Newsletter EUBC by President Franco Falcinelli – September 2020

Dear Boxing Friends,

I would like to begin this newsletter by mentioning an important fact that has occurred in these days:

IOC President Thomas Bach, after the last IOC Executive Board Meeting, stated:

Thomas Bach, IOC President

“We have received the report of the [IOC] monitoring group, and I can summarize the reaction of the EB in one sentence, that we are very worried about the lack of progress with regard to the governance reform of AIBA. There is talk of presidential elections, but we do not see any progress about these governance reforms which are very important.”

Dear President Bach, I would like to sincerely confirm that the AIBA Reform Commission has always worked bearing in mind that the future AIBA Statutes had to be in line with the expectations of the IOC.

If IOC Monitoring Committee tells us what is wrong, we will be extremely glad to review, to modify, to update and to reformulate our decisions in order to promote a more reliable Constitution. We will do it! We want to be promoted and not to fail once again!

Umar Kremlev

And now, on behalf of all EUBC Family as well as personally,  I would like to wish to Umar Kremlev a speedy recovery and immediate return to his functions as Secretary General of the Russian Boxing Federation, Member of AIBA EC and Vice President of EUBC. In recent times, his tenacious commitment to the development of boxing has forced him to travel a lot and contracting the Covid-19 virus.

Sincere wishes for a prompt recovery, Umar!

Despite the spread of the pandemic in many countries of Europe, our National Federations, our coaches and our valiant athletes are continuing to organize important International Tournaments such as XV International Silesian Women’s Boxing Championships (POL), Mustafa Hajrulahovic Memorial (BIH), Julius Torma Memorial (CZE), Boxam International Tournament (ESP), with the presence of many boxers who are given an opportunity to maintain their competitive standards for the next major matches on the continental and world level.

The EUBC Executive Committee convened by videoconference on September 26, 2020 to amend the Competition Calendar, address gender equality in governance and discuss other urgent matters. The major discussion points dealt with the 2020 and 2021 EUBC Championships Calendar amendments due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following the recommendation of the EUBC Competition Commission and taking into account the concerns expressed by the EUBC Medical Commission, the EC voted to maintain the three EUBC Championships in 2020. The dates of these events remain as scheduled by the decision of the previous EC Meeting in August:

• EUBC Youth European Boxing Championships: November 11 – 23, Budva, Montenegro
• EUBC Junior European Boxing Championships: November 23 – December 3, Sofia, Bulgaria
• EUBC U22 European Boxing Championships: December 8 – 18, Olbia, Italy

Unfortunately, Italy, as a consequence of the worsening of the pandemic, informed EUBC that it will not be able to host the event and EUBC EC is discussing the possibility of cancelling this event in 2020. The next U-22 Championships is scheduled in the EUBC Calendar for March 2021. The final decision will be announced to the membership soon.

I complemented the will and courage of the EC Members  and National Boxing Federation to provide an international activity for boxers in 2020, but I underlined the necessity to work for the implementation of the sufficient health protocols during the Championships. Health of all EUBC Members is our never changing priority and we must now concentrate our efforts on approving and applying an event management protocol that will face the risks of COVID-19 infection. We will keep our National Federations informed and expect productive cooperation with the Local Organizing Committees of the upcoming Championships.

In order to assist the 2020 EUBC Championships hosts most affected by the pandemic, the EC decided to award the rights to host the 2021 EUBC Schoolboys and Schoolgirls European Boxing Championships and 2021 EUBC Junior European Boxing Championships without a bidding procedure to Belfast (Ireland) and Tbilisi (Georgia) respectively.

The 2021 EUBC Championships Calendar has been further amended due to the postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games and the 2020 AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships. The EUBC EC decided to move the 2021 EUBC Youth European Boxing Championships from April to September/October of 2021. Oversaturation of the 2021 calendar with major elite events, forced the EC to cancel the 2021 EUBC Men’s and Women’s Elite European Boxing Championships. The next editions of EUBC Elite Championships are scheduled to take place in 2022 and will be held in non-World Championships years (2024, 2026, 2028, etc.) from now on.

EUBC will now prepare the bidding procedure to assign the hosting rights of remaining 2021 EUBC Championships and commence preparations as soon as possible.

Following the amendment of the calendar, another solid step in the direction of gender equality and development of women’s was approved by EUBC. The proposal of Mrs. Susanne Karrlander, Chair of the EUBC Women’s Commission, to appoint a representative of the Women’s Commission into each EUBC Commission with a goal to coordinate women’s boxing more effectively, received unanimous approval of the EC.

Susanne Karrlander – Chairperson of the EUBC Women’s Commission

“I thank the EUBC President and the EC Members for supporting this policy. Women’s grassroots and high-performance boxing is developing tremendously worldwide and we have to keep up at the governance level to further encourage this growth. I envision a future, where there is no Women’s Commission, but instead all other commissions as well as executive bodies in Continental and World Governing organizations have considerable and extremely competent female representation.” – commented Mrs. Karrlander after the meeting.

On September 30, 2020, AIBA also organized the video Executive Committee meeting to discuss the most pressing issue: the Extraordinary Congress for the election of the new AIBA President and the approval of the reform of the Statutes.

The EC confirmed the organization of the video Congress on December 12 and 13, 2020 and provided for the nomination of the Chairpersons of the AIBA Ethics Commission, Mr. Bernard Heinrich Welten and of the Disciplinary Commission Mr. Francois Paul Strydom, who will have to manage the Congress and are a guarantee of exemplary ability and recognized experience.

The decision to hold the AIBA Congress via video conference was a forced but necessary act. If  vaccine for Covid-19 will be not be widely available in the course of next year and it is more than presumable that the second wave of infections, with different scenarios and times in different parts of the world, has already started, it was too risky to organize the Congress in Budapest in  December of 2020.

“Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures” and, therefore, it was decided to rely on the now new but already proven virtual experience.

In the Virtual Congress, the contents traditionally exhibited in a physical environment, such as the Congress Center, are moved into a “virtual room”. We need to rethink and redefine the participants’ experience, moving beyond the physical and mental boundaries to which we have been accustomed. The management of an online Congress requires careful technical analysis, design and resolution of aspects that are not taken into consideration in the traditional organization of Congresses, or do not bare such a  significant weight. For example,some of them can include:

• testing of the adequate reception of the network of all participants;
• testing of the audio / video quality of the connections of each delegate;
• management of participants’ engagement;
• interventions on the platform;
• voting system

These are just some of the aspects that must be correctly managed by a high quality and specific competence agency.