Waiting for AIBA in "Dominican Case"

(ATR) The Dominican Boxing Federation (Fedoboxa) acknowledged that it committed "a slip of good faith" when trying to help with a loan to pay the AIBA membership fee of nine national federations in the Caribbean.

With this help, these countries would avoid being excluded from the vote in the AIBA Congress on December 12 and 13, in which a new president will be elected.

The new president of Fedoboxa, Rubén García, told Around the Rings that on October 12 he received a phone call from his counterpart from the US Virgin Islands, José Rosario, who requested an urgent favor for that day, a holiday in many countries.

That day had been set as the last date for the member federations of the Confederation of the Americas and AIBA to update the payment of their annual fees and thus guarantee their vote at the December general assembly.

"As a federation we responded to the call of that old Dominican boxing friend (Rosario) and proceeded to lend him $4,800 on the condition that he would reimburse us," García explained, "And after Monday 12, on Wednesday, we were already receiving the amount of money indicated above as a refund."

"It was not an exchange of will to vote for a gift, it was as a loan.

"I recognize that it was a mistake and we took responsibility for that slip in good faith, perhaps under pressure from the call on that holiday," he said.

García clarified that with the exception of Rosario, he does not personally know the rest of the presidents of the national federations of the Caribbean that were helped.

The Fedoboxa boss "completely" disassociated the Honorary Vice President of AIBA, Bienvenido Solano, from any knowledge about the arrangement.

Dominican Solano is one of the four candidates, so far, in the race for the AIBA presidency alongside Suleyman Mikayilov (Azerbaijan), Anas Al Otaiba (United Arab Emirates), and Boris Van der Vorst (Netherlands).

García said that in this context this issue is intended to discredit the campaign for Solano because "he is the candidate to win."

Garcia's reaction followed the announcement by the president of the Americas Boxing Confederation (AMBC), the Argentine Osvaldo Bisbal, of a letter he sent to the heads of the AIBA Disciplinary and Ethics commissions regarding this payment of fees by the Fedoboxa.

The money went to the federations of Saint Maarten, the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, US Virgin Islands, Dominica, Anguilla, Bermuda, Haiti and Suriname, according to the AMBC report.

Hernán Salvo, AMBC's executive director, told ATR that a response to Bisbal's report has not yet been received from AIBA.

Salvo said that it was the interim president of the AIBA, Mohamed Moustahsane, who requested the report on a federation that had nominated a candidate, and "given the serious situation", wanted the letter, the proof of the transfer and a file sent by Fedoboxa of how the loan bills were to be distributed.

Salvo clarified that in Bisbal's report to AIBA, Solano is not mentioned but rather the Dominican Boxing Federation "who acted without our permission".

So far it is still unclear whether the nine Caribbean federations will be able to exercise their right to vote.

Homepage photo: AIBA

Written and reported by Miguel Hernandez

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