Vijay Mallya steps down from FIA post

Coimbatore: Beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya, who is facing charges of defrauding banks, has resigned his post as India’s representative in FIA’s World Motor Sport Council (WMSC), according to Akbar Ebrahim, the president of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI).

Mallya, whose passport had been revoked by the Indian government following his exile in the UK since March last year, was earlier removed as chairman of the FMSCI, but he continued to represent the country in FIA’s WMSC until the sports ministry intervened and sent out a directive to the FMSCI. For the past year, the FMSCI has been on the list of sports ministry-backed national sports federations and it has to comply with government guidelines.

“Soon after I informed Mallya about the letter from the sports ministry, he tendered his resignation at FIA’s recent WMSC meeting in Geneva. FIA, in turn, confirmed FMSCI its acceptance,” said Akbar.

Thus, Mallya’s long association with Indian motorsport has come to end. Only recently Mallya said that he had been mulling over changing the name of his Formula One team from ‘Force India’ to ‘Force One.’

FMSCI will be without a representative in the world body for a next few months. “We will only be able to nominate someone in October. We will decide the representative in our next council meeting,” added Akbar.