Austrian Motorsport Chief “Saddened” by Proposed FIA Accountability Changes

The head of Austria’s motorsport federation, Oliver Schmerold, has stated he is “saddened” by proposed changes to motorsport’s governing body, the FIA, which he believes will reduce accountability. Schmerold is the second senior figure from an FIA member club to express concerns about these proposed changes. Oliver Schmerold, the chief executive officer of the OAMTC, characterized the prospective new statutes as “not good governance” and “not good in terms of checks and balances.” Schmerold stated that he conveyed his apprehensions to Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the FIA President. However, he expressed his “sad projection” that the member clubs are likely to approve the changes on Friday. The proposed amendments to the FIA statutes are scheduled for a vote during a general assembly meeting taking place in Kigali, Rwanda. According to Schmerold, the probable repercussions for the FIA include that “we lose a certain level of checks and balances [and] we might be questioned by other international bodies about our governance and we could run the risk that things go wrong.” He further explained that these changes, which restrict the autonomy of the FIA’s audit and ethics committees, would impede the recruitment of “established and independent individuals” for these roles. Schmerold remarked, “The ethics and audit committees would lose that attractiveness so there would be maybe in future only individuals on those committees who are more or less in one way or another depending on the actual leadership.” He questioned, “Which individual who is behind good governance and who has shown he has a good professional track record would be ready to take on a position on a committee which is completely controlled by two individuals?” The proposed amendments would mandate that ethics complaints be supervised by the FIA president and the president of its senate, instead of the senate itself. Additionally, they would eliminate the audit committee’s authority to conduct independent investigations into financial matters. Schmerold is the second senior figure from an FIA member club to express concerns about the proposed changes, following David Richards, the chairman of MotorsportUK, who on Saturday stated they “did not reflect the highest standards of corporate governance.” These changes have been put forward following a year during which the ethics and audit committees conducted investigations into multiple allegations concerning the conduct of Ben Sulayem. Schmerold further noted that this marks the second occasion in a six-month period that he has raised objections regarding proposed statutory changes that seem to impact accountability and governance. The prior instance occurred at the most recent general assembly in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in June, and pertained to a statute now referred to as the “urgency” rule. This rule empowers the FIA president to implement changes via a specific group, comprising the president of the FIA senate and one member selected by the president from each of the two world councils (for motorsport and mobility), “in particular when circumstances do not permit a meeting of the senate, especially in the event of urgent and/or critical situations.” Decisions made by this group would only require “communication” to the senate, rather than its approval. The senate, which functions as the FIA’s supervisory body, consists of 16 members. Schmerold described the clause as “far too openly formulated,” explaining that it “means the president can decide at his own discretion what topic he could decide upon only with the president of the senate and two selected members of the two world councils, who he can select.” He further stated, “I was the only one who stood up in the general assembly in Samarkand and asked for a removal of those topics from the agenda and not to vote on them but give it more thought and rework it. And this was unfortunately not taken forward by the chairman.” The FIA has, to date, declined to provide comments regarding the rationale for the new statutes. BBC Sport specifically sought a comment concerning Schmerold’s allegations but has not yet received a reply. Schmerold reported that Ben Sulayem and Paul O’Dowd, the head of legal affairs, addressed his objections when he presented them on Tuesday. He quoted their response: “The answer of the president and the head of legal was that in order to protect the [identity of] individuals who might be subject to investigation from being published to a broader audience it needed to be kept to a very close group.” He elaborated on their reasoning: “Their argument goes that not to share reports of the ethics committee with the full senate protects the individuals from being displayed to a broader public. Whoever might be subject of an investigation.” Schmerold indicated his disagreement with this rationale. He stated, “If we cannot rely on the integrity of a senate member then we have another issue.” He continued, “The senate consists of 16 individuals who see the report. We must have the trust that they will deal with the subject in an appropriate way. I would rather have it with 16 people, the majority of whom are really independent, than a close group of only two who are not independent from each other.” Schmerold also raised concerns about another proposed new statute: if either the FIA president or the president of the senate is subject to an investigation, the other would receive the report, a situation he finds problematic given that the two individuals are allies. Carmelo Sanz De Barros, who serves as the president of the senate, is part of Ben Sulayem’s four-member leadership team. Schmerold commented, “There is a strong link between the individuals and if only the two of them are responsible for the control, it’s not independent any more.” He additionally expressed apprehension regarding a new method employed by the FIA leadership for introducing proposals. He elaborated, “This time, as with the proposal in June this year, the world councils were only asked to vote by e-vote, without a meeting, without a discussion, and in parallel to the e-vote of the world council the documents were already sent out to all the members in the general assembly.” Schmerold will not be present at the general assembly in person, stating this decision is “to show our distance to the current developments,” and confirmed that the Austrian federation intends to cast its vote remotely.