Defiant IABF plans Nationals, AIBA says won't recognise
The Women's Nationals are declared as the selection trials for the Commonwealth Games
New Delhi: Terminated and humiliated they might be, but officials of the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation are planning to conduct the National Championships for youth (men) and senior women even as the International Boxing Association made it clear that such a move won't get its approval.
The faction, which is led by former President Abhay Singh Chautala, is notifying various state units of the Youth (men's) National Championship in Hyderabad from May 18 to 23 and the fifth senior Women's National Championships in New Delhi from May 8 to 11.
Interestingly, the Women's Nationals have been declared as the selection trials for the Commonwealth Games scheduled from July 23 to August 3 in Glasgow. But the AIBA has made it clear that the events will have no sanctity given that the country's membership has been terminated.
"AIBA will not recognise any national competition held in India at present since it does not recognise any governing body for the sport of boxing in the country," AIBA's PR and Communication Director Sebastien Gillot told PTI.
The faction led by Chautala, who currently heads the Haryana State Boxing Association, is also planning to hold a conclave in Delhi on march 24 to discuss the current crisis.
Earlier, furious with the logjam in the IABF, the AIBA terminated the IBF from its fold stating that the current set of office-bearers are "damaging the image, reputation and interest" of the sport. The AIBA said it is not in a position to make a "proper" judgement on how to handle India's case after receiving conflicting communications from various stakeholders.
The boxers and coaches will, however, continue to remain unaffected by the development and can participate in international events under the AIBA flag till the time the crisis is unresolved. After provisionally suspending the IBF on December 6, 2012, AIBA has not recognised any official activities and did not support the Indian officials for almost 16 months.
The world body has now invited direct applications from "any group of people with passion and love for our sport" for the establishment of a new National Federation.
The Indian Boxing Federation (IBF) was suspended in December 2012 and was instructed to hold a fresh election as the world body felt that the polls held back then, in September, were possibly manipulated.
But officials running the Indian body turned a deaf ear to repeated warnings by the AIBA, insisting that the ones in office -- President Abhishek Matoria and Secretary General Rajesh Bhandari -- would eventually be recognised. Matoria is incidentally the brother-in-law of Chautala, who was recently ousted from the IOA after defiantly holding on to the President's post for quite sometime.