Mosley rejects renewed quit demands

A defiant Max Mosley

(GMM) The war involving embattled FIA president Max Mosley continued and intensified this week.

It has emerged that 24 FIA-affiliated automobile clubs wrote a letter to the 68-year-old Briton on Wednesday – less than a week before the crucial confidence vote in Paris next week – requesting his resignation amid the sex scandal.

The letter, referred to by the national news agency The Canadian Press, was in reaction to Mosley's rejection of a compromise that would have ensured a positive vote next Tuesday but paved the way for his peaceful resignation later this year.

"The FIA is in a critical situation. Its image, reputation and credibility are being severely eroded. Every additional day that this situation persists, the damage increases.

"There is no way back," the letter, signed by representatives of the clubs from the US, France, Spain, India, Australia and others, said.

222 secret votes will be cast in Paris next Tuesday.

It is understood that Mosley replied to the 24 clubs – with whom he is believed to have been in conflict long before now – on Thursday, rejecting the notion that the FIA is in crisis just because its president is involved in a scandal about his private life.

The FIA will shortly make a statement about the latest developments.