FIA releases Mosley letter of defence
The FIA have decided to publicly release a letter of Max Mosley to all FIA club presidents after it had partly leaked into several media. The letter explains Mosley's view on the sex scandal events and his defence against his wanted resignation.
In the light of an extraordinary assembly of the club presidents on June 3, Max Mosley has explained why he feels he should continue until the end of his term in 2009, a moment when he always intended to stop as head of the FIA.
"Following a press publication, I received spontaneous and entirely unsollicited letters from FIA member clubs totalling 85 of our votes. Of these, representatives of 13 clubs stated I should consider my resignation, while the 62 others all urged me to stay. A number of informal communications with club that had not written confirmed an even greater support".
At this time, it is therefore unlikely that Mosley will step down after June 3, much to his own liking. However, the current president explained why he feels he should stay instead of stepping down due to the sex scandal.
"In addition to the obvious need to seek the views of those who elected me, I believe that unless invited to do so by a clear majority of FIA member clubs, it would be impossible, even a breach of duty, to walk away from a number of negotiations currently under way, all of which are of fundamental importance to the FIA."
One of these negotiations is about a renewed Concorde Agreement which effectively governs Formula One. Mosley also stated that if the FIA would not stand firm during these negotiations, it will very much risk control of the sport, which he believes is necessary for its wellbeing.
"In my view, we should only sign a new Concorde Agreement if it reinforces the authority of the FIA and deals properly with the major financial crisis which appears imminent in Formula One. Costs have gone out of control, income is insufficient and major manufacturers are in difficulty with their core businesses. Only with fair and realistic financial arrangements will we avoid losing more teams."
Mosley hereby pointed a difficult situation that current negotiations are in. From the FIA's point of view, it is the FIA that should control the sport, contrary to requests of the teams to get veto right over regulation changes: "The teams and the commercial rights holders should be consulted and listened to at all stages, but it must be the FIA, not the CRH or the teams, which decided the regulations."
The full letter can be downloaded here: http://www.fia.com/resources/documents/ ... ter_gb.pdf
