June 17, 2007	Sunday	Jumadi-us-Sani 01, 1428

LAUSANNE (Switzerland), June 16: The secretary-general of the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) was expelled on Friday for alleged financial misconduct, and the discredited former president Anwar Chowdhry was barred for life from any involvement with the governing body.

The action, taken by AIBA's executive committee on recommendations of its ethics commission, follows pressure from the International Olympic Committee to clean house and reform the sport.

Secretary-General Caner Doganeli of Turkey, who had been suspended since February, was kicked out of the organization for good.

Former AIBA president Chowdhry of Pakistan, who was ousted last year after two decades in power, was declared ''ineligible for life'' and could face legal action from AIBA to recover allegedly embezzled funds.

''This is a clear and tangible sign that in the new AIBA, we will not tolerate any violation of the AIBA code of ethics,'' AIBA president C.K. Wu said. ''We are well on the way to restoring confidence and credibility within this organization and today's decision will advance that process even further.''

Wu, of Taiwan, was elected president in November, defeating Chowdhry.

Chowdhry has been implicated for alleged mishandling of hundreds of thousands of dollars in federation funds. Doganeli was accused of misspending money for an office in Ankara. Both have denied any wrongdoing.

AIBA agreed to ''immediately, irrevocably and definitely part'' with all officials or bodies connected with ''irregularities'' cited in an auditors report for the 2003-6 period.

By a vote of 24 in favor, one against and one abstention, the executive committee expelled Doganeli and declared Chowdhry ''ineligible, for life, for any office, function or mission of any kind with AIBA.''

The federation said it would also take ''the most appropriate action, including if necessary legal action,'' against Chowdhry and any others to recover any funds embezzled from AIBA.

AIBA said it would also expel anyone who has been convicted of a criminal offense or acted in any way that tarnishes the federation's image and reputation.

The federation was also considering further reforms to Olympic-style boxing to comply with the IOC's request for improved scoring and judging systems.

The IOC froze US$1.1 million in Olympic revenues from AIBA after the 2004 Athens Olympics. It has since released US$700,000 and promised to free the remaining funds if AIBA puts on successful world championships in Chicago in October.

The executive committee AIBA has agreed on reforms to make the scoring and judging of matches more transparent and harder to manipulate.

In a move long demanded by the IOC, AIBA will scrap its current system of electronic scoring, Gerhard Heiberg, the chairman of AIBA's reform committee.

The old system – based on three of the five judges pressing a button within the same second to validate a blow _ will be replaced by one where each judge counts blows separately, and the highest and lowest of the five judges' scores will be discarded.

“This caused a lot of debate” within the reform committee, said Heiberg. “But it works really well in ski jumping, why shouldn't it work as well in boxing?”

The previous system was unsuitable because it was open to manipulation and misunderstanding, said Heiberg, who is also an IOC executive board member.

AIBA also plans to introduce an open scoring system “so that everybody can see for themselves what the referees and judges are doing,” he said, adding: “We want openness and transparency as much as possible here.”

Heiberg said the system, which is already being tested, must be approved at an extraordinary congress of AIBA's 195 federations during the 2007 World Championships in Chicago in October.

Once that occurs, and if the IOC agrees, the new system will be used at the 2008 Olympic Games.

“If IOC is convinced this is right, this is more or less foolproof, it will be used in Beijing as well,” Heiberg said.

He added that AIBA hoped the new system would also make the sport more attractive to the public, by simplifying the rules and making them easier to understand.

IOC president Jacques Rogge has backed amateur boxing's drive to clean up its act.

“Boxing is always an important sport, a universal sport where not a lot of investment is needed and a sport when practiced under Olympic rules, guarantees the safety of the athletes. The change in refereeing and judging rules is a very good one. It gives transparency and credibility to judging of the bout. It has not been easy. To change things is never easy but everyone is happy, the boxers like it and that's the main thing.”The AIBA will vote on the proposed changes at the 2007 world championships.—Agencies