Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has received words of support from Jean Todt, president of the ruling motorsport body FIA, amid speculation that he could be charged in Germany in a corruption case.
Todt said at sports meetings in St Petersburg that Ecclestone is yet to be charged and in good shape despite his age of 82. Todt added that any decision on Ecclestone's future lies with the CVC company which owns F1 racing and employs him.
“He is completely entitled to his job and he is doing it very well,” Todt said.
Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung, in a yet to be confirmed report from May 15, said that Ecclestone is to be charged by Munich prosecutors to have bribed a banker with 44 million dollars in connection with the sale of F1 rights in 2006.
The banker, former BayernLB bank chief risk officer Gerhard Gribkowsky, was last year sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison over the affair. Ecclestone has protested his innocence. -Sapa-dpa