London: The owner of the Miami Dolphins NFL team is to join up with Qatar in a bid to take over Formula One, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.

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Sports mogul Stephen Ross and his RSE Ventures, backed by Qatar Sports Investments, initially hope to buy 35.5 percent of the holding company that owns F1 from London-based private equity firm CVC Capital and ultimately buy the entire stake, the paper reported.

The aim would be to break the sport in the United States.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone would sell his five percent stake, according to the report.

Team chiefs have said that the sport is close to a crisis as grandstand seats remain increasingly unoccupied and television-viewing figures fall with the races increasingly dominated by a handful of drivers.