AIBA devolves further into chaos
THE power struggle at the top of Olympic boxing rumbles on with the Executive Committee of AIBA, the world governing body, jostling for control of the organisation with its president, Dr. Ching-kuo Wu.
AIBA staff were previously locked out of their office as the issue was contested. An Extraordinary Congress will take place November 10-13 in Dubai which will decide whether Dr. Wu will continue as president. An Interim Management Committee, chaired by Franco Falcinelli, has been set up and has gone to court in Switzerland, where AIBA is based, to establish who will run the organisation. Dr. Wu remains in control but there will be a hearing on August 17.
The Interim Management Committee’s concerns centre around the financial position of AIBA and the move to reduce the number of men’s weight divisions for the 2020 Olympics. “Probably the biggest is the fact some decisions have been made that have caused AIBA to be in a financial situation that isn’t a positive one,” their spokesman, Pat Fiacco told Boxing News, regarding the substantial debts AIBA has incurred. “As far as the [weight] categories are concerned, one of our concerns was simply that CK Wu had two people work with the IOC on these new weight divisions and these decisions and not once was it ever brought to the attention of the Executive Committee. There was a presentation made to us at the EC meeting as if these were the results without any type of debate. I think we have an obligation as an Executive Committee to at least have some input in this. So we just simply moved a motion that we want to work with the IOC to see if there’s other alternatives... We support the addition of the two women’s weight categories, we do struggle with the reduction of the two men’s categories. So we want to see if there’s an alternative that could be reached. Certainly one of the concerns was why weren’t we involved in the decision. The other thing is there’s been a number of decisions that have been unilateral decisions by the president without the Executive Committee’s input. We were elected as an Executive Committee to make those types of decisions, not just for one person to make those decisions. So there’s the transparency component.
“You have 17 of the 20 Executive Committee members support the formation of the Interim Management Committee but also the non confidence [vote]. What I mean by that is at the actual meeting there was 16 in attendance including the president. Of the 16 that voted for the Extraordinary Congress about confidence there were 13 yeses and two abstentions and one no which was President Wu’s no. In the past week the four that were absent sent emails indicating that they support they motion so now we’ve gone from 13 to 17 of the 20 in support. I don’t know how the president can operate without the confidence of the Executive Committee.”
The failings of AIBA’S drug testing, with a lack of out-of-competition procedures, has been a major issue but Fiacco believes the appropriate improvements are being made. “I think that measures have been taking to correct the drug testing situation. I think that those measures from what we’ve heard that there have been corrections made and we’re back in good standing in that regard,” he said.
He insists they are determined to avoid disrupting the men’s World championships, which are due to begin in August in Hamburg. Fiacco said, “We’re not going to forget why we exist and that is we exist to ensure that we have boxing happening in this world. All the coaches and athletes that are in the gyms, that’s our existence, we’re not going to allow this [to] get in the way of boxing operations around the world. We’ve already been in contact with the local organisers in Hamburg letting them know if they need any help from us, we’ll certainly be there to help as an Interim Management Committee, but also the office will be open so that the staff can service not only the local organising committee with respect to the organising of the World championships, but boxing business as usual.”
‘THERE HAVE BEEN UNILATERAL DECISIONS MADE’