AIBA President Umar Kremlev, AIBA Secretary General István Kovács, Technical Delegate Dragoljub Radovic, and Boxing Scotland CEO and Chair of the AIBA Referee and Judges Committee Chris Roberts met with Referees and Judges at the EUBC Junior European Boxing Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Mr. Roberts advised on the work underway over the past several months, specifically that of the officials’ development program that will be rolled out over the next 4-6 months.
The R&J Committee is focusing on the following areas:
• An online e-learning program that will assist all R&Js with continuous professional development
• The AIBA R&Js Manual is currently under review in the areas of AIBA technical rules, current regulations and physical practices within the Field of Play.
• Included within the Referee and Judges Manual is the Code of Conduct; this is being further developed to support our AIBA sporting integrity reforms aimed at ensuring a fair fight
• A key area of work is the production of a new qualification, that of AIBA Auditor. A number of specialists from within our organization, whether that be competition management, fully understanding the function of our R&Js, evaluators and senior delegates, will work towards the AIBA Auditor qualification in order to provide an internal validation and assurance mechanism that will give boxers and those who support them greater certainty around the provision of fair fights
• The AIBA Instructor manual is currently being re-constructed to support sporting integrity goals. Instructors will need to be educated to the very highest of standards to deliver the new and improved R&J Certification Course which is due to be delivered as early as October 21; this will be applied to all those R&Js in the first instance, who are to be selected through a robust mechanism ahead of the Elite Men’s World Boxing Championships, to take place in Belgrade at the end of October this year. Education will continue for those who are to be considered as the very best candidates across AIBA
• There was a preview of the principles for a new scoring system which will be introduced very shortly. Key members of AIBA discussed earlier in the week how this new product would be put together, to take advantage of the movement towards greater sporting integrity
AIBA President added that he appreciates the professional work of AIBA Referees and Judges.
‘I see that our R&Js system is on the right track, with a lot of work ahead. We are not improvising: we have strong AIBA R&J Committee and a comprehensive plan. I truly believe that we will achieve full transparency and honesty, in order to guarantee fair fights,’ President Kremlev said.
Mr. Kovács added that new scoring system is to be presented soon and expressed hope that everybody will like it.
‘To create a brand-new scoring system means to have new boxing and new future. It is easy when judging system is clean and transparent. We need to give our beloved sport great future. We will present all the innovation internally and externally as soon as it will be ready and well-tested,’ AIBA Secretary General added.