Boxing Federation Moves Toward Reforms

(ATR) The international federation for boxing takes steps to comply with reforms demanded by the IOC.

A 12-member committee has been named to produce new statutes for AIBA. The IOC suspended the federation in June for an assortment of concerns that include governance, finance and refereeing. The IOC suspension, an unprecedented act against an Olympic federation, came with a roadmap to follow for AIBA’s return to the good graces of the IOC.

The committee includes representatives of the national federations from the U.S., Russia and China, the presidents of the five continental federations and four lawyers.

So far, no chair for the committee nor any representation from athletes. The committee is supposed to report on its work to the AIBA president, as well as Francois Carrard, who has been named to oversee the reforms drafted by the committee. Carrard, former director general of the IOC, has provided legal counsel to AIBA and other international federations.

The reforms were originally planned to be presented at an extraordinary general assembly in December. That’s now been moved to March 20 in Lausanne, allowing more time to work on the changes.

The AIBA Executive Committee approved the creation of the reform panel in a meeting last week led by interim president Mohamed Moustasahne.

An AIBA athletes commission has been formed and a representative will soon be named to take a seat on the EC. That development is one of the governance issues the IOC wants AIBA to addressto lift the suspension.

A task force was also named at the Lausanne meeting to handle marketing for the federation. Led by Russian Boxing Federation secretary general Umar Kremlev, the group will oversee the marketing of AIBA competitions such as world championships and come up with a global marketing plan.

The marketing group includes Di Wu, a Chinese businessman who has invested millions in AIBA, Emilia Grueva from the Bulgarian federation and Ray Silvas from USA Boxing.

Labeled variously in the AIBA announcement as a task force, committee and a commission, the marketing panel will handle bids for AIBA Congresses and EC meetings as well as debt collection. The finances of AIBA have been strained for at least four years now. Crushing debt, an absence of sponsors and the suspension of IOC revenues earmarked for AIBA has led to a depleted federation bank account.

This week bidding will open for the 2020 Youth World champs and the men’s and women’s 2021 world championships.

In a move to correct previous media reports about the status of the 36 judges implicated in problems at the Rio Olympics, AIBA says none of those officials have been suspended. The AIBA statement clarifies that the officials "were never suspended by AIBA". The federation statement says the 36 referees and judges are awaiting the outcome of a Special Investigation Committee report. AIBA says that the officials can work at the national level but are barred for now from international events.

The next update on AIBA reforms will come when the EC will be hosted by member Di Wu in his hometown of Xiamen, China on Dec. 19.

Reported by Ed Hula.