Newsletter EUBC by President Franco Falcinelli – January 2021
15 January 2021Dear Boxing Friends,
I hope that you and your families are in excellent health!
A new year has already begun. 2020 was a hard, complicated and demanding year. We overcame crucial global changes that tested the integrity of our strength, both physical and morale. But finally, we live in hope of a better 2021, for every single person and every single thing.
However, we must be aware that nothing will ever be the same. We all have changed over the past years in some way. Physically, by hard work, due to loses of beloved ones or simply by everyday challenges.
It is the first Newsletter of this year and I would like it to send a message of hope to the whole boxing world. We are living through hard times, where everything that seemed normal and easy is no longer so. But despite nowadays difficulties, I would like to highlight the tenacity and the will of everyone to start again and to experience sport no matter what. For European Boxing, 2021 will be a year full of international events, necessary not only from the competitive point of view, but above all as a clear message of hope. I would like to thank our National Federations and Organizing Committees for the great organizational effort they are making in this very special period. Smart-working has become a new way of working and videoconferences have made it possible to organize the AIBA Congress and continue to be the only effective way to promote the meetings of AIBA and EUBC Executive Committee. And that is something we will not forget!
We are used to fight and we have to give our all to rekindle hope and enthusiasm to resume continuity with the recent past.
We cannot remove certainties and overturn those habits with which our boxers, our coaches and the whole boxing movement have always lived and shared. The problems will not disappear immediately and cannot be solved with the magic wand, but can be resolved with firm determination to face a path consistent with the programs and objectives that President Umar Kremlev has foreseen to meet our expectations and to regain the credibility of AIBA.
AIBA Leader made a further announcement. In the wake of the signing of a new one-year agreement with ITA (International Testing Agency), signed earlier this week in Lausanne, the world boxing body has decided to launch an extensive educational program dedicated to fighting the doping in the coming months. It will be conducted in collaboration with ITA.
AIBA President Umar Kremlev and ITA Director General Benjamin Cohen
At least 4 seminars will be organized every year on the occasion of the Continental Forums established this year by AIBA. They will be available not only to National Federations representatives, but also to boxers and coaches. This program is expected to start in the first quarter of 2021 with a series of webinars between February and March. “This is an important step in making boxing a completely doping-free sport,” said Umar Kremlev.
AIBA competition calendar will be prepared and presented at the AIBA Board of Directors meeting on January 22, 2021. It will then be sent to all National Federations for their information and facilitation in drafting their activities calendar during the current Olympic Cycle.
EUBC EC Member Sumaid Khalidov
I am pleased to inform you that following the election of Umar Kremlev as President of AIBA, the vacancy on the EUBC Executive Committee has been assigned to Sumaid Khalidov, current EUBC Competition Commission Chairman and EUBC President Advisor. The intense and competent managerial and organizational experience of Mr. Khalidov will be very useful in the process of renewal and development of European boxing.
In addition, I am delighted to welcome AIBA’s recognition to two new National Federations, Andorra and Gibraltar, which joined EUBC. The will of these two small states to be a part of the AIBA family is further evidence of the widespread diffusion and popularity of boxing in the world.
2021 is also an Olympic year. I would like to extend a big wish to our athletes and their coaches to reach the highest podium in this incredible and the most important sporting event. I also hope that the pandemic situation in Europe will make it possible to organize the qualifying tournaments in maximum safety and without further delays. Good luck!
Tournaments in December 2020:
December 17 – 19: Cologne Boxing World Cup, Cologne, Germany
Cologne Boxing WorldCup
