Ecclestone withdraws all support for Mosley
Quote selected text Published by clive May 23rd, 2008 in Formula 1
Bernie Ecclestone, angry at the letter sent by Max Mosley to FIA clubs, has finally retracted all support for his beleaguered fellow F1 powerbroker.
Ecclestone is annoyed that Mosley attempted to widen the sex scandal to a “declaration of war” with the sport’s commercial rights holder, which is headed by the 77-year-old F1 chief executive.
“Everybody’s wrong except him,” Ecclestone mocked in the Monte Carlo paddock on Thursday, according to the Daily Telegraph.
“Everybody was involved in the orgy except him. He is just lashing out at anything he can.
“If he wants me to be the enemy he should be very careful because if he makes me an enemy I could make sure that he never whips anybody again,” he warned.
Ecclestone said the Mosley letter was insulting to the 222 FIA clubs because it effectively branded them as “idiots” who could not take over responsibility for the Paris based governing body.
“Normally Max is more together instead of making silly, outrageous mistakes,” Bernie, whose former alliance with Mosley stretched back decades, continued.
Ecclestone also put his signature to a formal letter of reply to the clubs, vigorously denying that he wants to take over all the FIA’s F1 powers.
In the letter, he moved to correct the “misunderstandings and inaccurate conclusions” that Mosley invited the club presidents to come to.
“The (commercial rights holder) does not wish to have control over the formula one regulations,” Ecclestone wrote.
He also clarified that the only changes he wants to F1’s agreements with the FIA are to clear up some “unintended consequences” of the original documents.
“We intend to continue our successful relationship with the FIA,” Ecclestone said.
Bookmark to:
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Max, the writing is on the wall in 90-foot neon metallic high-contrast glow-in-the-dark paint. If you can’t read it, then don’t be surprised if you find yourself totally powerless soon.
MadMax and Bernie at each others throats, ‘who woulda eva thunk it?’ As foolish as MadMax’s statements are Bernie “not wanting to control formula one regulations” seems equally ridiclious.
Alianora, about that 90-foot neon metallic high-contrast glow-in-the-dark paint sign,
could I contract for another……. for Bernie?
I’d like it to read “SILVERSTONE FOREVER !!!”
I’m hoping that Alianora and/or Clive will be patient and patronising with me. I read on F1.com, the letter BE sent to all FIA member clubs, which talked about the “100 year agreements” with FIA. WTF????!!!! This is the first I’ve heard of those! Clive, Alianora, help me here with background please?
What possessed the member clubs to agree to that? Why not give up their role altogether and disband the FIA? They might as well. Give Bernie’s companies that much authority and he can do whatever he wants to make money and bugger the fans, bugger tradition, bugger everything. Sooner or later he will have all the races run on one track within one month and drip feed the videos to the TV networks for huge $$ throughout the year!
Is Bernie trying to assure the wealth of his great-great grandchildren? The man is in his 70’s, what other good could a 100 year agreement be to him? He openly admits disdain for the fans (the people who gave him the vehicle to get where he is today), so you can bet it’s not for the good of F1 as we know it, far less likely for F1 as we would all like it.
Please tell me this is not as bad as I think it is?
It’s worse, Mike - the agreement has been in place for several years, ever since the EU ruled that the sport and the commercial rights to F1 should not be under the control of one organisation. Bernie came up with an offer and Max persuaded the FIA members to accept it - an amount approximately equal to six months’ worth of F1 earnings at the moment. This for 100 years of income!
Obviously, Bernie became extremely rich selling GPs to the highest bidder. then he sold the rights for an astronomical sum to an investment company called CVC while remaining their man in charge. More money in Bernie’s pocket and huge pressure from CVC to make yet more money to enable them to repay the loans they took out to buy the rights.
And we wonder why Bernie keeps closing traditional (and low-profit) venues for GPs in countries that are prepared to pay the asking price?
I am perhaps over-using this thread to vent my frustration and incredulity at this staggering revelation (to me that is) and I apologise for not being as well-read as Clive and others.
BE’s published letter also mentioned some ambiguities in the agreement which needed to be ironed out. FIA’s answer should be to screw BE for as many $$ as they can get for every millimetre of extra leeway he seeks.
Looking for a bright side, what would stop FIA from colluding with impoverished European track owners, who have been or may in the future be abandoned by BE, to satrt a new “World Championship” without the name Formula 1? I realise that the same teams and drivers would not be able to compete and it would be a CART/IRL type situation, but even that came right in the end.
Speaking of which: A Brit wins an F1 race and a Kiwi wins the Indy 500 all in the same weekend. That calls for a celebratory beer or 5!!
The skeletons are coming out of the closet now, Mike - the next few weeks should be very interesting indeed. Cheers!