LONDON - FORMULA One chief Bernie Ecclestone fears Max Mosley could struggle to continue as FIA president if opposition to his leadership increases.

Despite the lurid revelations about his private life that have dogged Mr Mosley for months, he won a vote of confidence in Paris on Monday that allows him to retain his position until October 2009.

But several motoring associations who voted against the 68-year-old are now threatening a breakaway faction, which Mr Ecclestone believes could leave Mr Mosley a lame-duck president of motorsport's governing body, the International Automobile Federation (FIA).

'I hope it (the decision) hasn't destabilised sponsors or manufacturers. We are now in a position where nobody quite knows what will happen,' Mr Ecclestone said.

'All those who said things in the past, I don't imagine they are going to change their opinion now. They won't feel differently to the way they felt before.

'So it's going to be difficult for him to act as president of the FIA if the people who said before they don't want to meet with him maintain that position.' -- AFP