LORD OF THE RINGS
Suley’s Olympic plan
CONTROVERSY: Vladimir Nikitin is awarded the win over Michael Conlan in Rio
AMATEUR boxing faces a defining moment in its future next month with the election of a new president to the sport’s governing body.
The sport is battling to stay in the Olympics. At present the IOC are running the tournament for next summer’s Games in Tokyo, with AIBA suspended.
And the IOC has grown tired of years of corruption and financial mismanagement in AIBA which has left the amateur sport’s reputation in the mud.
But AIBA wants to get back in control of Olympic boxing and one of the candidates in next month’s elections is promising to deliver changes the IOC wants.
Suleyman Mikayilov ( inset, above) has vowed to get AIBA back in control of the sport for next summer’s Olympics.
“It doesn’t seem unrealistic to bring back AIBA for 2021,” he said. “The actions and reforms will start to take place in the first three months of my presidency.”
Azerbaijan’s Mikayilov faces a packed field in the election process with candidates from the UAE, Russia, Germany, Holland and the Dominican Republic.
He is aware of the issues facing amateur boxing. One of those is the corrupt officiating allegations which rocked the sport at the Rio 2016 Olympics and saw Ireland’s Michael Conlan denied a medal.
His proposals will be to introduce technology to help improve the standard of officiating. That will allow boxers and their teams to appeal decisions and ask for a review as part of a new scoring system.
If the decision is overturned then the judges who were responsible will be warned as part of a ‘ yellow card’ system.
“I want to ensure misconduct will have very harsh outcomes,” said Mikayilov, who is a member of the AIBA Executive Committee.
He also promises an independent ‘ Boxing Integrity Unit’ to assist in stopping ‘ doping and corruption issues’.
And he has vowed to change the controversial rule allowing professional boxers to compete in the Games.
The election takes December 12 and 13. place on