President Wu orders investigation as AIBA officials play down bribery scandal

Sep 25, 2011 Sports

The raging dispute within the football fraternity reached a head during the past week when President of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), Colin Klass was found guilty of impropriety and was slapped with a ban in excess of two years from all football activities under the auspices of FIFA plus a fine of $5000 Swiss Francs.
Even as Klass was being sanctioned, similar allegations of corruption have been leveled at the administrators of the International Boxing Association (AIBA).
The allegations emanated from ‘BBC Newsnight’ and suggest that Azerbaijan had paid millions of dollars to AIBA with Ivan Khodabakhsh, the chief operating officer of the Word Series of Boxing (WSB), facilitating the payment for $9 million (£6 million/€7.5 million) in exchange for two gold medals at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
AIBA President CK Wu has subsequently made an emotional speech to the AIBA Member Federations at their Extraordinary Congress earlier last week in which he vowed that his organisation would come back fighting following the allegations.
Mr. Wu convened an Extraordinary Congress to inform Member Federations that he has already set up an AIBA Special Investigation Committee to investigate the allegations which will be chaired by former USA Boxing President and chairman of AIBA Disciplinary Commission, Tom Virgets.
Mr. Wu said that while this exemplifies AIBA’s zero tolerance attitude to corruption, he is not aware of any credible evidence to suggest that the allegations against Ivan Khodabakhsh are true. “AIBA must stand together in this turbulent time and we will come back fighting,” a visibly upset Wu told the Congress.
“These allegations are very serious because Ivan is a man of integrity and AIBA trusts him and respects his work.” Mr. Wu assured that the official will cooperate fully and freely with the AIBA Special Investigation Committee.
Attempting to clear up the misconceptions Mr. Wu explained that in 2010 an agreement was signed between WSB SA, a Swiss incorporated company which runs the World Series of Boxing competition under the auspices of the AIBA, for a loan in respect of the operation of WSB’s American franchises.
“The Swiss company facilitated the making of the loan, which originated from an Azerbaijani private investor. There was no secrecy nor was there anything improper about it,” he stressed.
He further explained that it was a transparent transaction between two entities made on a commercial basis and with a view to a commercial return for the investor.
“While that investor prefers not to be named, as is their right under the terms of the agreement, AIBA can confirm that it is a private investor and is not the Azerbaijani Government or the Boxing Federation and that none of the funds were derived from the Azerbaijani Government” reiterated Mr. Wu.” Any suggestion that the loan was made in return for promises of gold medals at the 2012 Olympics is, we repeat, preposterous and utterly untrue and such allegations have been made by individuals against AIBA who are totally discredited.”
The AIBA boss pointed out that as well as unjustifiably imputing corruption to AIBA, his detractors also demonstrate a complete misunderstanding of the procedures which now lead to the award of Olympic boxing medals and the impossibility of influencing these.
The Azerbaijan Boxing Federation (ABF) have also disclaimed the accusations as they gear up to host the 2011 AIBA World Championships next week which acts as a qualifier for the London 2012 Olympics.
“Baku was entrusted with 2011 World Championships and the BBC report surfaced on the eve of the Championship, as competitors from all over the world converged on Baku,” said an ABF statement. “The report was made by Azerbaijan’s enemies and the enemies of AIBA,” the statement said.

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