LONDON — The International Olympic Committee is moving toward expelling boxing’s international federation, a step that could imperil one of the tent-pole events of the Summer Olympics at the 2020 Games in Tokyo.
Controversy has for years plagued the boxing federation, which is known by the acronym AIBA. Then last month, a man the U.S. Treasury Department has described as “one of Uzbekistan’s leading criminals” won the AIBA presidency and took control of the world governing body.
That man, Gafur Rakhimov, a Russian citizen, had been AIBA’s interim leader after his predecessor, C.K. Wu, was forced out following a financial scandal that pushed the organization to the brink of bankruptcy. The scandal raised questions — many still unanswered — regarding the whereabouts of millions of dollars of AIBA revenue.
To his supporters, Rakhimov is seen as the federation’s savior because of deals he cut with AIBA creditors. To the IOC, his appointment is the latest misstep by an organization that has lurched from crisis to crisis, including questions about the fairness of boxing judges and AIBA’s anti-doping measures.
The IOC will decide at a meeting Dec. 1 whether to cast out AIBA. If it does, the IOC will have to scramble to organize an Olympic boxing competition for the Tokyo Games that the boxing federation has not sanctioned.
The IOC ordered the federation earlier this year to produce a report outlining plans to resolve some long-standing issues. People familiar with the IOC’s thinking say the AIBA has little hope for a reprieve. The IOC is already planning ways to preserve boxing’s place in Tokyo.
It would take “something earth shattering” for AIBA not to be thrown out, said a person with knowledge of the discussions who declined to be identified because those talks are continuing. For its part, boxing federation has accused the IOC of double standards, pointing out that the organization has not dealt with a number of its members facing accusations of wrongdoing and is meddling in the internal workings of a sports federation.
Rakhimov is fighting to clear his name with the Treasury Department, which in December accused him of “providing material support” to the Thieves-in-Law, an international crime syndicate centered in the former Soviet Union. Rakhimov denies the allegations, saying they are linked to politically motivated charges, now dropped, by members of the former government in Uzbekistan.
In a statement emailed through a media adviser, Rakhimov said: “I have never been involved in any transnational criminal organizations or any other criminal activities. I have never been convicted or charged with any crime.”
The Treasury Department’s designation creates major operational challenges for Rakhimov and a problem for an Olympic movement that is battling to restore its own damaged reputation amid the yearslong Russian doping scandal and a dearth of cities that want to host the Winter Games.
“The IOC has made it clear from the outset that there are issues of grave concern with AIBA regarding judging, finance and the anti-doping program, and with governance — which includes but is not limited to the election of the AIBA president,” the IOC spokesman Mark Adams said in a statement.
“Whatever the results of the deliberations of the IOC executive board, we will continue to make all efforts to protect the athletes and to have a boxing tournament at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020,” Adams continued. The IOC has frozen all contact with AIBA, except those necessary to carry out IOC decisions.
In his emailed comments, Rakhimov repeated an offer to temporarily step down, but only “if the IOC and AIBA are communicating at the decision-making level.”
“In fact,” he added via email, “I believe we will be able to re-establish a good relationship with the IOC, which will include Tokyo 2020 and any future Olympic Games.”
Tom Virgets, an American who was appointed executive director of AIBA by Rakhimov earlier this year, said the boxing federation had made great strides in making changes to its governance structure. Without Rakhimov’s ability to make deals with creditors, the organization probably would have already had to shut its doors, he said.
A Chinese company, FCIT, has effectively written off a $19 million investment in AIBA. It has committed an additional $1 million a year for the rights to market and promote AIBA events for the next 20 years. Wu Di, an executive with FCIT, was recently added to AIBA’s decision-making executive committee. Two other spots are available for officials from companies who would be willing to commit a minimum $10 million each, according to AIBA’s regulations.
Virgets, who had been a senior associate athletic director at the U.S. Naval Academy, acknowledged that Rakhimov’s notoriety presented problems.
“Is this the best person to run AIBA? Obviously not because they have some level of controversy,” Virgets said. “It would be much better if he wasn’t on that list and it would be much better if we had someone with his skill-set who could manage this crisis for AIBA. But quite frankly, I haven’t seen that individual who could manage this crisis.”
The Treasury Department’s designation accuses Rakhimov of collaborating with the Thieves-in-Law organization on business, arranging meetings and warning it of law enforcement issues.
“Rakhimov has been described as having moved from extortion and car theft to becoming one of Uzbekistan’s leading criminals and an important person involved in the heroin trade,” the department said in a statement.
That makes him toxic for businesses and individuals with links to the United States, including those dealing with AIBA. Switzerland’s Vaud Cantonal Bank said it could no longer work with the boxing federation. AIBA then took its banking operations to Serbia. The IOC did not let Rakhimov, who is based in Dubai, attend the Youth Olympics last month. British authorities blocked him from attending the 2012 Olympics in London and he was also denied a visa for the 2008 Games in Beijing.
Rakhimov’s Moscow-based lawyer, Yuri Kuznetsov, has spent years trying to clear his client’s name. He has tried to persuade the authorities in Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and even Interpol to show the IOC that Rakhimov is no longer a fugitive.
Kuznetsov, during an interview in London last month, conceded that Rakhimov had to deal with unsavory characters after the fall of the Soviet Union, when he made his fortune importing foodstuffs.
“Of course he was not planning to rob a bank, he was not planning to make a crime, he had to meet with these people because they were controlling business,” he said.
Pat Fiacco, a Canadian appointed to AIBA’s executive committee by Rakhimov, said the IOC’s treatment of Rakhimov was starting to feel like a violation of his human rights. He said even as the IOC had been critical of Rakhimov, it had failed to police its own members who face accusations of wrongdoing.
Those include the vice chairman of the IOC commission overseeing the 2020 Olympics, who is accused of sexual harassment in Israel, and a Kuwaiti sheikh identified as an unindicted co-conspirator by the U.S. Justice Department in a sports-corruption case last year.
Wu, who resigned as AIBA president last year amid accusations — that he denies — of financial mismanagement, remains an IOC member. Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah stepped down temporarily Monday from the IOC amid allegations by Swiss prosecutors of forgery.
At the Youth Olympics in Argentina last month, the IOC hired the accounting firm PwC to oversee the judging at the boxing event after previous tournaments were mired by accusations of rigged decisions. Virgets said steps had been taken to address those challenges and deal with 38 doping cases dating to 2010 that had not been tackled by the previous leadership.
Documentation of the corrective measures taken by AIBA and a file with letters exonerating Rakhimov from the authorities in Russia and Uzbekistan has been sent to the IOC, Virgets said.
“I’d be the first person here to say, ‘If you can show evidence that Gafur Rakhimov is guilty, don’t just remove him from AIBA, but put him in jail,’” Virgets said.
