David Richards threatens legal action against FIA

Richards, along with the FIA's Deputy President for Sport, Robert Reid, was not allowed to attend the WMSC that was held last week after refusing to sign the non-disclosure agreements (NDA) requested by the governing body.

Richards, who has backed Mohammed Ben Sulayem's presidency bid back in 2021, has since fallen out with the Emirati, becoming one of his toughest critics, especially in the wake of the FIA's recent governance revisions.

In a letter to Motorsport UK members, Richards gave a historic brief how the relations with the FIA president deteriorated while explaining what went down ahead of the first WMSC of 2025.

He wrote: "For some time now I've had concerns about the erosion of accountability and good governance within the FIA.

"As you may have seen in the press, an issue has recently emerged that has compelled me to take a stand and needs an explanation.

"First of all, let me turn the clock back to a little over three years ago when we, alongside the Royal Automobile Club, supported Mohammed Ben Sulayem in his bid to become the next President of the FIA.

"Many of you were possibly surprised that we didn't support the British candidate, Graham Stoker, but the Board met with both candidate teams and was convinced by the well-thought-out plans that Mohammed's campaign team presented, which very much aligned with our own views of the way the FIA should transform itself," he explained.

Richards added: "The key messages in their presentation were a hands-off President who would be non-executive and delegate the day-to-day running of the FIA to a professional executive team.

"The appointment of an empowered and capable CEO to run the FIA to professional standards. Full transparency of actions and the highest standards of sporting governance.

"I'm afraid that over the last three years there has been a distinct failure to meet these promises," he lamented. "In fact, the situation has progressively worsened with media reports confirming that numerous senior members of the FIA and volunteer officials have either been fired or have resigned under an opaque cloud."

As for the changes in the FIA's governance, Richards commented: "Furthermore, the scope of the audit and ethics committees has been severely limited and now lacks autonomy from the authority of the president, while our UK representative, who challenged certain matters, was summarily removed along with the chair of the audit committee."

He went on explaining the issue with the NDA the FIA wanted him to sign before attending the WMSC; he wrote: "This has become increasingly worrying, and the final straw for me, three weeks ago, was being asked to sign a new confidentiality agreement that I regarded as a 'gagging order'.

"The construction of this new confidentiality agreement does not comply with the statutes of the FIA and contradicts the promise of transparent governance we had voted for.

"Our Motorsport UK lawyers, along with our French legal counsel, have challenged the FIA on their actions by setting out a clear set of questions that the FIA leadership needs to answer," he revealed. "It is very disappointing to report that we have still not received an answer to these or the fundamental question I raised: where in the FIA statutes does it provide for an elected member to be barred from a meeting?"

Richards continued stating that if the FIA does not respond to the questions of Motorsport UK's legal team, further legal action will be taken.

"Integrity is a core value of Motorsport UK and one that is central to who we are," he continued in his letter. "These actions by the FIA are in breach of their own statutes.

"As a result, we have informed the FIA that unless they address the issues we've raised, we will be engaging in further legal action.

"In a year when the president will either be re-elected or a new one appointed, it is more important than ever to remind the FIA of their responsibilities and continue to hold them to account on behalf of the sport and their members worldwide, and that's what I intend to do," Richards concluded.