CHENNAI: Russian Boxing Federation secretary general Umar Kremlev is a confident man. He is among seven candidates contesting for the post of international boxing association (AIBA) president's post during its Congress on December 12. His words are laced with optimism and he is vocally confident of winning.
During a Zoom interview through an interpreter, the European Boxing Confederation vice president elucidates on plans to get AIBA back into International Olympic Committee fold within six months.
Excerpts
Q. You have seven candidates contesting for the post of president...
I think that is democracy at work. I am glad there are so many candidates and all of them want to help international boxing to develop, their heart is with boxing. But I cannot see any competitor really.
Q. All confederations will be represented this time. From Asia to Africa to America. But there are four from Europe including you, so votes will be divided.
All candidates are my friends. But our views are a bit divided. And I would like to recommend my friends to help boxing develop. Really understand to live for boxing.
Q. When you talk about live for boxing, since 1988 Seoul to 2016 Rio Olympics, boxing has been mired in controversy due to allegations of poor judging and refereeing. How will you bring about changes in this and scoring system?
First of all, I'm going to make AIBA work in the interests of the national federations, athletes and coaches. It's because of them that boxing is developing.
According to me, not only the refereeing system but the management system of AIBA needs to be reformed. I will like to emphasise that annual education should be provided to all officials of the national federations apart from referees, coaches, judges, athletes and so on.
This education expenses should be paid by AIBA and not by the individual federations. I would like to emphasise once again that we should enhance qualification of all the officials in order to respect the rules of AIBA and boxing. I suggest this is done on an annual basis and we will form several forums where we will conduct seminars to improve qualifications.
We are going to launch individual approaches to each national federation where we will further elaborate our marketing strategy and strategy for development for each national federation. This will be the help that AIBA will provide.
Q. Anti-doping programme:
As for the anti-doping, we are also going to launch a large-scale anti-doping programme. We are going to establish anti-doping department in each national federation or at least one in each continent.
Q. Close monitoring
As far as the programmes are concerned, we are going to make a report on each forum about what has been planned, what has been done or not done.
The educational programmes will be provided by AIBA. We will conduct one big forum for all national federations once every two years where we will make report on what has been done and we will discuss why some of our projects have not been completed and search for solutions.
One of our main tasks is for AIBA to become the clearest and most transparent international organisation.
Q. How long will AIBA take to come back into IOC fold after elections?
We are planning to implement all the reforms in six months of the elections, comprising the coverage of the debt and all these educational programmes that I have discussed. If we manage to implement all the reforms within six months then I think IOC will not have any question to AIBA. And AIBA will be reinstated fully within the IOC.
Q. The reforms committee has brought in changes in the AIBA constitution to make it IOC compliant. Will it get passed during the Congress in December? And what if IOC objects?
If any of the clauses in the new constitution are not in compliance with the IOC, we will do our utmost to modify it in order to reinstate our trust with the IOC and AIBA because we are acting in the interest of our sport. It is planning to get passed in the Congress, but if some modifications are required we will work on them.
Q. Are you in touch with Boxing Federation of India?
Yes, I'm in communication with the Indian boxing officials. We have had several meetings and plan to cooperate further and we will do our utmost to develop boxing not only in Asia but all over the world.
Q. Will AIBA conduct boxing in the 2024 Olympics?
Yes, I'm sure that AIBA will come back and conduct tournaments. It’s my main task to make AIBA great again. That is why I'm running for presidency. All the national federations know that I'm going to make AIBA great again.
Q. Have you got any more letters of support (you said you have got 50 letters of support a few days ago)?
Talking about percentage of support, I can say that about 70% of national federations support me and my team, together we will win. No doubt that I will win.