SYDNEY: The executive director of AIBA, the governing body of amateur boxing, has hit out at Olympic chief Thomas Bach for suggesting putting together an alternative organisation to run the sport at next year’s Tokyo Games would “not be rocket science”.

AIBA faces expulsion from the Olympic movement after an inquiry into its finances and governance reports at the end of the month, potentially leaving in limbo the boxing competition at the 2020 Summer Games.

International Olympic Committee president Bach said on Saturday that alternative arrangements could be put in place to ensure boxing retained its spot at the Games and made light of concerns about the lack of time available to do so.

“I heard Mr Bach’s comment and it was very concerning because it certainly minimised what work goes into the preparation for such monumental event,” Tom Virgets told Reuters by telephone on Monday.

“That wasn’t just minimising us, that was minimising every IF (International Federation).

“I would certainly hope that was just a bad choice of words, I hope he is not that far removed from the work of Olympic programmes that he actually believes that. The Olympics needs IFs and we should not forget that.”

While the IOC organises the Olympic Games as a whole, the federations, who are gathering this week on Australia’s Gold Coast for their annual Sportaccord summit, run their own sports competitions within that framework.

Expulsion from the IOC when the inquiry reports to the executive board on May 22 would rob AIBA of its main source of funding and be a devastating blow to the body which has organised Olympic boxing for 73 years.

Reports in Europe at the weekend said AIBA interim president Mohamed Moustahsane was proposing a vote of the executive committee on taking legal action and making formal complaints against some IOC members should the decision go against them.

“When you are faced with a significant issue like this, it would be irresponsible if the executive committee was not taking a look at all of its options and making a determination of what was in the best interests of the organisation,” Virgets added.

“To me, this should not be looked as AIBA being defiant, no! AIBA is practising proper and good governance. Isn’t this what we’re supposed to do?”

Moustahsane took charge in March when Gafur Rahimov suspended himself from the post because of his presence on a US Treasury Department sanctions list ‘for providing material support’ to a criminal organisation.

The Uzbek strongly denies the allegations.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2019