14/11/2007
FEATURE BY MIKE LAWRENCE
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For some time the EU pursued a case against Microsoft and recently Microsoft ran out of legal ploys. It was fined 500 million Euros and agreed to make details of its main operating systems available to competitors so that they could offer rival software which was compatible with Microsoft. The ruling was based on the fact that Microsoft had become a monopoly in the High Street and was unfairly protecting its position.
Twelve years ago a Belgian footballer, Jean-Marc Bosman, argued his case to an EU court and won. Football's governing body, FIFA, had stipulated that no club could field more than two overseas players. Under EU law, citizens of member countries have the right of freedom to move and work within the union (now 26 nations) and FIFA's rule was deemed to be in contradiction of this and was overturned.
To the ordinary football fan a ruling from the EU had little impact. Twelve years on and it is possible to see an English Premiership game without an Englishman on the park. Wages have rocketed and so have admission prices. I was taken to Arsenal at the age of four, it was my local team. Arsenal is no longer a club, it's a brand. It is the team most supported in Africa because it has so many African players and the Premiership is televised in so many countries.
This is the reality and I am not tut-tutting about a nonexistent Golden Age. I was born to one form of reality, when players were paid a pittance, kids today are born to a different reality.
Being a Brit, I still need a passport to put the car on a train to France, but once there I can drive in 24 countries without border controls and with all using the same currency. Only a few years ago, if I wanted to drive to Amsterdam, I had the entry control in France and then checks on the Belgian and Dutch borders. I had to make sure I had French francs, Belgium francs and Dutch guilders in case I wanted to buy a cup of coffee.
Part of me misses the old days, it used to be an event when you crossed a border. The officials wore different uniforms, you had the different money and so on. Now all you get is a sign at the side of the road.
There was a time when crossing a border with a racing car was so complicated and required so much documentation that teams used to stamp out chassis plates to fit the paperwork.
Imagine 1960, the Cooper team returns to Britain with prize money. You have World Champion Constructor, John Cooper; World Drivers' Champion, Jack Brabham. and you have Jack's Number Two, and runner-up in the World Championship, Bruce McLaren. You might guess that they would all be chilling out, not a bit of it. Currency restrictions were tight so they went from bank to bank changing what they could into Sterling.
Now think of Ronzo, Lewis and Fernando, traipsing around High Street banks changing lire or marks into pounds.
Lewis is moving to Switzerland, presumably to keep his money away from the paparazzi. Fernando is already there and to think that the Swiss have gone hundreds of years without warfare.
Switzerland is not a member of the EU. Some years ago, when the FIA was defending tobacco sponsorship in motor racing, it uprooted from Paris, its traditional home, and moved to Switzerland to escape any action from the EU.
Renault has admitted to being in possession of McLaren data. This seems to me to be one of those cases like being over the alcohol limit while driving, there is no defence. You cannot stand up in court and argue that, despite having taken on a little comfort, you were still driving safely, that you had caused no damage and that you were driving better than some people will ever do.
The offence is absolute, one extra mouthful will lose your licence for a year in the UK and Sweden is really tough.
McLaren argued that it had not knowingly used information from Stepney's dossier. Whether or not it did, we do not know, McLaren still got hammered. Apart from the fine and the loss of Championship points, we have had the 'fair play tsar' in Brazil and the descent on the factory by independent scrutineers who came away with details of next year's car.
Renault has admitted that 15 of its engineers were at least aware of the McLaren data. So far as I can make out, Michael Coughlan at McLaren received the dossier in March and the scam was blown within four months. Renault had its information for 12 months and three times as many people knew about it.
Of course, like Bill Clinton, they did not inhale.
After the dust had settled on tobacco sponsorship, the FIA moved back to Paris so its decisions on McLaren and Renault come under EU regulations.
The FIA has to act against Renault or it loses credibility. Renault is in F1 because its CEO inherited the team, it is there under sufferance. Sales of Renault cars have not increased because it bleeds money into Formula One. Renault is at the forefront of designing inexpensive cars for developing economies and F1 does little for the guy who scrapes together his clam shells to buy a car. He is going to be more concerned about the service from his local dealer.
Had McLaren been excluded from the World Championship, it could have led to the collapse of the team. If Renault is excluded, it will add to the company's profits. Renault did not increase sales in Spain when Alonso won the 2005 World Championship; Renault's sales in Spain took a slight dip (2%) in 2006.
The FIA has painted itself into a corner and I bet there are lawyers examining EU regulations. If the EU can take on Microsoft, and win, it can take on anybody.
In the last analysis, the FIA is a self-appointed body which represents particular clubs, one per country. These clubs were themselves set up in an unofficial way. In the case of the ADAC in Germany, ACF in France and the RAC in Britain, wealthy and influential enthusiasts established clubs in the pioneering days of motoring.
There is an RAC Club in a swish part of London. One may apply to join, pay the subscription, and enjoy the club's facilities, which include a swimming pool. It is a typical exclusive club and has no official status. Do not be fooled by 'Royal' in the title, it means only that Edward VII liked cars. He was also partial to chorus girls.
Most sports operate on a basis of consensus, there is a club which binds together participants. Every so often there may be a breakaway faction, as happened when teams broke from the USAC to establish CART.
In certain countries governing bodies have been, are, controlled by the state, but in democracies a club is just a club. It exists because local clubs, and regional clubs, wish it to exist. Apathy plays its part, it is how things have always been done. Self-interest plays a part as well, there is always someone putting themselves forward, dreaming of going from local to regional to national and, even, rubbing blazers at an international level.
Many of these people get elected because most of us do not want to sit on committees. If you like playing a game, you tend to want to spend your time playing it, not sitting around a table discussing it.
This is the flaw in the FIA, along with the governing bodies of all sports; it has status by consensus, not by law. There is no more powerful governing body than FIFA, yet an individual player was able to take his case to the EU and have the rules changed because they did not comply with the law.
The FIA has two options, it either imposes penalties similar to that imposed on McLaren (Renault has admitted the offence) or else it backs down altogether. In the latter case, it loses credibility and Max Mosley has to resign.
Alternatively, the FIA can choose to tough it out with Renault, which doesn't need F1 anyway. The Renault team used to be Benetton and before that it was Toleman, it can be sold again. For some years, it was happy to be a supplier of engines since the research fed down.
McLaren tried the defence of we did not inhale, and it did not work even though the deal was done outside of the factory. Ten floppy disks were loaded to a computer inside the Renault factory and at least 15 people knew about them, and that is what Renault has admitted before the hearing.
Renault has admitted being in possession of McLaren data and the WMSC has ruled that the offence is absolute, like driving over the limit. Renault has pleaded guilty, as McLaren did, there is no room for manoeuvre.
Bernie (may angels strew his path with rare orchids) called a meeting of teams apart from McLaren, Renault and Ferrari. I wonder what was on the agenda.
I bet there is soul-searching going on in every team. You hire a senior engineer for what he knows. If the information is stored in his head, that is fine, but if he has made copies to disk or CD of the work he has done for a previous employer, that is not good.
So far as one can make out, Coughlan did not introduce Ferrari material into the McLaren factory. McLaren was hammered because of a rogue employee, who kept his information at home. No F1 team can guess what its staff has at home. An F1 team can be punished, even forced out of business, because one employee has data he should not possess.
This is the position of the FIA and it must be a cause of concern to every team owner. They cannot know what people have at home, yet they are responsible for it. This is madness, not even George Orwell thought of that angle.
It might be possible for someone to challenge the right of the FIA to impose swingeing penalties or any penalty at all. The FIA comes under EU law and is only a group of clubs, most of which have no official (governmental) standing. It is a house of cards.
Mike Lawrence
mike@pitpass.com
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