Ecclestone sells rally rights.

Formula One ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone has relinquished his hold on another asset, by selling the commercial rights to rallying.

According to news agency Reuters, a consortium led by Prodrive boss David Richards agreed to acquire Ecclestone's International Sportsworld Communicators (ISC) operation - which owns the rights - for a sum of around $50million, with the intention of improving the sport's media coverage.

The FIA backed the sale at a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Geneva last week, although talks between Ecclestone and the consortium appeared to have broken down until venture capitalists Apax Partners provided the necessary capital. Apax bought 49 per cent of Prodrive in a deal with Richards last year, although this was initially believed to be the first step on the Banbury concern's road to Formula One.

''It's an exciting development,'' Richards said, ''It had become clear that Bernie didn't want to be involved directly [with rallying], so the answer was [for me] to buy the company. We want to make the most of the commercial aspect of the sport and, at the same time, build on the extraordinary appeal that rallying has all over the world.

''I have been involved at the top level for over 25 years - as a competitor, organiser and team owner - and I firmly believe that the rallying is now ideally placed to benefit from the opportunities of a new media age. It certainly doesn't have any excuses any more.''

Richards promised that there would be no hasty decisions now that he had acquired the rights, but admitted that he had a good idea of where he wanted rallying to be in the future.

''I don't want to make high promises and fall short of them,'' he continued, ''so we're going to take six months to discuss the next step with event organisers and then formulate a plan. But let's just say that I wouldn't have invested such a large sum of money, if I didn't have a fair idea of what comes next.''

The ten-year deal is understood to give Richards' consortium rights to television coverage, sponsorship and licensing of the world championship.