Newsletter EUBC by President Franco Falcinelli – October/November 2019

Dear Boxing Friends,

We are going towards the end of a year of extraordinary events for Olympic boxing.

We have suffered an exemplary punishment from the IOC for not having wanted to follow their repeated warnings sent on several occasions to the AIBA managers.

After having feared being out of the Tokyo Games, today we can be satisfied for being admitted and also for the good will and determination with which the IOC Task Force is carrying out the Qualifying Tournaments and the Olympic Tournament.

It is interesting to review some technical rules and also the commitment to guarantee correctness and transparency in the verdicts.

The experiment done in the last Tokyo Tournament, however, must be diffused and well explained to the Referees & Judges, Coaches and Athletes. The necessary preparation must be made and any improvements made to make the new technical assessment system reliable and permanent.

In the last EC ABA meeting in Lausanne many important issues have been addressed to ensure a timely return of AIBA as an International Olympic Federation and a better future for our sport.

AIBA EC created a Marketing Commission that will be in charge of marketing for AIBA competitions as the World Cup and World Championships with a global marketing plan across the five Continents to attract sponsors and secure broadcasters deals.

This pramount Commission will be headed by Mr. Umar Kremlev and will include the following Members: Mr Di Wu, Mrs Emilia Grueva , Mr Suleiman Mikayilov, Mr Yousef Al Kazim, Mr Ray Silvas and  Mr Mohamed Touma.

The revision of the Statutes and the new AIBA Governance were at the center of the agenda presented by President Mohamed Mousthasane.

AIBA Executive Committee

The Executive Committee has now established an ad hoc Governance Reform Commission to guide and oversee the reform process, commencing with amendments to the AIBA Statutes. This Commission consists of Interim President Moustahsane, the remaining AIBA Vice Presidents, Mr Kremlev from Russia, Mr Wu Di from China and Mr Silvas from the United States. An open invitation has also been extended by Dr Moustahsane to Mr Gethin Jenkins from England to assist with the work of the Commission.

In addition to the members of the EC there were three lawyers experienced in international sports rights. Garry Moore, Claude Ramoni and Alessandro Oliverio who will form the team of experts who will meet in Rome on December 13th to define the amendments of the Statutes and Bylaws to submit first to the Reform Commission and then to the next AIBA EC set in Xiamen (CHN) and then at the next Extraordinary Congress of March in Lausanne.

I forwarded to the EC a message including the following considerations:

“This time the new amendments will serve regulatory and governance purposes, as well ethical and disciplinary compliance.

The IOC firmly asked AIBA to review its governance, because due to a poor democratic governance, scandals overshadowed bouts at Rio 2016 and other misleading our International Federation is out from Tokyo 2020. We all must take responsibility of that, but also work hard in order to be back in the Olympic Movement as soon as possible.

Therefore, dear Colleagues, the main focus of the new Statute shall be:

The By-laws will then implement such crucial principle. Moreover,  new AIBAGovernance  will not accept individuals who aim to become an Executive Member only for his/her personal ambitions and agenda”.

The EUBC EC will discuss about the Amendments to the EUBC and AIBA Statutes and many other important points for the best future of our Confederation in the next meeting scheduled for December 14 in Antalya (TUR), during the first edition, after 30 years, of the Balkan Boxing Championships.

The AIBA continues its institutional activity and thanks to the organizational skills of the Russian Boxing Federation, has successfully celebrated two high level World Boxing Championships in Yekaterinburg and Ulan-Ude. The participation of European boxers has been very wide and the technical results have also demonstrated the vitality of our National Federations.

However, it is clear and evident that the technical quality of Olympic boxing is lowing down.

We need to make an effort to put at the center of attention the technical-tactical training in the initial phases of the youth boxing in our Clubs.

The superficiality of the teaching of boxing began with the introduction of the headguards. With the reduction of the risk of injuries, with the lower incidence of the RSCH, with the increase of actions on medium and short distances, the control of the correct execution of the blows, the right position of the head and the precision of the target have been lost. The important thing was to throw as many punches as possible. Often, empty blows, too often with the internal part of the gloves, on the nape, on the opponent’s arms.

The referees are in deep embarrassment.

The choice is between inflicting the Warnings or avoiding compliance with the AIBA Technical Rules. To avoid disqualifications and the consequent protests by Coaches, the prevailing line is that of not strictly applying the Technical Rules.

It is evident that Noble Art’s gestural beauty has inevitably worsened.

Strengthen shared aspirations.

Reconsidering this fundamental technical aspect and starting a discussion on the training of the Coaches and Referees & Judges.

It is also necessary to start a confrontation between Coaches and Referees & Judges to agree on a conscious and mutual process of cooperation to reach a common vision of the bouts and to respect the respective roles and above all with respect for boxers.

AIBA Men’s World Boxing Championships Yekaterinburg 2019

From 7 to 21 September the city of Yekaterinburg hosted the Men’s World Championships. It was a sporting event that saw the participation of 169 European athletes representing 36 European countries out of a total of 365 athletes from 78 countries. These numbers clearly demonstrate the liveliness of European boxing and the responsibility of our national federations towards the event of such importance. I would like to congratulate all the medalists, their clubs, National Federations. Despite this large European representation, unfortunately I have to underline a striking technical decline, evidenced by the conquest of only 10 medals out of 40 available: 3 golds, 1 silver and 6 bronzes. Europe has always been at the forefront with regard to the training of coaches who have produced a large number of champions, based on solid technical, methodological and psychological knowledge. As the greatest exponent of our continent, given to me by you, I would like to invite our FSNs and our technicians to invest and commit themselves even more to the improvement of their knowledge, to the continuous updating and improvement of our talent for enhancing talent. I am convinced that European boxing with great pride can and must regain its leading position in the world.

AIBA Women’s World Championships Ulan-Ude 2019

From September 30th to October 14th again in Russia, but in the city of Ulan-Ude the most important Championships were held regarding women’s boxing. It was an absolutely unforgettable edition from the organizational point of view, in which the participants, in addition to the technical aspects, were able to savor the cultural riches and atmospheres of the Buryatia region. Speaking of the technical aspect, this edition saw the participation of 83 European athletes representing 23 European countries out of a total of 57 countries and 224 athletes. I am happy to underline the qualitative growth of women’s boxing, in which the athletes, despite the shorter history, show ever greater technical-tactical skills and mastery of the ring. There were 17 medals won by European athletes: 5 gold, 6 silver and 6 bronze.

International tournaments held in October:

• 7 – 13 October: International Tournament “Lviv Boxing Cup”, Lviv, Ukraine
• 17 – 20 October: Eindhoven Box Cup, Eindhoven, Netherlands
• 20 – 26 October: Leszek Drogosz Memorial, Kielce, Poland

International tournaments in November:

• 6 – 10 November: Grand Prix Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
• 6 – 10 November: 49th International Tournament “Golden Gong 2019”, Skopje, North Macedonia
• 11 – 17 November: XVII International Tournament “Memorial V. Liventsev”, Minsk, Belarus
• 15 – 18 November: International Boxing Tournament “Adem Jashari”, Pristina, Kosovo
• 22 – 24 November: 40th International Tammer Tournament, Tampere, Finland
• 26 November – 1 December: 62nd International Tournament “Golden Glove”, Pancevo, Serbia