Rakhimov elected boxing chief to cast doubt on Olympic future
MOSCOW: Controversial Uzbek businessman Gafur Rakhimov was elected president of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) on Saturday despite fears that his appointment could lead to the sport’s ejection from the Olympic Games.
Rakhimov won 86 of the 134 second-round votes in the ballot in Moscow to KO his only opponent, former boxer Serik Konakbayev of Kazakhstan.
Rakhimov, previously interim president, courted controversy after being linked to organised crime by the US Treasury Department.
He has vigorously denied the allegations telling AFP in a recent interview that he had “never been involved in transnational criminal organisations or whatever has been said about me”.
He called his presence on the US Treasury list a “mistake” and hoped it would be “corrected” within six months.
But in October the IOC froze relations with the AIBA and refused to accredit the 67-year-old for the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires.
IOC president Thomas Bach said in February that he was “extremely worried about the governance of AIBA”.
And though amateur boxing’s under-fire chiefs handed over a crucial report on internal reforms to the IOC in April, the threat of losing a place in the Olympic movement remains.
On the eve of his election Rakhimov assured delegates and fans that “boxing will naturally be at the Olympic Games in 2020, Paris in 2024 and Los Angeles in 2028”.
And addressing a post-election press conference on Saturday he said he would “continue to work with the IOC”.
“We’ll reach an agreement” with the Olympic body, he stated, adding: “If we don’t reach agreement, we will think about how not to make boxing suffer.”
Saturday’s election was delayed several hours after a glitch in the AIBA’s electronic voting system. A secret vote only went ahead after the AIBA was able to get its hands on a replacement ballot box.
Until last week, Rakhimov was the only presidential candidate after Konakbayev, who won silver at the Moscow Games in 1980 for the Soviet Union, was barred from standing by an AIBA election commission for allegedly failing to submit certain forms by a deadline.
Konakbayev lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport and last Tuesday’s decision by sports’ top arbitration court ruled in his favour.
After missing out on the top job Konakbayev said: “It’s not the end but the beginning of a movement to reform this federation and save boxing. We won’t give up the fight.”
Rakhimov’s bid had hit a hitch on Friday.