ATR Extra: USA Boxing Wants Answers

(ATR) USA Boxing will endorse a candidate for AIBA president based on a questionnaire sent to the seven contenders.

Mike McAtee, Executive Director of USA Boxing, tells Around the Rings that the 10 questions will reveal "great insight into the platforms or the manifestos of all the candidates" vying to lead the international boxing federation, which has been suspended by the IOC.

McAtee said that the Lalovic Report, commissioned by the IOC, "called for change of leadership, focusing on governance and athletes, so this election has an opportunity to move Olympic-style boxing forward."

The election will be held Dec. 12 during a virtual congress.

In posing the questions, USA Boxing revealed its position and statistics supporting that stance. The questions, some paraphrased and abbreviated, concern:

1) Position on allowing professional boxers to participate in amateur Olympic-style boxing. AIBA voted in 2015 to allow professional boxers into the 2016 Rio Games. In December 2016, USA Boxing’s Board of Directors unanimously agreed that pro boxers should not be allowed to participate at the Olympic Games.

2) Position on making headgear mandatory at all age levels (male/female elite, youth and junior) of competition. In 2013, AIBA approved a rule removing headgear/headguards from elite male boxers. USA Boxing believes headgear should be worn by all ages male and female boxers.

3) Position on gender equity and how the new president would move to gender equity by 2028. USA Boxing believes there should be gender equity in elite age Olympic weight classes by the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Currently, there are eight weight classes for men and five for women.

4) Position on asking members of the AIBA Executive Committee or any person named in the Lalovic Report to resign. Also, if named in the Lalovic Report, "how will you explain to National Federations and the IOC how you can successfully change the leadership culture of AIBA?"

5) Plan for rebuilding the trust of the IOC and Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), as well as committing to having an IOC and ASOIF representative invited to all leadership meetings through the 2024 Paris Games.

6) Commitment on providing actual transparent "audited" reports, how to guarantee independently audited financials, knowledge of properly executed agreements and loan confirmation documents and commitment to publicly publish the documents.

7) Plan to raise new revenue not from events, since future revenue must pay for past debts.

8) Identify the top five challenges that AIBA faces, listed in order of importance with plans to address each challenge.

9) Commitment to and pledge not to change National Federations’ right of autonomy in regard to safety rules that "…reflect National laws or regulations…?"

10) Lessons AIBA leaders should have learned from the failures of the World Series of Boxing and AIBA Professional Boxing. Both programs are bankrupt and contributed heavily to the indebtedness of AIBA.

The seven candidates for president are Anas Al Otaiba of United Arab Emirates; Umar Kremlev of Russia; Suleyman Mikayilov of Azerbaijan; Mohamed Moustahsane, the current leader, of Morocco; Ramie Al-Masri of Germany, Domingo Solano of Dominican Republic and Boris van der Vorst of the Netherlands.

Written by Karen Rosen

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