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Ukraine’s Prodyvus named IBA VP under Russia’s Umar Kremlev

10 months ago

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  • Sri Lanka’s Dian Gomes, one of the 12 members of IBA Board of Directors
Dian Gomes – IBA Profile Dian Gomes who currently serves as the Honorary Consul of Georgia in Sri Lanka, is also the former Chairman of Hela Clothing and former Group Director of the $ 3 billion apparel enterprise, MAS Holdings. He received his Executive Education at Wharton, Ashridge, and Harvard Business Schools. Dian was President of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK), Sri Lanka Division in 2001/2002; and presently sits on the Boards of Nestlé Lanka PLC and several other private and government organisations. IBA History
  • During the 1920 Antwerp Summer Olympics, representatives from the national associations of England, France, Belgium, Brazil, and the Netherlands met in a preliminary consortium for the foundation of an international boxing federation, the Fédération Internationale de Boxe Amateur (FIBA)
  • Boxing amateurs started competing in well-known tournaments
  • In 1946, a consensus was met to give way for the boxing governing body to regain the loss of credibility due to the behaviour of some leading officials in World War II
  • The FIBA was dissolved and the English Amateur Boxing Association, in partnership with the French Boxing Federation, decided to create AIBA, the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur
  • For 60 years, the AIBA continued to govern boxing in the Olympic Games without using the word “amateur”
  • Until now, amateur boxing has been present on all continents, organised by AIBA
  •  In 2017, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) expressed concerns about the governance of AIBA under Taiwan’s Ching-Kuo Wu who headed the body from 2006 to 2017
  • In 2019, the IOC voted to suspend its recognition of AIBA as the governing body for the sport, stripping AIBA of any involvement in the Olympic Games
  • The IOC oversaw the qualification events and the boxing tournament at the 2020 Olympic Games through a task force chaired by Morinari Watanabe of Japan
  • The AIBA had allegedly been involved in multiple corruption scandals including on several Summer Olympic Games
  • In December 2020, Russia’s Umar Kremlev was elected as AIBA President, gaining 57.33% of the vote and the body’s reform process began immediately
  • The same month, AIBA adopted a new Constitution
  • Under Kremlev, five new AIBA subcommittees were created, AIBA increased the number of weight categories in both men’s and women’s amateur boxing, and a programme of financial assistance to national federations was also introduced
  • In 2021, AIBA appointed Professor Ulrich Haas to lead its Independent Governance Reform Group
  • In September 2021, an independent report found that bouts leading up to and during the 2016 Rio Olympics had been manipulated for money up to $ 250,000, for the perceived benefit of the AIBA
  • In 2021, under Kremlev, AIBA paid off all debts, including a $ 10 million debt to the Azerbaijani company Benkons LLC
  • In December 2021, AIBA’s National Federations implemented a series of constitutional amendments which included changing the abbreviated name to IBA
President of the Ukrainian Boxing Federation Volodymyr Prodyvus was elected as the Vice President of the International Boxing Association (IBA) after the first meeting of IBA’s new board. That was on the second day’s meeting of the IBA Board’s Extraordinary Congress that was held on Sunday (15) in Istanbul, Turkey under its Russian President Umar Kremlev, international media reported yesterday (16). Russia’s Umar Nazarovich Kremlev has been Secretary General and member of the Executive Committee of the Boxing Federation of Russia since February 2017. The 39-year-old is from Serpukhov, Russia. He had been the IBA President since December 2020. After IOC’s 2019 suspension The IBA Extraordinary Congress was held over last weekend alongside the ongoing Women’s World Boxing Championships. The IBA, previously known as the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur (AIBA), is an independent sport organisation that sanctions amateur or Olympic-style boxing matches and awards world and subordinate championships. It was recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the international governing body for the sport of boxing until 2019, when the IOC suspended its recognition (see boxed story titled “IBA History”). ‘I thank my colleagues’ “I have been involved in boxing since I was 16,” said Prodyvus at the meeting following his confirmation as IBA Vice President. “It is an essential part of my life and I want to see my beloved sport reaching new heights. I fully recognise the responsibility this position entails and thank my new colleagues for their trust.” Elise Seignolle, representing the US, was unanimously elected as a third member of the Finance Committee following the approval of two independent members by the new board. Kremlev speaks IBA President Kremlev was in attendance too, as well as the five Continental Federation Presidents at the above Istanbul meeting. The next IBA Board of Directors meeting is scheduled for 24 June 2022 in Lausanne. President Kremlev had said: “I am grateful to my new colleagues for their active approach and the dedication to boxing that they are already expressing. “We need to build an open dialogue to be able to implement all required reforms in order to further help athletes, coaches, and national federations in achieving their goals.”      

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