(ATR) The first candidate has stepped forward to declare his candidacy for president of International Boxing Association AIBA.
Serik Konakbayev is president of the Asian Boxing Confederation and is a vice president of AIBA. He is an Olympic silver medalist for the former USSR at the 1980 Games in Moscow.
He is nominated by the Kazakhstan boxing federation and will need 20 other national federations to support the nomination. Deadline is Sept. 23.
Interim President Gafur Rakhimov is expected to seek the presidency. He was tapped in January as interim president.
Other nomination attempts could come from Europe or the Americas.
The election in Moscow at the Nov. 1 AIBA Congress could be a turning point for the federation. The IOC has suspended financial payments and other routine business with the federation pending resolution of a range of issues. Refereeing,finance, governance and doping control are all included.
The IOC has threatened to keep boxing off the Olympic program in Tokyo if AIBA fails to comply.
The role of Rakhimov as the leader of AIBA is of particular concern to the IOC. The Uzbek-born businessman has a long history of service to boxing in Asia and the Olympic Council of Asia. But he is also under watch by the U.S. Treasury Department for links to Russian organized crime. Rakhimov denies any criminal ties and has never been charged. He is seeking to remove his name from the blacklist that prohibits his travel to the U.S.
AIBA has launched a top to bottom review of its operations to address the IOC concerns. The IOC president has indicated the outcome of the election in November will help determine the fate of AIBA and boxing at Tokyo 2020.
Sources tell Around the Rings that if the IOC remains unhappy with AIBA after the Moscow congress, there is a possibility that the federation could be suspended as the governing body for the sport in the Olympics, but still allow boxers to compete in Tokyo. Details of how such a tournament could be organized remain to be settled.
Reported by Ed Hula.
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