- Richards says being asked to sign NDA was akin to a “gagging order”
- Motorsport UK chair supported Ben Sulayem’s candidacy in 2021 due to promises to be a “hands-off president”
Motorsport UK chair David Richards has accused International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Mohammed Ben Sulayem of broken promises.
Richards was recently barred from taking part in a meeting of the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council, which meets regularly to discuss the governance of all forms of motor sport including Formula One, after electing against signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
The NDA would outlaw individuals from discussing matters relating to the FIA away from council meetings and Richards says he viewed its introduction as a “gagging order”.
Richards, a former Formula One team boss, supported Ben Sulayem’s candidacy as FIA president in 2021 but says that was because of promises to be a “hands-off president” and to ensure “full transparency of actions and the highest standard of governance”.
In a message to Motorsport UK members, Richards wrote: “I’m afraid that over the last three years there has been a distinct failure to meet these promises.
“In fact, the situation has progressively worsened with media reports confirming that numerous senior members of the FIA and volunteer officials have either been fired or have resigned under an opaque cloud.
“Furthermore, the scope of the audit and ethics committees has been severely limited and now lacks autonomy from the authority of the president, while our UK representative, who challenged certain matters, was summarily removed along with the chair of the audit committee.
“This has become increasingly worrying and the final straw for me, three weeks ago, was being asked to sign a new confidentiality agreement that I regarded as a ‘gagging order’.
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“The construction of this new confidentiality agreement does not comply with the statutes of the FIA and contradicts the promise of transparent governance we had voted for.
“Our Motorsport UK lawyers, along with our French legal counsel, have challenged the FIA on their actions by setting out a clear set of questions that the FIA leadership needs to answer. It is very disappointing to report that we have still not received an answer to these or the fundamental question I raised: where in the FIA statutes does it provide for an elected member to be barred from a meeting?”
Ben Sulayem, who has been involved in a number of controversies since he took to the helm of the FIA, is expected to stand for re-election when his four-year term expires in December.
After reports of Richards being blocked from the meeting emerged, initially from the BBC, an FIA spokesperson said: “As is routine in all organisations, including the BBC, the FIA implements procedures including non-disclosure agreements to ensure confidential relationships between all parties, to safeguard personal information, and to protect our regulatory interests.”
Richards says the Motorsport UK board may be forced to consider further legal action.
“Integrity is a core value of Motorsport UK and one that is central to who we are,” the letter continued.
“These actions by the FIA are in breach of their own statutes. As a result, we have informed the FIA that unless they address the issues we’ve raised, we will be engaging in further legal action.
“In a year when the president will either be re-elected or a new one appointed, it is more important than ever to remind the FIA of their responsibilities and continue to hold them to account on behalf of the sport and their members worldwide, and that’s what I intend to do.”
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