AIBA has been in financial turmoil and faced claims of fixed bouts at the '16 Rio GamesGetty Images
Boxing still "risks being kicked out" of the '20 Tokyo Games amid "concerns over the sport’s governing body," according to Graham Dunbar of the AP. The AIBA, boxing's international governing body, has been in "financial turmoil, faced claims of fixed bouts" at the '16 Rio Games, and now has an interim president -- Gafur Rakhimov -- "linked to organized crime." IOC President Thomas Bach said that its executive board "warned AIBA about its Olympic status in February, and a recent update report 'still lacks substance.'" Bach "cites 'serious factual issues' as well as concerns" about Rakhimov. The U.S. Treasury Department has said Rakhimov was "involved in heroin trading and froze assets he held in American jurisdiction" (AP, 5/3). REUTERS' Karolos Grohmann noted AIBA has been "riven with in-fighting for months," with former President C.K. Wu first "provisionally suspended and then stepping down last November after a bitter dispute with his own executive committee." Bach did "not refer to the new leadership," but said that the slow pace of changes "could affect boxing’s chances to make" it to Tokyo. He also said that boxing would "urgently need to review the way judges are appointed for matches" (REUTERS, 5/3).
