Konakbayev Confident of AIBA Presidency After Winning CAS Appeal

(ATR) Serik Konakbayev tells Around the Rings many federations are ready to "switch their support" to him after he was cleared to stand in this week’s AIBA presidential election.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Tuesday upheld the appeal filed by the Olympic boxing federation vice president following a decision by the AIBA election committee to exclude him from the Nov. 3 election in Moscow. Konakbayev had claimed nomination forms that arrived on Sept. 24 were not counted.

CAS said today that the federation’s election committee "unduly refused the nominations returned on a wrong form by several federations in support of their candidate, while such nominations should have been considered as being validly expressed".

"Therefore, the panel acknowledged that Serik Konakbayev reached the threshold of 20 nominations supporting his candidature for the AIBA presidency within the relevant time limit."

The decision means the Kazakhstan silver medalist at the 1980 Moscow Olympics will be the only challenger to interim president Gafur Rakhimov in Saturday’s election. AIBA, in a statement on the CAS decision, said it was "pleased to welcome an additional candidate to participate in the election".

In an exclusive interview with Around the Rings, Konakbayev – who last week circulated his 12-page manifesto ‘Make Boxing Great Again’ to all national boxing federations – claimed he had enough support to be elected AIBA president.

He said the many federations who had supported Rakhimov "were happy to hear that I was now a candidate and told me that they were ready to switch their support to me".

"Now that the electorate are able to read my manifesto and consider my detailed program as well as my proposed leadership style, I expect to achieve a majority of votes if I am able to stand at the election," he said.

"If I become president I will restore a culture of democratic debate and decision making and get away from a closed-door style of administration," he pledged.

Election Battle

The IOC has registered its concerns about Rakhimov being elected head of AIBA, succeeding C.K. Wu. The Uzbek-born Russian businessman, interim boxing chief since January, is on a U.S. Treasury Department list for alleged connections to Russian transnational criminal organizations.

The IOC has repeatedly restated its threat to expel boxing from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic program unless AIBA fixes governance issues.

Rakhimov rubbished the allegations detailed in a U.S. Treasury listing, in an interview withAround The Rings earlier this month. It accuses him of being "one of the leaders of Uzbek organized crime".

His Kazakh presidential challenger denies there is anything in his past to which the IOC might register concerns.

"I have been a famous athlete in my country, a member of Parliament and a successful businessman. I am sure there is nothing in my background that will cause objections to the IOC oranyone else," Konakbayev told ATR.

Restoring Credibility

If elected, he vowed "to spend as long as it takes" at AIBA headquarters in Lausanne "to get our organization and sport back on track", working closely with its current administration to deliver the "necessary reforms".

"I believe very strongly that boxing must remain in the Olympic program and that we should work with the IOC to ensure that AIBA remains the governing body for the sport at the Games," he said. "This should be goal number one for the new president – restore the confidence of the IOC and the credibility of AIBA as an organization.

"If AIBA loses Olympic status it is not just funding which will disappear but the Olympic dreams of young boxers."

Konakbayev was clear on why he wants to lead AIBA out of turbulent times for the boxing federation.

"The recent past has been extremely damaging for the image and reputation of AIBA," he said.

"We need a new start and a new image to help us put the past behind us and regain the trust and respect of our partners. With the situation between AIBA and the IOC deteriorating fast, I felt that boxing faced the threat of being removed from the Games. I knew that I had the experience and credibility to make a difference and I decided to stand for the office of president," Konakbayev explained.

"We must quickly and firmly address the issues of trust and governance facing AIBA," he said. Further challenges included building new revenue streams for the benefit of member federations.

"We all know that scandals and disputes related to refereeing and judging has damaged our sport’s reputation badly in the past. One of our biggest priorities is to develop systems to select and train better officials. We also need a more balanced and objective way of choosing them, especially for the major competitions," he said.

"I plan to set up a new database which will be transparent and objective, so we can select the right officials on the right occasion. I also want to forbid the involvement of AIBA management in any judging situation."

Restoring the federation’s financial stability was his first priority, he said. Olympic revenues from the IOC would go directly to the national federations via the confederations rather than being shared out by the AIBA administration.

Among a raft of other reforms, he promised to "make the executive committee more democratic, accountable and transparent, especially in terms of our finances, but above all, let us ensure that our federations and Confederations have a real voice in how AIBA is run.

"We don’t need another ‘radical revolution’ at AIBA but to focus on practical measures of damage control: the first priority is to repair what is broken. Once that is done, we can start to put the heart and soul back into boxing," he added.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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