IOC president has ‘serious concerns’ about boxing federation

ROME — The election of an Uzbek businessman accused of ties to organized crime as president of AIBA isn’t the IOC’s only problem with the amateur boxing association.

Gafur Rakhimov, who is on a U.S. Treasury Department sanctions list for alleged links to international heroin trafficking, was elected Saturday as head of AIBA. The sanctions bar U.S. citizens and companies from doing business with him. He has denied wrongdoing.

“First of all, the issue with AIBA is not only about the election of the one person to president,” International Olympic president Thomas Bach said Thursday. “We have expressed serious concerns for over a year with regard to the overall governance of the AIBA, with regard to their anti-doping program, with regard to their finances.”

Bach, who was in Rome for meetings, added that the IOC has asked AIBA to provide a report containing its view “and what they think that they have done to address these issues.”