Max Mosley, the embattled FIA President, has answered back in quick fashion to a letter sent to him by many member clubs asking for his resignation. Here it is:
Dear Presidents
Thank you for your letter of 28 May.
I will use your numbering in this reply.
1. I did not accept the proposal from some (but not, as you incorrectly suggest, all) members of the Mobility World Council because it was the worst possible solution. I would have resigned, yet still spent the summer carrying out all the day-to-day work with neither the time nor the authority to complete the major outstanding tasks. Better to stop immediately than accept this muddled compromise.
Your suggestion of a “crisis” is nonsense. Although I am personally embarrassed and greatly regret that this affair has become public, no one fails to call for roadside assistance because of it.
As I said in my earlier letters, the communications I received from club presidents were overwhelmingly in favour of my remaining as president. I therefore had no choice but to submit the question to the FIA membership as a whole. I certainly could not have simply ignored the majority and resigned.
2. Some of the larger clubs among those who have signed your letter have previously contradicted their claimed commitment to the FIA. See the sample responses of the AAA, ADAC, ANWB, JAF, and TCS to the FIA Survey of 5 February 2008 attached. These same clubs have, of course, been trying to change the structure of the FIA since well before the events they now seek to exploit.
As stated in my letter of 23 May, several of these same clubs have formed groups separate from the FIA from which the wider FIA membership is excluded. Worse, they have obstructed our efforts to improve cooperation between all clubs. Combined with a complete lack of transparency, I believe these activities are contrary to the interests of the FIA.
3. Mr Ecclestone is willing to continue working with the FIA because he has a binding contract to do so. In his letter to the clubs, he says he is now willing to live with this contract. That is a sudden and major change in position.
Together with other member clubs of the FIA you will be free to express your views to the Assembly next Tuesday.
In the interest of transparency, I am sending a copy of your letter together with this reply to all the member clubs of the FIA.
Yours sincerely
Max Mosley
