LAUSANNE: Boxing could be excluded from the 2020 Tokyo Games if the sport doesn’t sort out its governance and finance issues, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach warned on Sunday.
Bach’s comments are consistent with the stand taken by the IOC in the wake of the decision by the International Boxing Association (AIBA), the governing body for amateur boxing, to name its longest-serving vice-president Gafur Rakhimov, long accused of having links to major crime syndicates in The Caucasus, as its new interim president.
The IOC had responded to the appointment in a statement saying that it was ‘extremely worried about the governance in AIBA’ and that its chief ethics and compliance officer would be giving a report to the IOC’s executive board meeting in South Korea before the board decides on ‘further measures’.
The IOC’s excutive board met in Pyeongchang Sunday and decided to maintain the financial suspension of AIBA and demanded a new report on AIBA governance by April 30th.
Speaking in Pyeongchang ahead of next week’s Winter Olympics, Bach expressed concern about how the sport is run and said, “The IOC reserves the right to review the inclusion of boxing in the programs of the Youth Olympics 2018 and Tokyo 2020.”
He added that the IOC would be freezing all contacts with AIBA.
AIBA, in a reply on Sunday, stated that it has submitted a progress report and is taking positive steps. Boxing, which has been part of every Olympics except the 1904 edition, has faced doping and refereeing issues for a decade. After several rule changes, AIBA faced criticism over controversial decisions at the Rio Olympics which led to suspension of judges.
The governing body has also been riven with in-fighting for months. AIBA President Dr CK Wu was initially suspended and later stepped down in November after a dispute with the executive committee. Interim president Franco Falcinelli resigned abruptly, which led to the elevation of Rakhimov.
Referring to Rakhimov’s appointment, Bach said, “There are issues surrounding to say, diplomatically, the new interim president of AIBA. We have been on this case of the refereeing in Rio. We at the time received a report from a committee having been established by AIBA which was dismissing these concerns, but from the fact that refereeing is a part of the decision we already took in December … and that we were requesting more information, you can conclude that we are still looking into this issue.”
AIBA, meanwhile, continued to claim that it was taking serious steps to improve its governance. It released a “progress report” Sunday that reads:
“Today, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board decided to maintain the financial suspension of AIBA and demanded a new report on AIBA governance by April 30th . This decision was made despite AIBA’s fulfilment of the IOC’s request to submit a Progress Report outlining all steps AIBA was asked to take and continues to take to improve its governance. To access the full AIBA Progress Report, please see the AIBA website.
“This decision is extremely disappointing for AIBA as it hoped the IOC Executive Board would have understood that the processes necessary to implement even more measures require more time and that the positive steps already taken in recent times are evidence of AIBA’s strong efforts and willingness to reform.
“Over the next six months AIBA will be in the process of a complete organisational review, which will lead to the ‘New Foundation Plan’ for AIBA. This plan and the recommendations produced will be discussed during the AIBA Executive Committee meeting in July and an update will be provided to the IOC in the requested April 30th report.
“In the meantime, AIBA will continue its efforts to convince the IOC of its determination to not repeat any of the past mistakes and its commitment to a fresh, positive future centered on good governance and sound management.”
