Turmoil Said to Cost Major Sponsor for Boxing

FedEx Said to Reject Boxing Sponsorship

While the challenge filed against the legality of this week’s AIBA Congress was rejected last week by a Swiss court, the wrangling is said to have cost the boxing federation a $2.8 million sponsorship from FedEx.

AIBA Executive Director Ho Kim made the claim while delivering his report to the assembly Monday in Almaty.

"We had two months of negotiations with [FedEx], $2 million for World Series of Boxing, $800,000 for title sponsorship of AIBA events," Kim told the AIBA delegates.

"We were very close with Federal Express because their brand attribute is speed and accountability for delivery meets the attributes of our sport of boxing. So they were very interested," he said.

But in the middle of these negotiations, a group of AIBA national federations launched a legal challenge to the AIBA Congress, asserting that it was not properly called for Almaty.

Some months ago the AIBA Executive Committee voted to switch the quadrennial congress from Busan, Korea to Almaty due to a dispute with the Korean Boxing Federation. That led to the court case filed last month, but dismissed last week by a Swiss judge.

"Suddenly we had a phone call," Kim said.

"There are two reasons they rejected our sponsorship at the last minute. One of them is the sport of boxing’s image is too violent for their brand. The second is that they are not sure our organization is politically stable."

A spokeswoman from FedEx confirmed to Around the Rings that they were "not in negotiations with this organization", but would not elaborate.

Kim pointed out that the narrow five-vote victory won four years ago by reform candidate C.K. Wu is still seen as a sign that the federation is a divided organization. He told delegates how Wu has tried to build unity, visiting boxing federation leaders around the globe, even those who are believed to have voted against Wu.

Kim pleaded with delegates to think of the greater good of the sport before they sue AIBA.

"It’s in our hands. Whether we continue to be a politically unstable organization and continue to be rejected by all those commercial partners," he said.

"Whatever happens inside, should stay inside. We have a serious lesson to learn from the Federal Express negotiations."

Kim said major decisions such as moving the location of the congress are made after debate and discussion behind closed doors of the ruling Executive Committee. He says regardless of the outcome of decisions, committee members should speak as one voice when the meeting is over.

"Protect our organization, protect our sport," said Kim.

Congress Heads to Last Day

A two-hour review of changes to the AIBA statutes pushed Monday’s opening session of the congress to end two hours late and without handling the proposed new scoring system or the financial report of the federation on the agenda for Monday.

Perhaps as a measure of how much AIBA has changed since Wu became president, the discussion about the changes did not disintegrate into an unruly atmosphere, despite the late hour, as might have been the case under the old regime of the late Anwar Chowdhry.

And the changes – covering dozens of statutes – were adopted by near unanimous vote of the 100 federations represented in Almaty.

One of the changes makes English the official language of the federation, eliminating a shared status with French. The new statutes gives the AIBA President the option to call for French, Russian, Spanish, or Arabic as needed.

Also Monday, AIBA announced the relocation of its international boxing academy planned forBécancour, Quebec after the Canadian government failed to allocate the necessary funds.

Kazakhstan, meanwhile, pledged $33 million of government money to take over the academy, now slated to open July 2012 in Almaty.

Elections Close Congress Tuesday

The vote for AIBA President and vice presidents is now likely for Tuesday afternoon after the spillover from the long Monday session is handled.

Not much suspense for the vote for an unopposed C.K. Wu for a second term. Whether Uzbek sport kingpin Gafur Rakhimov can hold onto his VP slot is the only uncertainty, with three other posts unopposed. Jianping Chang of China is the other contender.

There are 50 candidates for 19 slots on the Executive Committee. To speed the process for this somewhat complicated ballot, electronic voting will be used, similar to the system employed at IOC Sessions. Former IOC Director General Francois Carrard will supervise the voting as chair of the AIBA Elections Commission, a task he handled at the IOC.

Written and reported in Almaty by "Edgar" Hula.