Philanthropic act: AIBA come closer to meeting all of the stated IOC concerns
April 1st, 2019 / IBA
AIBA moved one step closer to solving one hundred per cent of the issues, stated by the IOC as critical. Having satisfactory resolved its anti-doping, governance and referee and judging concerns, AIBA is now close to completing its financial challenges. A recent AIBA interim audit, showed that although the organization has the necessary financial resources to sustain itself, the Association still carries over 16 million dollars in debts that were acuminated by the previous leadership.
AIBA EC member from Russia and EUBC Vice President Umar Kremlev announced his intention to pay off all existing AIBA debts and allocate additional money for the development of the organization. He recognized that AIBA has made outstanding improvements in governance, the referee and judging program and became 100% compliant with WADA through its anti-doping program. He also noted that the organizations cash flow turned from negative to positive and now the only remaining problem to solve was the debt.
He stated his intention in an open letter to the IOC President Tomas Bach, IOC Members and the head of the Inquiry Committee Nenad Lalovich.
«And for the sake of the future of boxing, I am ready to close all the debts of AIBA in full, so long as our favorite sport remains in the Olympic program. I decided to close the AIBA debts in full, and also allocate money for the development of the organization. I would like to do this for boxing to remain in the Olympic movement and that financial problems are no longer one of the reasons why the future of boxing would be under threat», says the `Kremlev’s letter.
AIBA appreciates such a large contribution to the organization.
“Mr. Kremlev made this offer completely on his own. AIBA is sincerely grateful to Mr. Kremlev for making this offer and we look forward to discussing the offer with him further. I want to personally assure him that AIBA will operate with greater fiscal responsibility going forward. We are very blessed to have a member in our AIBA family with such philanthropic heart”, AIBA Executive Director Tom Virgets said.
Kremlev has been a Secretary General of Russian Boxing Federation since February 2017. On November 3 he was been elected as AIBA EC Member, on February he became a first Vice President of EUBC.