FIA club members consider next move

The American Automobile Association is considering whether to remain as a member of the FIA following president Max Mosley's successful vote of confidence in Paris on Tuesday

AAA President and CEO, Robert L. Darbelnet, admitted that he was disappointed in the outcome of the FIA General Assembly meeting to decide Mosley's future, following sexual allegations about the president's private life that were printed in an expose in the News of the World.

"We are obviously disappointed," said Darbelnet. "It doesn't seem consistent with the manner in which an organisation of this type should govern itself, but we have to respect the decision of the majority of the members.

"And we'll adjust our course on the basis of the careful analysis of the implications."

Darbelnet added that he was not surprised, but disappointed in the outcome, and revealed that he had given Mosley another opportunity during the meeting to avoid bringing a vote of no confidence action.

"I invited him to step down rather than force the general assembly to deal with the vote, and suggested that this was what most people would have done," he said.

"They would have recognised that this was unfortunate, it was an invasion of his private life, really not anyone else's business, but that it was inevitable that the media would be interested in this, and that the distraction and frankly the unpleasant nature of the coverage was such, that it would have been appropriate to step down and avoid dragging the organisation through this type of media interest.

"This was not the result we were expecting, or the one we wanted, and it will force us to consider other options in terms of ensuring that we belong to an international entity that properly governs itself and ensures appropriate representation for the motorist."

Darbelnet and Guido van Woerkom, president of the Dutch motoring authority (ANWB), are believed to have joined a number of other mobility club heads who went on to a lunch meeting to discuss their next move in the wake of the vote, which went 103-55 in Mosley's favour.

Asked if the AAA - the world's largest motoring club - could leave the FIA, Darbelnet responded: "Well that is one of the possibilities but we are going to carefully consider that, because that exit is a one way exit.

"You don't make that decision lightly, so we are going to consider it very carefully," he added. "We could well decide to become much less involved and direct our efforts in another area."