.

Why am I sharing this with you?

Because, just before the rain started falling and 1000 boats were cheered by a million voices, I had been writing about the madness that's currently rocking our world.

Unfortunately, on this occasion, Suggs and his mates are nowhere to be seen.

Rally France bosses have expressed their disgust over new event contracts © LAT

Life seems to be one long grey day in the WRC. In fact, you could almost go so far as to say it's an embarrassment.

OK, enough. I'll leave the lyrics alone.

It's true, though. What next for the World Rally Championship? June 15's World Motor Sport Council meeting was supposed to be the marker in the sand for us. We were expecting the calendar - or at least 11 of the expected 12 rounds (Brazil and South Africa vying for the 12th with candidate events later this year) and WRC Commission president Jarmo Mahonen promised there would be news on the new promoter.

And then, a week or so after we discover Nokia and its millions have departed planet WRC, came the proposed contract from the FIA to the events fortunate enough to be considered for inclusion in the 2013 calendar. The rallies were told they would be having to shell out another £80,000 on top of the £112,000 calendar fee they pay to be part of WRC next season. This stings just a little bit more since the loss of North One Sport and the £20,000 contribution Simon Long and his men used to make to the events in exchange for the rallies' television rights.

Understandably to go from paying £92,000 in 2011 (calendar fee minus NOS contribution) to paying £192,000 next year, was not something the events were willing to take lying down. And they didn't.

The governing body of French motorsport (imagine the irony...) wrote to Mahonen and FIA president Jean Todt and told them they wouldn't be signing to contract - largely because of what they saw as the financial implications, but also because of the short space of time the FIA gave them to consider the position (just over a week - the contracts had to be signed and returned by Friday June 8).

It's the penultimate line of the FFSA's note that concerns the most, however: "... if you insist on continuing along this path, we will have no hesitation in calling on the World Motor Sport Council to arbitrate."

Guess who might be called in to arbitrate the Mahonen v events battle... © LAT

I think an advancing tide of grief might just have washed away our line in the sand.

The cash in question is to pay for television production and distribution and the safety timing and tracking on all rounds next season.

But, isn't that what the promoter is supposed to pay for, in return for the television rights to individual rounds (in the same way NOS did)?

This is where the real concern comes. If the FIA is asking the events to pay for this stuff, then does that mean there is no promoter coming for next season?

And now we're at the heart of the problem. Instead of driving the championship forward, we're faced with more and more political intrigue, more questions and more confusion.

Somehow, we have to find a way out of this place we're in right now.

I have faith in Mahonen as our president. He's masterminded the greatest sporting and commercial round of the WRC ever in Rally Finland, but the question is now whether he can do a similar job with the championship as a whole.

The ramifications of that Russian fella's inability to play with a straight bat continue to haunt us.

Here's hoping that, against all odds, June 15 can bring some relief from the seemingly endless bad news that's coming our way. If it doesn't, Mahonen and his cohorts will likely be seen as yesterday's men. And probably packed off on a night boat to Cairo. Madness. They call it madness.