On Tuesday, the Swedish Motorsport Association announced that the chairman Magnus Berthling is resigning with immediate effect, after having been chairman since September.

Later, SVT Sport revealed that the conflict was deeper than that, with internal strife where SVT Sport, among other things, took part in the farewell letter Berthling wrote to the district, and an email addressed to the Swedish Rally Sports Association.

Magnus Berthling also admitted that the board's discussions about the Swedish Rally were "the crucial issue that caused the situation to escalate".

This is also confirmed by the vice chairman Urban Wahlberg, who now goes into more detail on what the Swedish Rally question is about.

- My view is that we had promised the union meeting and our district chairmen not to go in with more money for the Swedish Rally.

We handle our members' money, and somewhere that limit has to go, and it was passed now.

In a democratic order, we voted in the board on how we should do, and it resulted in 4-3 with us not going in with more money for the Swedish Rally.

That is what the question was about, says Urban Wahlberg to SVT Sport.

The rally question decided

According to Wahlberg, Berthling was on the side that they would go in with money for the rally.

Urban Wahlberg did not.

- It was the handling of the issue that we did not agree on in the board.

We had a winter where there were big losses for the Swedish Rally, where there was also an economy that had been bad for many years.

We would have had to recapitalize in the company that runs the competition, because the balance sheet showed that we had to push for more funds.

We who voted no did not consider that we had a business mandate to do so.

We felt that we had come to the end of the road with how much money we would go into the company that runs the Swedish Rally, says Urban Wahlberg.

According to Urban Wahlberg, that was where Magnus Berthling made the decision to resign.

- It is probably the case that this question was so important to him, that he could not sit still when he did not get through his thoughts, says Urban Wahlberg.

How do you personally view his departure?

- The situation has not benefited Swedish motorsport.

But the choice is his, says Urban Wahlberg.

Was there any external influence in his decision to resign?

- What I know is that it is his own decision in full, says Urban Wahlberg.

How did you think Magnus Berthling handled his chairmanship?

- Magnus is a very driven and talented person.

No doubt about it.

He has significant experience from the business world, but not much experience from the non-profit association life and the type of sports activities we represent.

Since then, everything has messed up with the Swedish Rally, and a leadership that has been difficult to accept to some extent.

What leadership are you thinking of?

- That everyone must have a say, and you must live by the democratic principles that exist in the sports world.

There we have had a slightly different opinion.

But not so big issues that it would be such drastic measures.

It has been a turbulent year within the Motorsport Association, where former chairman Lars Pettersson resigned in May, after it was discovered that the association went to the US to see the Indycar final 2019 for members' money.

A trip that cost around SEK 300,000.

He was replaced by Magnus Berthling in September, and now he has also left.

Two chairmen have left office in less than a year, and the latter after just four months.

What does it say about the working environment in the Swedish Motorsport Association's board do you think?

- The work environment has not really been a problem until now in December.

What happened last year when Lars Pettersson resigned was about him not being able to cope with the drive that went against him and the board.

For my own part, I have always lived by the principle of carrying out what I have undertaken.

And I remained on the board at the request of Magnus Berthling, because he did not want to start with a white paper.

I believe that the three of us who were left have taken on the responsibility we were asked to do, says Urban Wahlberg.

Have there been two camps in more than the question of the Swedish Rally?

- No.

He is the one who put everything on its head.

There is no issue that has been so big that it would need to split a board except in this issue of the Swedish Rally, says Urban Wahlberg.

On Tuesday evening, the Swedish Motorsport Association elected an acting chairman of the board member Roger Engström from Växjö.

He will initially have that task until the next union meeting.

KLIPP: Solberg becomes factory driver for the champion team (18 December 2020)

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Oliver Solberg has signed a two-year contract for Hyundai Motorsport.

Photo: Oliver Solberg media / Hyundai