It reminds me of a few years ago when it was rumoured that MSA licence holders who took part in non-MSA events may have had their licence cancelled for so doing.
That, of course, may just have been paddock BS!"
"...That was never true Jasper and ITP was correct."
As I was the one running the Motors TV series that this "rumour" applied to, I can assure both of you that it was certainly NOT a rumour, but an absolute fact that the MSA threatened drivers that they would lose their licences if they raced in the series I was promoting. They actually promoted this fact by referring to their own rule on their website... and officials made this statement to drivers directly. I personally paid a substantial amount of money to lawyers to protect drivers' licences...
The MSA's threats fell foul of existing case law (WPBSA v Steven Hendry) where the WPBSA threatened snooker players with losing their licences if they attended an event to be held in China. The MSA were eventually forced to remove the threat from their website and stop officials from getting involved in making such claims not only to the drivers, but officials running my events.
The interesting aspect of all this for today? It was the start of clubs being able to operate IKR and MSA meetings at the same venues, which today is the norm around the UK. At that time it was unheard of.
The MSA's position all revolved around the fact that the Motors TV Series as a non MSA event was to be be filmed, where the Super 1 British Champs at the time were not. I actually had a meeting to discuss holding it as an MSA series, where their representative at the meeting suggested the following...
"You know the X factor?"
"Yes"
"Well, the Chairman thought... how about running it not as a championship, but a series of individual rounds where the viewers vote on who they think was the best driver..."
Yep, I kid you not... that was their actual plan to stop it becoming "a championship". I will not tell you what I said in reply.
The interesting comparison now will be what happens with the UKC after their announcement that the UKC is not just on Sky Sports... But Sky Sports F1... an absolute game changer for the sport. If MSUK try and stop that... after stating one of the reasons they have taken over the British Champs was to "promote the sport in ways it hasn't been before"... it would not only prove that statement to be false, but a restriction of trade where the UKC is concerned, as they would be abusing their position of dominance, not just as the governing body, but as a governing body who 12 months ago awarded themselves the status of a British Championship, and would now be trying to restrict the success of a direct, championship organising competitor, with Sky Sports F1 broadcast exposure.
If they have made a direct approach to Sky Sports F1 to object that the UKC is "not affilliated to MSUK or the FIA", and SSF1 withdraw their broadcast agreement, UKC will probably have a case akin to Virgin Airways v British Airways. If MSUK have got the FIA to approach SSF1 to try and stop it happening, that would in all likelihood be a far more serious cartel case between the MSUK/FIA cartel and UKC, where UKC is not only undercutting them on price, but doing it with far greater broadcast exposure for their series, and the sport as a whole.
It probably would make a lot more sense for MSUK to work with UKC rather than fight them, and let UKC run the official British Champs in 2021, assuming they continue with their backer who is funding the Greenlight broadcast production costs of around £15k, perhaps more, per round. Problem with that is that if the backer ever pulls out, then the issue would be how to replace him.
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