Mohammed Ben Sulayem set to remain FIA president after Mayer denied by arcane law

8 hours ago 2

Mohammed Ben Sulayem will stand unopposed for another term as the FIA president after it emerged the last remaining candidate who was preparing to run against motor sport’s divisive global leader will not be mounting a challenge due an arcane election rule.

Tim Mayer, a former FIA senior steward with 15 years in the role until he was sacked last November, was one of three candidates who had announced they would oppose Ben Sulayem, alongside the former racing driver Laura Villars and the Belgian journalist Virginie Philpott.

None of them, however, are able to meet the FIA requirements for the election process. Mayer is expected to formally announce the end of his campaign in Austin on Friday , the Guardian understands, where he will make clear the reasons behind it and his assessment of the current electoral process.

The regulation in question requires that any presidential candidate submit six prospective vice-presidents for sport, one from each of the FIA’s global regions.

Extraordinarily, the person who has unwittingly found themselves at the heart of the issue is the former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone’s wife, the Brazilian Fabiana Ecclestone, who is the only world council representative for South America and has already declared for Ben Sulayem.

With no other representatives from South America, candidates cannot name a potential vice-president for the region and are thus ineligible to stand, leaving Ben Sulayem unopposed in December’s election.

It is believed Mayer will nonetheless continue to campaign in order to demonstrate that he would have been a credible alternative.

Recently Ben Sulayem has come under increased criticism surrounding the issue of governance of the FIA, including accusations of a concentration of power in his hands and that of the senate and in limiting the efficacy of the ethics committee that would allow enquiries to be suppressed by the president.

David Richards, the chair of Motorsport UK, noted he had “concerns about the erosion of accountability and good governance within the FIA”. While the former deputy president for sport Robert Reid, who resigned in April, cited his unhappiness with “critical decisions being made without due process” and a “fundamental breakdown in governance standards”.

Read Entire Article
IDX | INEWS | SINDO | Okezone |