The Secretary General of the Russian Boxing Federation, member of the AIBA Executive Committee and First Vice-President of EUBC Umar Kremlev commented on the recommendations of the IOC Executive Board regarding the International Boxing Association (AIBA), which were made following the report of the Inquiry Committee.
“It is necessary to carry out the most serious reforms in AIBA as soon as possible,” said Kremlev. – First of all, it is necessary to pay all existing debts in full. I want to call to action AIBA EC and the entire boxing community: now the moment has come for us when decisions need to be taken carefully and quickly. We must listen and accept all the comments made by the IOC, eliminate all the shortcomings that are still exists. Our goal is to protect the interests of boxers and coaches, to preserve the main organization that has been managing our sport for more than 70 years. For this you need to do real things, putting boxing above any personal interests.
If we can all unite and carry out a big reform within AIBA, this will help to fundamentally change a difficult situation. Although the current leadership of AIBA for unknown reasons refused my proposal to close the debts of the International Boxing Association, it still remains in force – I am ready to help in the shortest possible time to pay off debts. For this, a special fund will be created in which people, individuals and legal entities who are not indifferent to boxing, will attract funds, including me. The whole boxing community will see that it will be clear and transparent, and all steps to close the debts will be made public.
If someone doubts that we can repay debts, we are ready to show this transparently in the nearest future. We will work with one of the four best world offices providing auditing and consulting services: Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, KPMG. One of them will be selected and will provide a report on where the money came from and how each debt was repaid. We have already begun negotiations.
We also need to finally bring order to refereeing and judging, which should be associated with a model of honesty and objectivity. To eliminate the human factor, it’s time to switch to electronic judging control systems.
I want to note that it is possible to agree partially with the report of the IOC Inquiry Committee. For objectivity, it must be examined by all the EC members on each item. And see what is true and what needs to be solved, and what is already a resolved matter. It is necessary to establish interaction with the IOC Inquiry Committee and to conduct a dialogue. If the decision of the IOC Executive Board is not revised at the IOC Session in June and if AIBA loses recognition of the international federation, it will mean that the world of amateur boxing will be in chaos for more than a year. We must not allow this to happen, and for this we need to do a lot of work.
My goal is not to become the head of AIBA, but to help reanimate the organization. We must move from words to deeds, to convene an Extraordinary Congress, where to invite observers from the IOC and from the sports community, and where to hold elections and change the entire system completely, to re-elect the entire AIBA leadership. For the organization to be headed by people who love the sport of boxing. The main thing is that the oligarchs or corrupt officials do not come to control boxing, but that people who really want to develop and popularize boxing around the world.
