India is in danger of losing the hosting rights of the 2021 World Boxing Championship due to non-payment of dues from the 2018 women’s world championship and the hosting fee for the upcoming event, Mumbai Mirror reported on Saturday.
Boxing Federation of India, which is the apex body of the sport in the country, had to pay Rs 3 crore to Amateur International Boxing Association for hosting the 2018 championship and another Rs 3 crore as hosting fee for the 2021 event.
AIBA has now sent a legal notice to BFI over the delay in payment and reminder to pay the hosting fee. The reminder clearly states that if the money was not paid soon, the world body could shift the event to some other country.
AIBA’s interim president Dr Mohamed Moustahsane told the newspaper that while the world body was willing to give BFI a period of about 10 months to clear the dues, they need to pay the hosting rights fee for the 2021 event soon.
“The kind of financial situation that the AIBA currently finds itself in, it definitely does not allow us to wait any longer,” Moustahsane was quoted as saying.
The BFI is not in a financially sound condition either, and hasn’t given boxers the prize money for the second edition of the India Open yet.
BFI on its part said they were not responsible for the delay as AIBA’s legal troubles have meant that there accounts were frozen and the money transferred for the women’s boxing championship was returned by the bank.
The Indian federations claimed that they were then asked to deposit the money in the account of AIBA lawyers which was not possible under the norms of Government of India and the same has been conveyed to the world body.