Neither the FIA, nor its championships, receive sponsorship from the tobacco industry. However, sponsorship by the tobacco industry of motor sport teams and events has occurred for over thirty years.
Today tobacco sponsorship remains an important source of revenue for a number of Formula One and World Rally Championship teams. The precise value of such sponsorship is hard to estimate but probably exceeds $350 million per annum. There is, however, also a significant trend of diversification into alternative sources of sponsorship.
The FIA has followed closely the widespread concern about the risks associated with smoking and the debate about banning tobacco advertising and sponsorship. The FIA recognise the clearly established public health risks associated with smoking and fully respects the responsibility of governments to establish laws curbing tobacco promotion.
Our interest is limited to encouraging the creation of a regime for the control of tobacco sponsorship that is stable, predictable, and as widely internationally enforceable as possible.
Only a worldwide agreement to control tobacco advertising and sponsorship will be fully effective. International motor sport championships such as the FIA’s Formula One World Championship or the World Rally Championship consist of a series of events held in countries all around the world.
By far the largest audience for these events are television viewers rather than the spectators attending the race or rally.
In any individual country, therefore, television viewers during the year are watching events from all around the world. These events are subject to very different rules regarding tobacco advertising and sponsorship.
The current ban on tobacco advertising in France, for example, limits the exposure of French television viewers to tobacco sponsorship by just a single event whereas the same French audience watches sixteen other races during the course of the year. Of these races only two run without tobacco logos.
The problem remains, therefore, that legislation by a single country or region will not result in an effective ban on tobacco sponsorship in any international sport that is widely televised. That is why it is necessary to establish an international agreement to control the impact of tobacco advertising and sponsorship.
The FIA, therefore, welcomes the current negotiations underway at the WHO in Geneva for a Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
On entry into force the FCTC will for the first time provide an internationally applicable legal instrument promoting a ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship.
It is clear from the unanimous decision of 191 governments at the 1999 World Health Assembly of the WHO to commence negotiations on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control that there is widespread political agreement that tobacco advertising and sponsorship should be banned.
In recognition of this clear political commitment on 4 October 2000 the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council adopted the following resolution:
‘On entry into force of the World Health Organisation’s proposed Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the FIA will introduce a world-wide ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship in international motor sport from the end of the 2006 season as originally envisaged by the Directive (98/43/EC) of the European Union Member States’.
The time-scale of the end of the 2006 season is consistent with the original terms of the 1998 European Union Directive, which was subsequently annulled.
We believe that the end of 2006 is a realistic timetable for a world-wide ban on tobacco sponsorship and we advise all motor sport competitors that receive tobacco sponsorship to ensure that their sponsorship contracts reflect this date in any agreements they make.
In conclusion the FIA acknowledges the concerns of public health authorities about the risks of tobacco smoking. We remain willing to support early agreement for an internationally applicable Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Consistent with this Convention it is our intention to ban tobacco sponsorship from international motor sport by the end of the 2006 season. We will seek support for this initiative from all countries that host FIA World Championship events.
We will encourage motor sport competitors to diversify way from tobacco sponsorship.
For further infromation please contact:
External Relations Department
Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile
Tel: +41 22 544 4440
Fax: +41 22 544 4453
www.fia.com