The FIA was summoned to a hearing in a French court after prospective presidential candidate Laura Villars filed a lawsuit alleging “grave democratic failures” related to the electoral process.
Swiss racing driver Villard was one of three candidates, along with Tim Mayer and Virginie Philippot, to announce their intention to run for FIA president in this year’s election. Mayer publicly announced his resignation two weeks ago, citing a process that required a vice-chairman candidate to be selected from a list of members approved by the World Motor Sport Council, making it impossible for him to challenge incumbent president Mohamed Ben Sulayem.
The president’s list must include candidates from the FIA’s six regions around the world, but this year’s WMSC list has only one name from South America, Fabiana Ecclestone, who is already a member of Ben Sulayem’s team.
The other two candidates also did not submit their nominations, but the Paris Court of Justice authorized Villars to summon the FIA to a public hearing on November 10 to initiate legal action “to protect transparency, ethics and democratic pluralism within the FIA.”
“I have twice tried to start a constructive dialogue with the FIA on important issues such as internal democracy and the transparency of electoral rules,” Villar said. “The answers received did not meet the challenge. I am not acting against the FIA. I am acting in defense of the FIA. Democracy is not a threat to the FIA. Democracy is a strength of the FIA.”
In addition to the FIA summons being approved, both the governing body and Villar have been invited by the court to attend a mediation meeting. Villar confirmed that he would attend “in an open and honest spirit.”
Villar’s lawyer, Maître Robin Binsar, said the development showed the urgency of the case was being recognized, with presidential elections currently scheduled for Dec. 12.
“We have obtained permission for emergency summons every few hours. This shows that the court takes seriously the serious democratic deficits within the FIA and the violations of some of the statutes and regulations that we have condemned.”
Mayer welcomed the move and said his team would provide support to rival candidates as needed.
“As we disclosed in Austin, Texas, we have filed an ethics complaint related to the election,” Meyer’s campaign said in a statement. “To date, we have not even received an endorsement from the FIA. This is typical of our experience with the handling of elections by the FIA and reflects the experience of Laura’s campaign.”
“We applaud the actions taken by Laura as an important step towards implementing the necessary reforms for democracy and transparency. We will support her efforts with the wealth of knowledge and experience of our team to ultimately achieve open elections for FIA member clubs.”
