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It's just over two years since Michael Conlan stood in a ring in Rio de Janeiro, and lost his mind having lost a fight.
"AIBA are cheats," he famously fumed. "They're paying everyone … They're known for being cheats and they'll always be cheats." Amateur boxing stinks from the core right to the top. "
He's lucky he's gone pro,
We have had the cheating that the brilliant Belfast featherweight suffered from 36 referees and judges suspended from the Olympics. We've had the corruption that saw millions of millions of dollars go missing and the association left practically bankrupt. This time is spent on big time crime.
The last issue to hit the AIBA came last Saturday in Moscow with the election of Uzbekistan's Gafur Rakhimov as president, which leaves boxing and all of its athletes – including our medal hopeful Joe Ward – potentially on the outside, looking in, like the 2020 Olympics.
That is the severity of the situation. The Serik Konakbayev from Serik Konakbayev from Kazakhstan.
The IABA stated it "is unusual for the IABA, as is the case with most national federations, to reveal how they voted in an election but given, the intense commentary of this particular election was made by the board of directors and central council, that it was in the best interests of Irish boxing to do so in this instance ".
It was the right decision in a sporty tragedy but a serious blunder.
Ladies and gentlemen, in the red corner, Gafur Rakhimov.
* * *
On Friday last, before that election took place, the executive director of the AIBA, Tom Vignets, was speaking.
Accounts had just shown how the association had negative equity of € 16.7m, had assets valued at less than € 3.5m, and how in any other sphere of business, the padlock would have already bolted the door closed.
"It's an ugly, ugly figure," said Vignets. What he failed to mention was that they were also an ugly, ugly figure.
So money or morals? Twenty-four hours later, the AIBA emphatically made their decision.
Rakhimov has had an interesting path. In the fledgling Uzbek nation he was involved in bringing new life to the country, gaining him friends in high places. That's all about boxing as an amateur boxers bodyguards for the political hierarchy.
Back in 2000, he was refused entry to the Sydney Olympics due to alleged mafia connections, and they've never gone away. By 2012, the US Treasury Department noted that it is "a key member of a Russian-Asian criminal syndicate with a specialty in the organization and production of drugs in the countries of Central Asia".
By December last, the Treasury has a strong leadership role in the fight against terrorism, which is one of the most important factors in the world.
In fact on 22 December, the details were released on their official website. They showed him with a villa in an upmarket area of Dubai, and with a high-end apartment in Moscow skyscraper; they showed him a Russian passport; and crucially, they showed him as "Linked To: THIEVES-IN-LAW".
The treasury department went on to describe Thieves-In-Law as "a multi-ethnic criminal group largely based on the formation of the Soviet Union but extending to the Middle East, Africa and Latin America." For perspective, they are grouped with three others. The Camorra, the Yakuza and Los Zetas. That's some company.
Rakhimov has collaborated with Thieves-in-Law on business, as well as assisted Thieves by Rakhimov: "Rakhimov", "Rakhimov et al. He has always denied all links and is fighting to clear his name.
But there is nothing new in the whispers and even out-and-out shouts around the 67-year-old.
Go back to the awarding of the 2014 Winter Olympics to Sochi and he was seen as a key player in Asian Olympic Council Vice President.
Sergei Kanev, an award-winning investigative journalist spoke in 2014 of the photos of Rakhimov and a local Sochi mafia boss, before the murder of the latter. Kanev also said Rakhimov would not help if there was nothing in it for him from Vladimir Putin. He was later thanked by their Olympic Committee for his "single-minded work in delivering votes".
Craig Murray, to train British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, who was removed after highlighting how to be used on the CIA, went further. He is one of the most important people in the world. He is absolutely a very major and very dangerous gangster.
There are those, however, that point to a confusion due to Rakhimov and his nation's troubled history. Uzbekistan was seen as one of the most repressive of the Soviet nations and had more political prisoners than the combined, even engaging in a Tiananmen Square-style massacre in 2005.
More recently the daughter of an educator Islam Karimov turned on many of the wealthy citizens, a move that saw Rakhimov flee to Dubai and leak information on human rights abuses and rulers to aid agencies. Some saw him as a victim, others not so, and they say that they are defending their right to not be extradited and face torture, that's where Uzbekistan's defense of his past, present and future ended.
With Shavkat Mirziyoyev taking power in Uzbekistan in 2016, he is one of the most authoritative leaders in Russia. Many say this is where Rakhimov comes in.
But regardless of internal complications, externally this should be clear cut. Regardless of real-life contradictions, in a sporting sense it's quite obvious. Boxing would have gone well, far away.
* * *
Let's be charitable and describe the AIBA in the years leading up to all this as grimy.
They say financial position in a scandal about a loan in Azerbaijan. Not only was it never repaid, but 45% actually went missing.
Wu Ching-kuo who claims that he has no idea where the money went, yet the AIBA executive board has reckoned for gross negligence and financial mismanagement. Meanwhile, when Price Waterhouse Cooper was called to audit the books, they suggested the federation get a criminal lawyer.
Wu left in November of last year, by December Gafur Rakhimov was punished by the United States' authorities, yet by January the opening up of the president remained in power.
It was a rough start for him. On February 4, IOC leader Thomas Bach said that they would be looking into the governance, the corruption and the anti-doping measures in Russia had been loose in that sphere. On top of that, they're suspended vital funding from Rio.
Rakhimov's goals have been overcome, and he is still in the process of dealing with debt, he has managed to restructure his debt, and he has moved to other areas of finance. Granted, he has failed to detail how all this was done. Money saved, but the question is – at what price?
Looking for reform, his history of being in the inner circle of so much corruption, and his history given the serious allegations outside of sport, left the unimpressed IOC. It left Bach suggesting that he was "extremely worried about the governance of AIBA" and how they "reserve the right" to remove the boxing from the Tokyo 2020. It could not have been more clear-cut.
Basically, give the job full-time and boxing was on the ropes.
Dom O'Rourke, CEO Fergal Carruth, and Art O'Brien Secretary made the trek to Moscow. They knew the stakes and since then (Independent.ie tried to contact Carruth and the association itself with four questions.
1. Was the IABA instructed on how to vote?
2. Will the IABA confirm or deny reports that they voted for Gafur Rakhimov?
3. If not, why not?
4. Olympic threats of expulsion aside, what is the IABA view on Gafur Rakhimov?
Friday's statement has clarified their position, a welcome decision from a bumbling organization that has been put in place by the public and has been removed from the marketplace by Billy Walsh. so ruthlessly, and failed to tap into their sponsorship potential.
Before the IABA revealed their hand, the newly-renamed Olympic Federation of Ireland said, "These issues are matters of concern and are being reviewed. in relation to the AIBA. "
Elsewhere a spokesperson for Shane Ross said that the Minister for Sport had no direct role, "National Governing Bodies are independent, autonomous bodies.
The IOC will do, and will likely make a call to this meeting in Tokyo. It's possible that the Olympics somehow, possibly without the AIBA.
Whether it should be arrogantly, stupidly and immorally gone and done.
This article was updated following the IABA statement on Friday, November 9
Online Editors
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