Amateur boxing on the ropes: Are new rules to end corruption too little, too late?
Global governing body initiates reforms as it fends off allegations of widespread fight fixing
One of the most dramatic images to emerge from last summer’s Rio Olympics came from the boxing ring, where Russia’s Vladimir Nikitin, his face bloodied and bruised, had his arm raised in triumph while his opponent, Ireland’s Michael Conlan, raised his middle finger to ringside judges in the universal symbol of contempt.
After his bantamweight (56-kg) quarter-final loss, Conlan pronounced: “(The judges) were (expletive) cheats. They’re known to be cheats. Amateur boxing stinks from the core, right to the top.”
It was one of a number of controversial decisions to emerge from the Olympic boxing tournament, decisions that the sport’s governing body AIBA (International Boxing Association) characterized as questionable, but not the product of widespread corruption.
AIBA has since undertaken a series of reforms that will likely be ratified at an extraordinary congress in Lausanne, Switzerland, later this month.
The organization believes those reforms will answer all of its critics’ questions. The IOC, among others, isn’t so sure.
In a story that has the makings of an international scandal, AIBA is trying to fend off allegations of fight fixing and crooked judging in Rio and during the run-up to the Summer Games, as well as financial irregularities that may have contravened Swiss law. According to The New York Times, the accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) uncovered so many problems during its review of AIBA last year that it recommended AIBA hire a criminal lawyer.
The focal point of the review, which Postmedia has seen, is a 2010 loan for US$10 million from Benkons, a company based in Azerbaijan. AIBA is the guarantor of the loan, which was to be used as seed money for the AIBA-sponsored World Series of Boxing in North America. Payment was due in 2013, according to the Times. It’s still outstanding.
AIBA claims former executive director Ho Kim was responsible for negotiating the loan. Kim has since told The Guardian that AIBA president Dr. Ching-kuo Wu was personally involved in procuring the loan. The Guardian has also connected Wu with a massive 100-year, $109-million deal with AliBaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant.
As for the judging, allegations have been made within AIBA that a group of seven “five-star” referees, the most experienced and influential officials in the sport, predetermined the winners of bouts in Rio and in the runup to the Olympics. Judges communicated first through hand signals. Then, when their cover was blown, by simply meeting before competitions to decide the winners. In Rio, the most infamous of these decisions was Nikitin’s win over Conlan, in which the Russian was so battered, he couldn’t make his semifinal bout with American Shakur Stevenson.
But that was hardly the only decision that brought unwanted attention to AIBA. In the heavyweight (91-kg) class, Russia’s Evgeny Tishchenko was awarded the gold medal over Kazakhstan’s Vassiliy Levit in a unanimous decision that was roundly booed by the crowd in Rio. After that fight, Irish trainer Shane McGuigan offered this on Twitter: “Boxers spend four years training for these championships, to get robbed after nine minutes. I’ve seen 20-plus wrong decisions.”
Questions were also asked about the six medals awarded to France, where former AIBA executive director Karim Bouzidi resides. Included in the French medals was another contentious decision in favour of France’s Tony Yoka over Great Britain’s Joe Joyce in the super-heavyweight (91-kg-plus) gold medal bout. Bouzidi — who succeeded Kim as executive director — was reassigned during the Rio Games and his contractual situation with AIBA is currently being negotiated.
Canada, for its part, was railing over split decisions against Ariane Fortin in the women’s middleweight (75-kg) division and Arthur Biyarslanov in the men’s light-welterweight (64-kg) division.
“The credibility of the sport is in jeopardy,” Boxing Canada president Pat Fiacco, one of the leading voices among the reformers, said in an email following the decision against Biyarslanov.
In Rio, AIBA issued a press release that stated it had reviewed 239 fights and “all but a handful of the decisions were not at the level expected.” Still, the organization took immediate steps following the Rio games, which included:
The appointment in early October of a three-man commission, comprised of Americans Tom Virgets and Ray Silvas and Terry Smith of Wales, to investigate the events in and around the Olympics;
The suspension of all 36 referees and judges who worked in Rio pending this investigation;
The disbandment of the five-star program and a new system where referees and judges are appointed by computer instead of the draw commission that handed out assignments in Rio. (Suspended and sent home from Rio were: Rakhymzhan Rysbayev of Kazakhstan, Michael Gallagher of Ireland, Gerardo Poggi of Argentina, Mariusz Gorny of Poland, Mik Basi of Great Britain, Kheira Sidi Yakoub of Algeria and Vladislav Malyshev of Russia);
The removal of two of the three international technical officials who worked on the draw commission in Rio.
That, at least, is AIBA’s attempt to clean up its image in the ring.
But uncomfortable questions over its finances are now being asked.
The IOC is looking at AIBA and the boxing competition in Rio as part of its post-Olympic review and part of that review concerns the PwC report that was proposed by the IOC in 2015, about the time Kim was ousted as AIBA’s executive director.
PwC produced a 40-page document under the title Project Tiger, which reported on the $10-million loan from Benkons and AIBA’s business practices.
“Through the procedures performed, it appears that the generally accepted accounting practice was not consistently adhered to in addition to lack of documentary proof of transactions pertaining to the North American (World Series of Boxing) operations,” it concluded before adding: “... it’s recommended that legal counsel be sought by AIBA as the actions, and non-actions, of some of the directors may contravene the articles of Swiss Criminal Code.”
AIBA, which has yet to act on the PwC report, says the copy that made its way to the Times is a draft and the final version will be released in a couple of months.
In the meantime, the IOC will also seek clarification on how AIBA spent $14 million it received from the London Olympics for the 2012-16 Olympic cycle.
According to Bulgarian journalist Ogi Georgiev, AIBA is also set to receive $16 million to $18 million from the IOC for the Tokyo quadrennial.
“The IOC has made it clear with the Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms that we expect good governance and transparency from all sporting organizations,” IOC spokesperson Emmanuelle Moreau said in an email.
“However, as an organization independent of the IOC, in the first instance it must be up to AIBA to implement such good governance and to respond to the findings of the audit.”
Wu’s term as president is set to expire in 2018. According to The Guardian, AIBA is currently negotiating that 100-year, $109-million deal with AliSports, a division of AliBaba, which would solve the organization’s financial problems and position Wu to secure his power base within AIBA.