Konakbayev Launches AIBA Presidential Campaign Manifesto

(ATR) Serik Konakbayev, who is seeking nomination for the presidency of AIBA, vows to strengthen boxing as a sport and overhaul the federation’s governance and restore its financial integrity.

The Asian Boxing Confederation president has sent his 12-page campaign manifesto, titled ‘Make Boxing Great Again’, to all national boxing federations.

Konakbayev will attend a hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Oct. 30, which will rule on his eligibility to be a rival candidate to interim AIBA chief Gafur Rakhimov in next week’s presidential election.

He is appealing to CAS over the election committee’s decision to exclude him from the Nov. 3 election in Moscow. Konakbayev claims nomination forms that arrived on Sept. 24 were not counted, which would have given him the required 20 nominations needed to get on the ballot sheet.

"I am very confident that I will be permitted to stand for the presidency at the upcoming AIBA Congress in Moscow on 3 November," he said in a statement.

The AIBA vice president from Kazakhstan said the manifesto was drawn up following consultation with boxers, coaches and national federations. "At this crucial time in our history we must strengthen our sport before any other priority," said Konakbayev, a silver medalist at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

"We need to return our focus on boxing as a sport to enhance the quality of our overall governance, financial integrity and the strength of our brand."

Interim president Gafur Rakhimov will stand unopposed for the leadership of the Olympic boxing federation on Nov. 3 – unless Konakbayev’s appeal is upheld by CAS.

The IOC is refusing to accept Rakhimov as head of the federation. 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.

In recent weeks and months, the IOC has reiterated its threat to expel boxing from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic program unless AIBA fixes governance issues.

Rakhimov repeatedly dismissed the alleged criminal links detailed in a U.S. Treasury listing, in an exclusive interview with Around The Rings last week. It accuses him of being "one of the leaders of Uzbek organized crime".

In his manifesto, Konakbayev calls for "drastic action" to be taken to save boxing from the Olympic axe.

"This is why I would like to be the AIBA president; not for myself, but to help save our sport. To save our sport will require courage, bold ideas, dedication and most of all, transparency to the world of sport, and specifically, the IOC," he said in his presidential campaign document.He urged all 203 AIBA member federations to "fight for this cause because anything less will not succeed".

In a jab at Rakhimov’s predicament, who the IOC deem unfit to lead the federation, Konakbayev said: "AIBA's future leader should be chosen based on values of trust, transparency, fairness to all and a vision for the future of our sport."

In a further plea to the federations who will cast their votes on Nov.3 , he said: "Politics should play no role in the process; politics and a lack of honest transparency are clearly why our sport is facing the challenges it meets today."

Manifesto Promises

His pledges include: creating new boxing programs and new disciplines to keep pace with other federations targeting the younger generation; creating initiatives to drive good governance, financial transparency and ethics; reshaping AIBA technical rules and management; developing women’s boxing and improving gender equality; and establishing an anti-doping unit at AIBA headquarters.

Konakbayev also plans to overhaul AIBA’s confederation structure, including amending the statutes so that all presidents are elected only by their confederation national federations.

He says the five-member EC Bureau system – which acts on behalf of the entire executive committee for all issues – should be scrapped, claiming "it is inappropriate and is obviously biased and not democratic in any sense of the word". The Asian boxing chief opposes any executive decisions made via a mail vote, calling for a full review and evaluation of all members of AIBA’s ruling body.

Instead, Konakbayev proposes rotational executive committee positions be given to all national federations "to provide them the opportunity to participate in the governance of both AIBA and confederations".

In a bid to widen his appeal as a presidential candidate to national federations, he has also vowed to return all Olympic revenues to national federations via the confederations. From the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, AIBA received over $17 million from the IOC’s revenue share-out to international federations. A similar handout is expected from Tokyo 2020 if boxing is not axed from the program.

"All national federations should have the right to share this money with all others. This is the best movement for our solidarity that I can promise to reward your contributions to AIBA and our sport," he said.

Addressing the boxing federation’s financial crisis, based on years of mismanagement, Konakbayev vows to set up "new, open, and transparent financial structures" and to replace the position of AIBA treasurer with an AIBA Finance Commission.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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