Why Max Mosley should resign
Having read Max Mosley’s statement about the News of the World allegations my opinion has not changed very much from what I first wrote about the scandal on Sunday:
The News of the World’s story makes a lot of references to ‘Nazi-style’ behaviour, but it’s not clear from the evidence whether that’s actually an accurate description. British tabloids do like to link anything even remotely unseemly with Nazism, as the Daily Star did with the Lewis Hamilton racism story. Given the fascist past of Mosley’s family, it’s an obvious connection to make.
But even the the ‘Nazi’ angle is fantasy, the other details (assuming they are true) will be considered by many to be sufficiently unpleasant to make Mosley’s position untenable.
Mosley has said he will not step down. Is this the right course of action for him – and for Formula 1?
Reading Mosley’s statement I am reminded of Eliot Spitzer’s words on March 13th. Spitzer, then the Governor of New York, had been connected to a prostitution ring:
I have acted in a way that violates my obligation to my family and violates my, or any sense, of right or wrong. I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.
Four days later, Spitzer resigned. What will happen to Mosley?
Character assassination
In his statement Mosley suggests he’s been been the victim of character assassination: “a covert investigation of my private life and background has been undertaken by a group specialising in such things, for reasons and clients as yet unknown.”
There will inevitably be speculation about who is responsible. The FIA had brought a legal action against the Sunday Times, sister newspaper to the News of the World. Today another of its sister newspapers, The Times, printed a leader demanding Mosley’s resignation. Other major British newspapers such as the Daily Telegraph have given little coverage to the story with the Telegraph’s F1 correspondent Kevin Garside voicing support of Mosley.
However a controversial figure such as Mosley is never short of critics and enemies, and only last year clashed publicly with McLaren in the ‘spygate’ scandal. Any number of people might bear a grudge against him.
Throwing mud
Whoever is going after Mosley knows this adage well: “If you throw enough mud, some of it will stick.”
Mosley strongly denied the ‘Nazi’ connotations in the News of the World’s reportage. But even ignoring this other highly visible figures have lost their jobs over less serious matters than what Mosley is accused of.
The News of the World is a nasty, grubby newspaper that often makes sensational allegations like this against people in the public eye. Many will ask what relevance its revelations of Max Mosley’s personal life has to his ability to do his job?
Possibly none at all. But that is not the point. Mosley is one of the most high profile representatives of international motor racing and he has brought the sport into disrepute.
Just the beginning?
If someone is working a plan to destroy Mosley, there will likely be more to come. To discredit someone in an era of 24-hour rolling news on television and online, you don’t play all your cards at once. There will be “shocking new pictures” and “tell-all stories” and who knows what else still to come.
Mosley is credited with a terrific legal brain – but the News Corporation lawyers will have trodden this path a few times before. Whatever the outcome, I doubt it will be a quick win, and in the meantime the story will drag on and on. As Bernie Ecclestone said today:
If he starts to sue, from what I understand, the chances of him winning would be slim and, the trouble is, it’s just a lot more ink for the press.
Ecclestone has already said Mosley should not visit Bahrain for this weekend’s Grand Prix.
Should Mosley resign?
At the very least, I think he needs to take temporary leave from his position while he takes care of the matter.
He has said in his statement that he intends to take legal action against the News of the World. He added:
You can, however be certain that I will not allow any of this to impede my commitment to the work of the FIA.
But I think he should devote his time fully to pursuing his course of action against the newspaper. Mosley should stand down, at least temporarily, and allow someone else to devote their entire time to the professional duties of the role of FIA president.
Mosley has said he has, “received a very large number of messages of sympathy and support from those within the FIA and the motor sport and motoring communities generally, suggesting that my private life is not relevant to my work and that I should continue in my role.”
Over the days to come we shall see if that support is strong enough for him to cling to power despite the storm of criticism his decision is likely to bring. But as Kevin Eason pointed out today, the team bosses could not kick him out of the sport even if they wanted to.
DanielPT said on 2nd April 2008, 9:40
At first i didn’t jumped the bandwagon for Mosley head, because, as many have said, private life is private life and job is job and they are two separate and distinct things. Besides, he is not the only guy that makes use of hookers. A few hundreds of million in the world do that also. The most disturbing part is the Nazi connotations. It is true that Mosley has said that F1 could not be rulled by plain democracy, and that the best thing was a dictatorial behaviour (I am not quoting, but just writing my interpretation). But not every dictator is a fascist and even then, the Nazi allegations are clearly pushed. That, for me, is the part thats worth investigate.
For me, it is his letter that makes me demand his head. First, he didn’t denies the whole thing and only the Nazi part is clearly denied. But he didn’t explicitly admit the hookers also. Second, what was he especting? He is a public figure and even a political one, who’s life is constantly on camera spots. If he do something in his life, he should expected that somehow it turns public sooner or later. We live in times that private life is not so private anymore (Not that this is good). Third, and more importantly, his family are the ones in pain and the innocents. If he really cares about them it is normal that he should focus mainly on defending himself and on repairing the problems he should now have at home. And what does he do in place of temporarily stepping down? Reafirms commitment to F1, which might be noble at first, but everybody knows that his role takes a lot of his time, so it shows that he is more interested in doing everything he can to keep the power at FIA than to look after what really matters now. Besides, it looks like he is doing it, not for F1, but for later, be able to take revenge on others…
Vertigo said on 2nd April 2008, 11:23
Mosley’s integrity has been compromised. If you can’t keep your private life private then you shouldn’t be running worldwide motorsport. If there is any truth in these allegations then he should resign.
Alex Andronov said on 2nd April 2008, 13:20
@Dale
Surprising though it may seem. It isn’t illegal to pay for sex in the UK.
As I understand it – it is illegal to profit from a prostitute (so brothels are out, and most prostitutes dependants – children and so on are illegally receiving funds).
It is illegal to promote prostitution hence all of the "Escort" type language that’s used.
It is illegal to loiter and curb crawl in many places but this isn’t a national law.
Often the prostitute can be prosecuted but it’s very rare to be able to prosecute the client as often the client has committed no crime.
It is entirely probable that nobody committed a crime in this situation except possibly the News of the World depending on how they obtained the evidence.
Andy Wolf said on 2nd April 2008, 16:10
So, what is this controversy going to be called?? We’ve already had F1gate, so what about PervynaziF1gate…?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 2nd April 2008, 16:20
We had a few thoughts on that here Andy
Michael K said on 2nd April 2008, 16:39
Looks like Max just can’t let go, or maybe doesn’t want to let go by himself. In the latter case his contract could be of interest, maybe he gets a nice compensation package if he is let go. In that case he is just using the old football manager’s trick by saying he wants to continue while his position is untenable in order to collect his money when he is being kicked out…
Tj said on 2nd April 2008, 17:09
So Max basically admitted paying for hookers as he didn’t deny that in his letter. He denyed the ‘Nazi’ angle, (despite the speaking in German, Hooker wearing a WWII uniform jacket etc…) and best of all he’s a ‘victim’ of ‘someone who is out to get him and his source ‘close to the British security services’ has confirmed this.
This is laughable – was his source stood outside a police station when they talked to Max? Or are they ‘closer’ than that? Clearly they didn’t tip him off in advance. I don’t believe all the conspiracy crap he’s pulling here – as someone has said let’s see him turn this on Ron Dennis.
The fact is he’s a public figure and someone blabbed about his fondness for alternative recreational activites. He’s a rich man and the hookers are not, my bet is that if soemone set him up it’s the hookers he was paying for sex rather then anyone else and the NOTW is there to expose his embarrasing habits because he’s a public figure with integrity to lose.
The longer he hangs on the more crap will come out into the public domain. If the paper have their act together (and they are the experts in this) we can look forward to the ‘expose’ about the apartment this occured in, (most likely done in advance ;-) and the relevation form on of the hookers about Max’s private life.
Oh and if Max’s lawyers get an injunction preventing the NOTW printing they’ll shop it to another paper.
Best thing to do is resign and drop out of the public eye as quickly as possible as let’s face it his credibility has gone and his ability to run the FIA is shot as people will always be laughing at him behind his back.
I can’t wait for the banners at the Brit GP, maybe ITV will change their theme music to "Whip it".
Cooperman said on 2nd April 2008, 17:35
One of the big ironies of this world then – are we going to see Colonel Gaddafi "voluntarily" stand down before Max Mosely does?
Sure it’s not on the same scale but if a dictator with Gaddafi’s history knows when to call it a day, you have to wonder which planet Max’s living on…
Don Speekingleesh said on 2nd April 2008, 19:03
Apparently Max’s defence for speaking German was two of the girls were German. How that explains the speaking with a German accent I don’t know…
The law may have been broken – in the UK you cannot consent to bodily injury. So depending on the level of injury/bruising caused, the participants in the video could be charged with ABH. It’s happened before.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 2nd April 2008, 19:15
Very useful knowledge Don, thank you.
Dubai Vol said on 2nd April 2008, 19:22
How stupid does Max think we are?
"Oh, well, Hitler was guest of honor at my parents’ wedding, I marched in fascist demonstrations and was arrested a couple of times, but that was all in the past. I’m not a Nazi any more, and speaking German while beating hookers dressed as prisoners doesn’t mean I’m still a Nazi. What ever gave you that crazy idea?"
Dubai Vol said on 2nd April 2008, 19:33
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=553408&in_page_id=1770
Joe Bloggs said on 2nd April 2008, 19:35
@Don – I think you must be able to consent to bodily injury in the UK, otherwise all boxing matches would be unlawful. But I do wonder how NOTW got not only the footage, but also knowledge of Max’s pastime. Maybe one of the hookers was a McLaren fan and was happy to spill the beans?? If a hooker was fully involved in obtaining the video, I wonder what else she knows – and might tell? Somehow I doubt that this was Max’s first event.
Michael Counsell said on 2nd April 2008, 19:46
The key thing is News Corporation should not be trying to discredit someone by exposing their private life…
On the positive side the S&M sector of the economy is bound to benefit from the extra coverage…
Another thing is maybe his wife knew about his fetishes and was happy for him to pursue them. No one actually knows this.
As the saying goes make love not war.
Sush said on 2nd April 2008, 20:10
I think we are all missing the point here, he’s pushing tin (hitting 70 years old) and he had sex with 5 ladies. GO HIM.
Not only that, but he looks like Hugh Heffner, same story different man…… OR IS HE? DU DU DUN!!!