AIBA Decision Ahead for Presidential Election

(ATR) A decision is expected this weekend on whether AIBA President C.K. Wu will face a challenge for the leadership of the international boxing federation.

Englishman Paul King is seeking to topple Wu, elected in 2006 as a reform candidate for the then-troubled federation.

King is waiting to discover whether he has gathered the required 20 nominations from other nations to challenge Wu in an election set for next month.

Friday was the deadline for nominations to be lodged at AIBA headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. Executive director Ho Kim tells ATR that all candidacies will be announced on Monday, 30 days before the vote.

This weekend, an electoral commission will review the filings of both King and Wu and decide whether to certify the candidates, a recommendation that will go to the AIBA Executive Committee.

But King may struggle to find enough backers because, according to a member of the committee.

"Some countries are afraid what might happen to them if they support Paul," says the source who spoke to Around the Rings on condition of anonymity.

"The federations fear that they might be suspended if they put their name on a piece of paper," the official said.

The AIBA Congress, held once every four years, is due to open in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on November 1. It was originally slated to be staged in Busan, South Korea, but was moved when the host federation was suspended.

King, the chief executive of the Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABAE) who has had a seat on AIBA’s executive since 2006, has been a vociferous critic of the way the international federation has been managed recently.

As many as one-third of national federations have had their AIBA memberships suspended, mostly for failing to pay their $250 annual subscriptions. Suspended nations will be barred from the Almaty Congress.

AIBA is already facing at least two cases at the Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS) over its recent suspensions, and King is ready to pursue this matter through the international arbitrators, too.

King estimates that around 70 of AIBA’s 198 member federations may be suspended from Congress under Article 16 of the organization’s statutes.

An AIBA spokesman refused to reveal the full list of suspended federations. "We don’t publish that information," he said.

Asked how AIBA’s other federations would know which countries were suspended, he said, "They don’t."

King, speaking exclusively to Around the Rings, strongly denied claims by AIBA that he had endorsed the executive’s decision to ban from Congress those countries which had not paid their subscriptions.

"I did raise the subject at our meeting in Marrakech in July," King said, "and I abstained from the vote.

"I certainly did not vote in favor of the motion. I believe that the AIBA Congress should reflect a sport that has 198 affiliated nations. As the world governingbody, Congress is an event we should take pride in, it should be properly democratic and there should be no discrimination.

"I abhor litigation, and I am hopeful that we can sort this out within AIBA, but we have consulted lawyers and they are of the view that it is AIBA’s statutes that take precedence, not a set of bylaws that can be changed by the executive and which have not ever been seen by the federation’s full membership."

King, 53, from Liverpool, has been in the sport all his life, as a boxer, coach and administrator. In his four years with ABAE, he says participation in the sport in England has boomed, with a 33 per cent increase in participants and with many schools, for the first time in 30 years, actually introducing the sport.

King wants a similar development program to be encouraged internationally by AIBA, but is concerned that too many AIBA resources are being devoted to the elite World Series.

King is not the only skeptic. Other critics of the innovative scheme, whereamateur boxers would be able to win large cash prizes, say that despite the involvement of U.S. marketing agency IMG, the World Series has still to land a major sponsorship or TV deal.

"It’s got appeal in the Asian countries," one insider told Around the Rings, "but it hasn’t caught on in America or Europe. There’s already too many competitive demands on the top amateurs."

More than one interviewee told Around the Rings of their fear of reprisal if they spoke publicly.

King says he wants all AIBA’s member nations to be allowed to play a full part in the up-coming Congress, and cites the 2006 Congress, when Wu was elected.

"There, delegates were allowed to pay their federation’s dues up to an hour before the meeting opened," King said.

"You have the danger that this could be AIBA’s smallest Congress for many years. This would be the first time ever when participating nations have not been able to pay before Congress convened," King said, "with convened being the key word."

The AIBA commission will consider this weekend whether election petitions from national federations that are considered suspended will count toward the number needed by King.

Wu has kept quiet about the possibility of defending his presidency after a single term in office. When he was elected by a narrow margin four years ago, Wu toppled an incumbent of 20 years. At that time AIBA was under fire from the IOC for bad judging and allegations of corruption. The IOC suspended more than $1 million in TV rights payments due to AIBA in 2004 and was close to suspending the federation from participating in the Beijing Games.

Wu, IOC member from Chinese Taipei, was elected at a raucous congress in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic by just four votes.

Since then IOC revenues have been restored. As part of his reforms, Wu won the adoption of changes to the selection of judges and referees for AIBA events to eliminate the possibility of fixed bouts. Wu also has led the creation of boxing academies around the globe to train and teach athletes and officials, as well as the World Series of Boxing, the new event for AIBA nearing its debut.

Written by Steven Downes and Ed Hula.