This is an update to:
Max Mosley Sends Letter To All FIA Club Presidents
The embattled FIA president’s attempts to shore up his position ahead of a confidence vote in Paris on June 3 have been going from one stumbling block to the next.
Mosley will be in Monaco this weekend, where he lives, to make his first appearance at a race since the UK’s News of the World newspaper reported that he was in an orgy with five prostitutes that involved Nazi role-playing.
The newspaper’s original revelations were given added spice—something one would have thought nigh on impossible—at the weekend by British newspaper reports that an MI5 spy had been forced to resign after bosses discovered his wife was one of the prostitutes involved in the orgy.
Writing in a letter released at the weekend, he warns FIA members that it could lose its already loose grip on the sport if he is forced out.
In other parts of the letter—not widely reported—Mosley directly addressed the question of his resignation.
He also reiterated that “almost all” of his public duties would be fulfilled by his two deputy presidents, giving him the time to progress the current negotiations and safeguard the FIA’s fundamental interests.
UPDATE: May 21, 2008 06:23 am
Bernie Ecclestone has warned Max Mosley, the disgraced president of the FIA, that if he wants a war over the future of Formula One, Ecclestone and his business partners will fight him. Ecclestone said that he hoped that a recent letter sent by Mosley to the presidents of all the FIA member clubs that was sharply critical of Ecclestone, even if it did not name him, was not intended as a declaration of hostilities.
“I sincerely hope that it isn’t a declaration of war because, if that’s what the message should be, then we’ll have to defend ourselves,” Ecclestone said. “That is what anyone would do. I don’t believe that’s what Max wanted the letter to say. I don’t want to have a war with Max. I hope he doesn’t want one with me.”
Ecclestone also refuted Mosley’s claims that the vote of confidence early next month is an attack on the FIA as a whole, stressing that the meeting has been called for one reason - and one reason alone.
“This whole business is really about what was printed in the News of the World and whether this in any way damaged the FIA clubs or the FIA - that’s all,” he underlined.
“It’s nothing to do with anything else, and I don’t quite know why he’s come out and said these things. I am sorry if the press have reported things which he doesn’t like, but we certainly don’t have any influence over the FIA.
“I think the General Assembly of the FIA was called for one reason only - to decide whether or not they think Max is the right person to be their president. The vote will be on that, not about the Concorde Agreement.”
Ecclestone dismissed each point. He said that the idea that Formula One is in crisis is ridiculous. “I don’t see any problems up until a couple of months ago,” he said in reference to the News of the World revelations.
Mosley is planning to visit the Formula One paddock in Monte Carlo this week, his first public appearance since the scandal broke. Ecclestone said that he had no problem with this and he believes that it is a big enough event not to be overshadowed by Mosley’s presence. “Monaco is Monaco and the race has been there an awful long time,” he said. “I don’t know what would distract anybody from that.”
| 
| 