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Boxing Federation Controversy Puts Sport at Risk in the Next Olympics
Source: New York Times
Boxing Federation Controversy Puts Sport at Risk in the Next Olympics
By Tariq Panja and Ken Belson
Nov. 21, 2018
LONDON — The International Olympic Committee is moving toward expelling boxing’s international federation, a step that could imperil one of the tent-pole events of the Summer Olympics at the 2020 Games in Tokyo.
Controversy has for years plagued the boxing federation, which is known by the acronym A.I.B.A. Then last month, a man the United States Treasury Department has described as “one of Uzbekistan’s leading criminals” won the A.I.B.A. presidency and took control of the world governing body.
That man, Gafur Rakhimov, a Russian citizen, had been A.I.B.A.’s interim leader after his predecessor, C. K. Wu, was forced out following a financial scandal that pushed the organization to the brink of bankruptcy. The scandal raised questions — many still unanswered — regarding the whereabouts of millions of dollars of A.I.B.A. revenue.
To his supporters, Rakhimov is seen as the federation’s savior because of deals he cut with A.I.B.A. creditors. To the I.O.C., his appointment is the latest misstep by an organization that has lurched from crisis to crisis, including questions about the fairness of boxing judges and A.I.B.A.’s antidoping measures.
-snip-
By Tariq Panja and Ken Belson
Nov. 21, 2018
LONDON — The International Olympic Committee is moving toward expelling boxing’s international federation, a step that could imperil one of the tent-pole events of the Summer Olympics at the 2020 Games in Tokyo.
Controversy has for years plagued the boxing federation, which is known by the acronym A.I.B.A. Then last month, a man the United States Treasury Department has described as “one of Uzbekistan’s leading criminals” won the A.I.B.A. presidency and took control of the world governing body.
That man, Gafur Rakhimov, a Russian citizen, had been A.I.B.A.’s interim leader after his predecessor, C. K. Wu, was forced out following a financial scandal that pushed the organization to the brink of bankruptcy. The scandal raised questions — many still unanswered — regarding the whereabouts of millions of dollars of A.I.B.A. revenue.
To his supporters, Rakhimov is seen as the federation’s savior because of deals he cut with A.I.B.A. creditors. To the I.O.C., his appointment is the latest misstep by an organization that has lurched from crisis to crisis, including questions about the fairness of boxing judges and A.I.B.A.’s antidoping measures.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/21/sports/boxing-federation-olympics.html