Opponents to embattled International Boxing Association (AIBA) president Wu Ching-kuo have begun legal proceedings in an attempt to seize control of amateur boxing’s ruling body, executive committee member Pat Fiacco told reporters on Tuesday.
“We’ve contacted a court in Lausanne so that the running of the AIBA be handed over to the interim executive committee,” Fiacco said.
The court could alternatively choose to hand power of association to “a temporary administrator,” he added.
It has another option open to it — confirming Wu in a position he has held since 2006.
The legal move followed a no-confidence motion against the Taiwanese at a board meeting in Moscow last week.
In an interview in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Wu attacked what he called a “military coup” against him.
Wu’s rivals have claimed that AIBA is on the brink of bankruptcy and last week set up an interim management committee to take charge of the association pending the selection of a new president.
Fiacco said they want the Swiss judiciary to take “provisional measures” until October or November, when an AIBA board meeting is to vote on the no-confidence motion.
Fiacco said 16 of 20 AIBA executive committee members support the bid to oust Wu, who is accused by his detractors of leaving the association on the brink of bankruptcy.
“AIBA’s debt this year is 5 million Swiss francs [US$5.2 million] and accumulated debt of 15 million Swiss francs,” Fiacco said, citing figures from audit firm KPMG.
In his interview, Wu said the organization was in sound financial state, with “over US$10 million” in the bank and no debt.
Fiacco suggested that Wu was taking into account future revenue from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and from host cities of upcoming world championships.
Wu, an influential member of the IOC’s executive commission, claims the challenge to his authority is politically motivated.
He said he is being targeted because of his reform push and singled out former AIBA executive director Ho Kim of South Korea as seeking “revenge” after Ho’s dismissal over allegations of financial wrongdoing.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier