Another group of FIA member clubs has written to the governing body’s president Mohammed Ben Sulayem recommending legal action over allegations made against him.
The FIA Ethics Committee investigated and cleared Ben Sulayem last month over two allegations of inappropriate interference during Formula 1 race weekends. Since then the sport’s governing body has published three letters sent to the president from groups of the clubs which constitute its membership.The third letter, published today, was sent by representatives of 27 member clubs in the Middle East and North Africa region and the FIA’s sub-region for the Arab Council of Touring and Automobile Clubs.
The signatories said they “condemn, and at the same time [are] profoundly disappointed with, the unjust and relentless attempt to undermine the integrity of the FIA leadership by such unfaithful allegations to serve narrow personal agendas.”
“We strongly encourage the FIA administration to initiate legal actions against those responsible for those allegations against the FIA president,” they added.
An earlier letter sent by 33 member clubs representing the North and South Americas made a similar statement. A subsequent letter from 13 European member clubs stopped short of calling for legal action but said the allegations against the president were showed the Ethics Committee should be reviewed “so that this legitimate body cannot be misused anymore by third parties against the interests of our organisation.”
Ben Sulayem wrote to FIA members in March telling them he was the target of “attacks aimed at my character and our organisation as a whole” and “the ultimate goal of these reprehensible acts was to target me and to weaken the very essence of the FIA.” The FIA represents 242 motoring and motor sport clubs worldwide.
Following the Ethics Committee’s decision, Formula 1 CEO Susie Wolff announced she was beginning legal action against the FIA over an investigation into her and her husband, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, which commenced and was swiftly dropped in December last year.
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Letter from 27 MENA and ACTAS member clubs to FIA
Statement regarding the false allegations against the FIA President Mr. Mohammad Ben Sulayem:
The FIA Members for Sport for MENA Region and ACTAC Sub-Region were deeply concerned regarding the claims against the FIA President Mr. Mohammed Ben Sulayem of potential interference in sporting decisions during Formula One events in 2023.
Knowing that Mr. Mohammed Ben Sulayem has been committed to promoting transparency within the FIA since he was elected president of the FIA, his full co-operation with the FIA Ethics Committee and the Compliance department during the 30 days of investigations is highly regarded.
The Ethics Committee were unanimous in their determination that there was no evidence to substantiate allegations of interference of any kind involving the FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem and strong evidence beyond any reasonable doubt was presented to support the determination of the FIA Ethics Committee.
The FIA President was cleared of any wrongdoing regarding allegations to have interfered with the Stewards’ decision at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2023 and cleared of any wrongdoing regarding allegations to have attempted to interfere with the track certification process for the Las Vegas Grand Prix 2023.
The FIA Members for Sport for MENA Region and ACTAC Sub-Region condemn, and at the same time profoundly disappointed with the unjust and relentless attempt to undermine the integrity of the FIA Leadership by such unfaithful allegations to serve narrow personal agendas, and we strongly encourage the FIA administration to initiate legal actions against those responsible for those allegations against the FIA President.
We are confident that Mr. Mohammed Ben Sulayem will continue to serve the FIA and its Members in a transparent manner implementing the FIA Code of Ethics as top priority.
We also would like to assert our support to Mr. Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s leadership of the FIA and will continue our co-operation with him in his efforts to serve and develop the FIA and its Members.
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Bonbonjai
19th April 2024, 13:28
This starting to look like a me too moment.
Nick T.
19th April 2024, 13:54
More like the people MBS’ payroll are urging him.
anon
19th April 2024, 14:14
Nick T., certainly, the fact that the clubs that wrote this letter are either explicitly politically aligned with him or, in some cases, owe their existence to Sulayem creating and running those organisations in the first place, is not going to dissuade people from thinking that this is either about getting favours from Sulayem down the line, or organisations being “encouraged” to support Sulayem.
Nick T.
20th April 2024, 2:04
You mean the Trinidad & Tobago’s Race Club isn’t a legit grassroots orgs? ; )
Nick T.
19th April 2024, 13:54
people on*
notagrumpyfan
19th April 2024, 14:04
This smells more every day.
Scaring people away from lodging complaints via the proper channels fully undermines the whole idea of having an independent ethics committee and/or whistleblower process.
MichaelN
19th April 2024, 14:27
By claiming ‘unfaithful allegations to serve narrow personal agendas’, which is not dissimilar to earlier statements by other members, it’s pretty clear everyone in the know, knows what is happening. It doesn’t give us, those not in the know, much to go on though.
But abusing the ethics process is not OK, and a highly cynical move. Did that happen? We can’t say. But if so many FIA member organizations feel that outside parties are attempting to undermine the organization, the list of suspected groups or individuals who might wish to do so isn’t that long.
On a no doubt entirely unrelated note; the Concorde Agreement runs out in 2025. Before the next FIA presidential election. And it’s no surprise where MBS and his administration stand on this.
anon
19th April 2024, 17:25
MichaelN, except there is nothing in any of the statements by the FIA ethics committee claiming that the person who raised the complaint was deliberately abusing the ethics process. The only parties that have made accusations that there was any sort of abuse are the political allies of Sulayem – those who were actually involved in the process itself have made no such allegations.
MichaelN
19th April 2024, 20:17
That’s an impossible ask. The Ethics Committee cannot make statements.
What they did state is that “allegations against the FIA president were unsubstantiated and strong evidence beyond any reasonable doubt was presented to support the determination”. That’s not a ‘dismissal’ Horner-style, that’s full on cleared, with an added undertone that’s about as peeved as a panel of this nature can be.
The ‘political allies’ are the member organisations, among whom MBS enjoys widespread support. He was overwhelmingly elected to advance an agenda that said members support. It’s not like he was installed by someone else and the members are trying to win his favour.
Des Mo
19th April 2024, 14:47
Brown nosers queue here….
Steve
19th April 2024, 15:32
The FIA needs to be scrapped and a new, fair number non corrupt organisation needs to be created to replace and NONE of the current FIA members should be invited to join it, especially Ben Sulayem. The current FIA is more about the generation of funds which ch go into the FIA members banks instead of supporting grass roots sports. The FIA should only being paying itself industry standards not the massive funds they receive either legally or as Bribes. I do not believe the current FIA is there for the good of motorsports.
I addition I believe That the FIA are allowing liberty media way too much control over F1 and now Motogp and it’s sub sports, the path of com in bing race meetings for motogp and F1 to take place during the same week is not only a stupid move but it will move the already prohibitively cost of attending F1 or motogp outside f the range of the ordinary motor sports fan with two la he scale events occurring at the same time and location the cost of travel, food, accommodation and attendance fees will be crazy.
Instead of allowing Liberty Media to be one a holbwl motorsport monopoly we she all be focused on getting rid of this self serving money hungry monster. And, a way of doing that is to create replacement championships eg. Replace F1 with IFP independent Forunla Prime and Motogp RBP race Bike Prime they would be the same as the formulas they supercede and most important not under the control of FIA or LM. Obviously my race names are a bit naff but you get the intent. We need to wrest control of motorsports back to the people away from corrupt and untrustworthy oversight organisations and corporations that are strip mining motorsports and fans for every penny they can get. Bernice was bad, but I’d prefer to see him in charge of F1 that. LM any day
So with that my first attempt at hashtags, #DeleteFIA, won’t be able to see it not used twtter(X) since Musk acquired it.
anon
19th April 2024, 17:37
Steve, what’s with the rants about the FIA “allowing Liberty Media too much control over MotoGP”? The governing body for MotoGP is the International Motorcycling Federation, or FIM, which is an entirely independent organisation.
The FIA does not have any role in the governance of motorcycle racing – if anything, your post comes across as being very arrogant and quite ignorant in assuming that the FIA has the right to order an independent organisation around.
SteveP
19th April 2024, 15:59
Excellent idea. Bring all the accusations and counter-accusations out into open court. Transparency, that’s what we need.
However, I’m not totally convinced that open disclosure of both sides is quite what MBS and supporters would wish, as these open letters seem to be a stream of “that stuff we don’t talk about that they accused you of, well we say we support the idea of you taking it to court”
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
19th April 2024, 22:01
Considering the lawyers that are involved, all these clubs pre-judging the matter look highly inadvisable.