The FIA has reiterated its stance on the governing body’s financial situation after former President Jean Todt dismissed claims of a monetary deficit.
Todt was adamant in his conversation with French outlet L’Equipe that claims of a deficit in the region of $20 million when he left his post in December 2021 weren’t true.
“When I left, there must have been more than 250 million Euros in reserves,” Todt issued.
The FIA has since opened up on its financial situation from the start of Mohammed Ben Sulayam’s presidency with more clarity, insisting that its position is an open and honest one.
“As the FIA president outlined during the annual general assemblies week in Baku, the FIA has been transparent in revealing that soon after the new presidential team took office, the financial state that was discovered was unsatisfactory and unsustainable,” said an FIA spokesman via Autosport.
“The federation was incurring significant losses.
“The senior leadership’s mission is to sustain the FIA, and while we are not for profit, we do need to at least have balanced books and ideally create a surplus to strengthen equity for unforeseen events and to invest in research and development in the areas of safety, technology, and regulation across sport and mobility and to meet our primary purpose of supporting our member clubs.
“We will be releasing figures for 2021-22 in the coming weeks and 2023 figures in mid-June 2024 for the extraordinary general assembly.”
The FIA Extraordinary General Assembly held on 22 June in Cordoba, Andalusia revealed that the governing body’s operating loss amounted to €24 million in 2021, coming down to €7 million in 2022 – with the trend looking to head in a positive direction again for 2023.
At the assembly back in June, Ben Sulayem said: “Through the hard work of all of us, we are moving the FIA to a firm financial footing and I would like to thank our team for all of their efforts.”
Ben Sulayem has reiterated on numerous occasions the difficulty of the financial situation he faced when taking up office at the FIA in late 2021 and Todt’s response downplaying these financial troubles has done little to avert the FIA’s stance on the situation.
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