Spain’s Javier Revuelta has quit the FEI presidential race, blaming a “flawed” process that fails to “meet the minimum democratic principles of independency, transparency and equal opportunity to all candidates”.
Mr Revuelta, a former Olympic event rider and now president of the Spanish Equestrian Federation, has complained “numerous” times about the intention of Ingmar de Vos, FEI secretary general, to run for president while retaining his current job.
Three weeks ago Mr de Vos made a new proposal that, if elected on 14 December, he would resign as secretary general and call an Extraordinary General Assembly to vote on a statute change enabling future presidents to be paid.
”Mr de Vos should have resigned as secretary general exactly at the moment that he declared himself a candidate.
If not, there could be an issue of conflict of interests,” said Mr Revuelta.
According to Mr Revuelta, the remuneration of the president should only be considered after “deep study of the reasons and if it is beneficial or not for the FEI.”
Mr Revuelta also criticised the belated supply of “rules of conduct” to the six candidates, and claims the committee overseeing the election is not independent as it includes outgoing president, Princess Haya — she hired Mr de Vos within days of the resignation of his predecessor, Alec McLinn.
Meanwhile, Mr de Vos has clarified why he would ask Princess Haya to be available for a “handover period”.
He said this was wrongly labelled a “caretaker” role in H&H (news, 6 November).
“My intention — with the best interests of the organisation and the sport at heart — is to build on Princess Haya’s legacy and ask her to lend guidance and insights on the role in the initial period,” he said.
“This is testimony to the strength of my working relationship with Princess Haya, and I do not believe all candidates would follow this same path.”
This news story was first published in Horse & Hound magazine (20 November 2014).
