Change in ownership not easy: Eddie Jordan

Taking over the controls of Formula One will not be easy according to Eddie Jordan.

The owner of the erstwhile Jordan Grand Prix which operated from 1991 to 2005 and currently the lead analyst of BBC for Formula One, said that the teams would want long-term income assurances if the sport was taken off free to air TV, which is currently guarenteed by the European Union.

Jordan's comments on the BBC website closely follows reports that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation may make a possible bid to take control of the sport. While separate reports indicate that such a bid could end up costing well over 7 billion pounds, the current owners, CVC Capital Partners have already said that the sport is not for sale. It bought the ownership rights in 2005 for 1.8 billion pounds. Read: 'Not for sale'

Jordan or EJ as he is popularly called, said that it is only if News Corporation finds a way around the assurance given to EU to keep the sport on free-to-air tv, that he will take any such possible bid seriously. "The EU has been promised by [commercial rights holder] Bernie Ecclestone in the past, and in the Concorde Agreement, that everything on TV will be free to air."

The Irish futher said that if there was a new Concorde Agreement in place, 'then of course you have a real value.'