FIA Ari Vatanen to run for FIA Presidency

Bernie Ecclestone is also backing Todt.

Bernie Ecclestone said:
"I have known Jean for many years," Ecclestone said. "He is a most reliable, gifted and trustworthy person. He is determined and dedicated to whatever goals he sets himself and I admire and respect him greatly for everything he has achieved.

"The FIA needs a president that is strong, capable and with experience at the highest levels of motorsport. Jean is by far the most knowledgeable and capable candidate for this vitally important role. I hope everybody will support his candidacy."
[bg=#E3001A]Autosport[/bg] Ecclestone backs Todt's campaign
 
Or as the rest of the world would see it, he has brought more shame on F1 as a team owner than any of the other associated cretins that have taken the role. It was under his orders that Barrichello moved aside for his teammate at the A1-Ring in 2002 and in 2006. It was his stubbornness that ensured there would be no compromise at the 2005 United States Grand Prix, alienating an entire continent.

Like I say, he's perfect for the job.
 
Max is at it again..

The contest to succeed Max Mosley as president of motorsport's ruling body, the FIA, has descended into outright hostility after a letter from the incumbent denigrated the challenger, Ari Vatanen, in less than diplomatic language

Mosley sent the letter to a senior figure in motorsport in the Middle East, effectively warning Ari Vatanen and his associates they have made enemies of "the FIA membership".

The letter to Prince Faisal, a senior member of Jordan's royal family who is a close adviser to Vatanen's campaign, was introduced to a conference of motorsport governing bodies in Amman.

Responding to Vatanen – who is opposing Mosley's favoured candidate, Jean Todt – and his claims of FIA "autocracy", Mosley wrote: "Any thoughts that after this election everyone in motorsport can unite and work together can now be forgotten. It is not possible to make statements like Vatanen's and then expect the victims of those insults to forget what has been said. The simple fact is that Vatanen will lose the election and lose badly, not least because he chose to denigrate the FIA and those currently in office."
Is this the sort of behaviour that should be tolerated from the President of the FIA?
Who does Max answer to?

Max Mosley savages potential replacement in controversial letter
 
Even though occasionally I can understand where Max is coming from, and support a fair number of his actions from the past, there is no way to avoid the fact that he is an ar#e!
 
I'm actually delighted by this. It means that not only is Max worried that Ari will win but he's also scored another PR own goal for the Todt campaign.
 
In the FIA-branded document dated 28 September, Mosley alleged that Vatanen's campaign "has been marked by untruthful claims" and "has now descended to insults such as his recent statements... that the entire FIA system is unfair, autocratic and unjust".
From BBC Sport

Well, it is!

"If the election is a foregone conclusion, there is no need to write such a letter."

Thankyou, Mr. Vatanen, why the hell would anyone want to vote for Yoda?
 
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As you predicted c_a_t...

Outraged at the insulting tone of Mosley's letter to a member of the Jordan royal family, it is said that most of the Arabic motoring officialdom now stridently back Vatanen.

A resolution at the conference, reportedly snubbed by Mosley due to Vatanen's attendance, calls for an independent body to oversee the FIA election on October 23.

"In the interests of democracy, transparency and integrity, we must be sure that this election is held in a fair and open environment through a secret ballot and under close third party supervision," Jordan's Prince Faisal said in a statement.

In another statement issued late on Friday, the FIA said both Vatanen and Todt can each nominate election scrutineers, with the entire process "overseen, as usual, by a huissier de justice (a French state-appointed public witness)."

The Ugandan motor racing official Jack Wavamunno, meanwhile, claims he was "pressurised" through the means of "threats" by Todt supporters to drop his support for Vatanen.
Let's hope this is the end of Mosley and his lackeys.
There is something very unpleasant about the whole set up and Mosley should not be using his position in this way to influence the result.

FIA members call for independent observers
 
This is very interesting and worrying.

Vatanen says he sought to clarify suggestions that the election Mosley is overseeing will involve the 210 FIA voters receiving ballot papers in named envelopes. Vatanen told those at Sportel that when he recommended that, in the interests of transparency, ballot papers should be distributed at random, Mosley escorted the Finn smartly to the door of his office, with the exclamation: "I am not arguing with you."
Why are the ballot papers in named envelopes?

Why do the FIA need to know which organisaton voted for who?

Something stinks about this whole thing.

FIA president Max Mosley fast-tracks Ari Vatanen … out of his office
 
I presume this is so that the ballot papers are sent to the correct 210 supporters of a Mr J Todt. Wouldn't want the wrong man to get the job now would we?

Any one got a number for the united nations. I don't know about the middle east but I think there's an election in Paris that could do with some independant observers.
 
This election should be stopped now as it's clear there is too much bias from the existing FIA members in favour of Jean Todt.

The race to replace Max Mosley as president of the FIA has already been subject to claims of partisanship by Mosley himself, who has publicly declared his preference for former Ferrari team principal Todt over Ari Vatanen, the Finnish former world rally champion, in the vote on Oct 23.

But the emails, seen by Telegraph Sport, reveal that both Peter Doggwiler, the FIA's director general, region 1, and David Ward, director general of the FIA Foundation, have been actively lobbying on behalf of the Frenchman.

In one email, dated Sept 1 and written from his FIA email account, Doggwiler, who also chairs the Motor Sport Safety Development fund, which disburses large amounts of money on behalf of the FIA, implores key Todt sympathisers from motoring clubs around the world to "intensify your calls among the smaller clubs and the motorsport clubs in particular".

Doggwiler concludes: "I will send an updated lobbying list to those of you where changes have occurred and I will call you this week to see where we are so I can make an adequate report to Jean [Todt]."
Doesn't the FIA have to abide by some sort of rules and a code of conduct?
Surely this sort of thing is illegal in some way?

Edit, just seen this bit:

It is believed there is nothing in the FIA statutes which rules out employees lobbying on behalf of a candidate during elections, but French law would apply. Oliver Hunt, a partner at Onside Law, a leading sports law practice, believes the behaviour of Mosley, Doggwiler and Ward may constitute a "breach of neutrality".

"I'm not qualified in French law but my understanding of the basic legal requirements for any election process in France is that there is an overriding duty of neutrality," he said. "That is stated to be the case for non-profit organisations such as the FIA." The FIA was unavailable for comment.

FIA presidency battle erupts into new row as leaked emails show support for Jean Todt

FIA officials lobby for Todt
 
Given Max's family heritage it's not suprising that the idea of a free and democratic election is something of a mystery to him. Assuming Todt wins I wonder if we will end up seeing legal action from Vatanen about all of the dis-information being bandied about and arm twisting that appears to be going on?
 
I'm not a europhile but the EU justice system has it's uses and I think it would love to get it's teeth in to a case like this.

Employment law in France and in Europe for that matter is an extremely complex buisness and I believe if it all goes pair shaped for the Vatanen campaign, with the amount of questions over the conduct of this election I think the European courts would make mincemeat of it.
 
Well Ari has stepped it up by "applying to the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris for it to impose measures on the FIA to ensure that next week's presidential election is fair and transparent."

Vatanen seeks court help for election

Full letter from Ari to Max here and below: FIA election: Ari Vatanen letter to Max Mosley in full

[box=400]Re: Election to the Presidency of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile

Mr President:

I believe it is my obligation to officially state that the campaign for the Presidency of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile is not taking place in accordance with the principle of neutrality which should apply.

The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile is a non-profit organisation with its headquarters in Paris, France and is governed by French law.

Pursuant to French law, the operation of non-profit organisations is governed by general legal principles.

Among these general principles, applicable to elections, the principle of equality among all candidates is enshrined in the French Constitution and the corollary to this principle of equality is the principle of neutrality which all persons must adopt who due to their position have a particular influence on voters.

The breach of this principle of neutrality during election campaigns, when aimed at distorting the results of the election, is punishable by all of the French Courts.

This is why the rulings of the highest Administrative Court - the French Council of State - have constantly punished the violation of the principle of neutrality in connection with the election of Members of the French Parliament, Regional Councils, Municipal Counsels and the Senate.

The French Court of Cassation has ruled likewise in a great number of decisions handed down, in particular those decisions rendered in connection with elections for Trade Representatives, Members of Works' Councils and Employee Representatives.

The obligation of neutrality must be complied with, not only by those persons whose positions allow them to influence voters, but also by any person or organisation in a position of subordinate, supplier, advisor or having a "common interest".

In the current campaign for the election of the President of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the principle of neutrality has been flouted constantly by the FIA, certain paid staff members, and the employees of certain organisations dependent on the FIA which use the funds made available by the FIA, such as the FIA Foundation for example.

However, you were the first to violate the principle of neutrality.

Indeed, whereas I announced last 11 July that I was running as a candidate for the Presidency of the FIA, you sent an official letter shortly thereafter on 15 July to all of the Members of the FIA in which you state your intention not to stand for re-election and in which you openly express your support for the candidacy of Jean Todt who moreover, had not yet even officially announced that he was running for the office of President.

More recently, you have continued to show your favouritism towards Jean Todt, as last 23 September you gave an interview to journalists, which was reported in the press, according to which you stated, inter alia:

"For the Formula 1 Teams, Jean Todt would be a role model of integrity if he is elected as the President of the FIA...

He (Jean Todt) will ensure that everything operates like clockwork and is completely fair, honest, open and transparent and that is what you need."

Even worse, you sent a letter on 28 September to Prince Faisal of Jordan, which you knew perfectly well would be reported by the press, in which you made defamatory statement against me and in which you did not hesitate to claim that:

"Vatanen will lose the election and will lose badly, particularly as he has chosen to denigrate the FIA and the persons currently in power, rather than to lead a constructive and civilized election campaign."

In addition, certain staff members of the FIA and other organisations related to the FIA have participated in the campaign in favour of Mr. Todt, by making statements, paying visits and sending letters, etc.

For example, the Secretary General for Automobile Mobility and Tourism was seen together with Mr. Nick Craw, candidate for the Presidency of the FIA Senate on the list presented by Mr. Jean Todt when Mr. Nick Craw was on the campaign trail to visit a member club of the AAA, which is a Member of the FIA and will be partaking in the vote.

Moreover, the General Director of the FIA Foundation participated in this capacity in designing Mr. Jean Todt's election campaign.

Likewise, the General Director of Region I has been using FIA resources to engage in on-going lobbying to influence numerous stakeholders in favour of Mr. Jean Todt.

I naturally am in possession of all of the evidence to support the reality of the facts stated above.

Under these conditions, I request that you stop and that you ensure that staff members on the payroll of the FIA and organisations which depend financially on the FIA stop these practices which up until now have constituted a violation of the principle of equality among candidates to the Presidency of the FIA.

In addition, I further reserve all right to take action on account of the act previously committed against me.

Yours sincerely,

Ari Vatanen[/quote]
 
I saw Ari being interviewed on the BBC's news channel this evening.

He was asked whether he thought the election was going to be a secret ballot, and his answer was that, earlier in the week he hadn't thought so, but now he was confident that it would be.

So perhaps there has been some compromise or climbdown somewhere.
 
Well just yesterday we were told the ballot papers were in named enevelopes but reading the FIA links it would seem they are now plain envelopes so perhaps that is the change he's referring to?

Either way, this whole affair hasn't exactly shown the FIA in a good light.
 
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