Mosley to Address Hearing on Tobacco Advertising

Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) president Max Mosley will address the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament in Brussels on Monday as a blanket ban on tobacco sponsorship in world sport moves closer.

The FIA will introduce a worldwide ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship in international motorsport from the end of the 2006 season in accordance with the directives of the European Union.

The 191 governments of the World Health Organisation (WHO) voted unanimously in 1999 to start negotiations on the setting up of an internationally-recognised legal instrument that promotes a tobacco ban.

The instrument, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), is fully backed by the FIA as they work with the WHO and the European Union (EU) to adopt the end of 2006 as a target date for a worldwide tobacco ban in sport.

"The FIA fully acknowledges the concerns of public health authorities about the risks of tobacco smoking," an FIA statement read. "We remain willing to support early agreement for an internationally applicable Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

"Consistent with this, it is our intention to ban tobacco sponsorship from international motorsport by the end of the 2006 season and, in the meantime, encourage motorsport competitors to diversify away from tobacco sponsorship."

The FIA added that they believe "that the target date of the end of 2006 provides sufficient lead-time for teams to obtain alternative sources of sponsorship."

The ban means that many Formula One teams, such as the BAT-backed British American Racing, will have to find alternative sponsorship from 2007 onwards.