Beleaguered
FIA president
Max Mosley has said that he intends to continue in office until the end of his current term after receiving more support than opposition following his recent exposure on the front page of British tabloid newspaper.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Britain's
Sunday Telegraph, Mosley insisted that he had no intention of stepping down under the cloud of a sex scandal, but admitted that he would probably walk away from the role of president on the completion of his 16th year in office next year.
While he may yet have no option but to go - his future will be decided at an extraordinary meeting of the FIA general assembly on 3 June - Mosley claims to have had substantially more letters of support than he has had calls to quit.
"If they wish me to continue, I will continue; if they don't, I'll stop," Mosley, who will address the meeting in Paris, said, "But I will also say to them that it was always my intention that I was never going to go beyond 2009. The reason's very simple. If you stop in 2009, aged 69, you can maybe still do something else useful. Were I to stay on until I was 73, I'd be getting very marginal."
While much has been made about the various votes of no confidence issued by various motoring clubs and individuals around the world, Mosley insists that he has also received a great deal of backing to remain in office from those who share his belief that private affairs should not affect his role.
"The fundamental reason [that there has been no resignation] is that the people who elected me, the presidents of all these clubs worldwide, a number of them have written, and for every letter I've had from a club president saying 'I think you should step down' or 'I think you should consider your position', I've had seven, slightly more than seven, who said 'you've absolutely got to stay, don't give an inch'," he revealed.
