The train of reforms does not pause at AIBA. The international body took advantage of the Men's World Championships, which ended on Sunday November 7 in Belgrade (Serbia), to announce the upcoming creation of a Boxing Integrity Unit. Modeled on the model of the Athletics Integrity Unit, it will be independent of the AIBA and responsible for handling possible cases of manipulation of competitions, abuse, harassment, and verifying the eligibility of candidates for different positions within the body. It should be ready to operate in time for final validation by the congress scheduled for the second quarter of 2022. The proposal for a Boxing Integrity Unit was among the recommendations of the group of independent experts, chaired by Swiss professor Ulrich Haas, formed by the new president of the AIBA, the Russian Umar Kremlev, to reform the body and thus allow the lifting of its suspension by the IOC. Comment from Umar Kremlev: “ For too long, AIBA has been in the background on issues of governance and sporting integrity. I am very proud of how this has changed, with our new culture of reform ensuring real progress towards best practice governance and fair fights.“. Another proposal: a radical change in the composition and size of the AIBA board of directors. It will be submitted to the next congress, on December 12, 2021, to come into force during next year's election. At the last men's world championships, all officials (including referees and judges) were controlled by the team of Canadian professor Richard McLaren. AIBA also worked with international auditing firm PwC for an independent assessment of the systems and processes used to select, appoint, train, test and assign technical officials.
