9 April 2008
Unwanted Mosley Clings On
It will now be the third of June before the fate of FIA President, Max Mosley will be decided. The extraordinary general assembly which he himself called will conduct a secret ballot as to the viability of his position will take another two months.
Many Formula One manufacturers have already voiced their disproval of Mosley’s remaining in his position and while he hangs on grimly for those two months he will hope that the clamour will die down, he will win largely irrelevant legal victories over the News of the World and by the time the vote arrives, the issue of the Nazi-undertones and the invasion of his privacy will be what he hopes are the only pertinent issues.
This could not be further from the truth. Although Mosley is correct that private lives should remain private, the brutal reality for the rich, famous and powerful is that they are not. A person at a high height with a long way to fall has a private life for precisely as long as it remains private. Once that is no longer the case it cannot it be ignored but is used to judge the character of the person in question. In business and sport, public opinion of both the character as well as the competence of a person is vital. If personal revelations cast aspersions on one or other of these then such revelations cannot be un-known or ignored and will inevitably change public opinion.
Mosley meanwhile is trying his best to deflect and segment the debate; he has never denied the event itself but immediate fought back on two specific fronts. The first was the potentially most damaging (in the long-term for his overall professional prospects) - the purported Nazi element. I have seen some of an edited version of the video and I have to say that I did not see anything conclusive with a Nazi-element, thus it would seem to me that it is a defendable point.
The second defence is of the illegality and invasion of his privacy in obtaining the video. Again I have very little reason to question the validity of this defence – since when was it legal to conduct a sting operation and use hidden cameras to ensnare an unsuspecting victim? (Not that it ever stopped the British media before now).
The tactic Mosley has adopted is astute in that by the time the June meeting is convened he could have these two significant legal victories on his side which he will use to say “See? I am the innocent party in this!” This entirely deflects the relevant aspect of the affair however. It is an astute defence based on sleight of hand hoping that the arguments he chooses are those that he is judged on.
What he should be judged on however are the uncontested facts that he hires prostitutes to treat him like a prisoner of war, enjoys S&M and has no compunctions in engaging in such activities outside of his married life.
This is not the sort of public image you would want running your company let alone the entire world’s motorsport industry. He is not the sort of person potential investors or team owners will enjoy shaking the hand of, nor a point of pride when fans talk of their favourite sport. A president is a figurehead and he no longer is able to fulfil that role.
A personal life is only personal while it remains secret. No matter how it happened, how illegal the methods and how morally questionable it is, Max Mosley no longer has a personal life where his love of prostitutes and gratification at tortured like a POW is concerned.
For the sake of the sport, please go. If not, then to every member who has a vote in the secret ballot, do not be fooled by his deceiving argument; send an unambiguous message to everyone connected with the sport and remove Max Mosley.
