He affirms that he has received support from 20 FIA clubs and representatives of another 50, but the FIA-affiliated ADAC, Germany's national motoring body, has requested he carefully re-consider his position, whilst Holland's KNAF has gone one step further by calling for his outright resignation.
“Recent events involving the leadership of the FIA have been very distressing and embarrassing,” echoed a statement from Yolanda Clark Cade, public relations chief for the American Automobile Association (AAA), published in the
Independent.
“While this matter may be viewed as private by some, the damage to the image of the FIA and its constituents is clearly public. For an organisation – and its leader – to exercise the moral authority required to represent millions of motorists and sanction the activities of motorsport, they must uphold the highest standards of ethical behaviour.
“After careful consideration, AAA has conveyed to Mr Mosley that it would be in the best interest of all concerned if he were to step down.”
Mosley has held the role of FIA President since 1993, and has called an extraordinary general assembly of the Senate to decide his future, though this may not take place until at least July. In a letter sent to the
FIA's members worldwide he insisted he was the ‘victim of a disgusting conspiracy', that the
News of the World had obtained the pictures ‘by illegal means' and that what he had done was ‘harmless and completely legal' [see separate story –
click here].
The
Independent compared the beleagured president to former New York State governor Eliot Spitzer, who frequently assumed the moral high ground until he was exposed as having had liaisons with call girls – a revelation that led to his subsequent resignation last month. The paper also recalled to memory comments Mosley had made at the height of the ‘Spygate' scandal last summer.
