Lausanne, Dec 13 Umar Kremlev has been elected as the new president of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) and has called for unity and reforms in the sports body that represents amateur boxing worldwide.
Kremlev, the 38-year-old Secretary General of Russia's Boxing Federation, won the election held online on Saturday with 57.33 per cent of the vote from 155 member federations.
"Let me make it clear: the path to rebuilding AIBA is not easy. It will not happen overnight. We have to unite together and work with one mission, and one mission alone: rebuilding the credibility and trust that AIBA once had in the minds of sports people worldwide and that includes, of course, restoring AIBA's Olympic status," Kremlev said after winning the election as per the official AIBA website.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had stripped AIBA of its Olympic status and decided to hold the boxing tournament at Tokyo 2020 without AIBA involvement, due to concerns over its governance, financial management and sporting integrity in 2019.
According to the AIBA announcement, Kremlev was confident that he can chart a clear path for the AIBA to be reinstated by the IOC in time for the Paris Olympics in 2024.
"Boxing is the sport of fighters. Our fight today is against financial debt, against incompetence, against corruption, against doping, against poor training, and against poor safety. Strengthening AIBA's governance structures, and ensuring our checks and balances work, will be the focus of my tenure as president," said Kremlev.
Kremlev's ambitious manifesto aims to pay off the millions of dollars in debt accumulated by AIBA under previous administrations.
"Getting rid of AIBA's debt will be the first priority. As I promised when I announced my run for the presidency, I will clear this debt in the first six months. My administration will aim to raise $50 million within two years, all of which will be used to rebuild AIBA," Kremlev said.
( With inputs from IANS )
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