Motorsport body gives green light to £500m World Rally auction

World motorsport's governing body will this week give its public backing to an auction of the commercial rights to the World Rally Championship (WRC).

Sky News understands that the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) will endorse a tender process as Red Bull and KW25, the existing rights-holders, seek an exit with seven years remaining on their deal. Red Bull and German investment company KW25 have been exploring a sale of the asset for close to a year, and have held talks with interested parties, including the private equity firm EQT, Sky News revealed in June.

The impending exit of Red Bull may fuel speculation about the future of its other motorsport interests, and comes in the wake of Christian Horner's tumultuous departure as the team principal of F1's Red Bull Racing. Money latest: Chef's top supermarket sandwich A sale could value the WRC commercial rights entity, which is called WRC Promoter, and also owns rights to the European Rally Championship, at close to £500m.

The WRC has seen broadcast and in-person audiences grow in recent years, with a 1.3bn cumulative television audience and more than four million attendees at races last year. The next round of this year's Championship takes place next week in Paraguay.

The tender process comes amid a strengthening of the FIA's operational and financial performance under president Mohammed Ben Sulayem. It recently struck a €20m decade-long extension to Liberty Global's deal to run the Formula E electric car-racing series.

Talks with Formula One's management about a new commercial rights deal are expected to result in a revised version of the sport's Concorde Agreement before the end of the year. Read more:Christian Horner says Red Bull sacking 'a shock'Christian Horner sacked by F1 team Red Bull Structured as a not-for-profit body, the FIA has turned a deficit of €24m in 2021, the year that Mr Ben Sulayem was elected, into a surplus of close to €5m last year.

"The FIA World Rally Championship is at an exciting moment in its history.