Unilateral termination unfair, says IBF president Abhishek Matoria

New Delhi: Baffled by the International Boxing Association’s decision to terminate it, the suspended Indian Boxing Federation’s President Abhishek Matoria today said it cannot make sense of the “unfair” decision and will take up the matter with the IOA now. “We think it is unfair, they have acted unilaterally based after hearing just one side of the story,” the suspended IBF’s President Matoria told PTI. [caption id=“attachment_1418789” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational Image. Getty Images[/caption] In a strongly-worded missive, the AIBA terminated India stating that it was not in a position to make a “proper” judgement on how to handle the country’s case after receiving conflicting communications from various stakeholders. The boxers and coaches will, however, continue to remain unaffected by the termination and can participate in international events under the AIBA flag till the time the crisis is unresolved. Matoria claimed that the termination was the result of a recent meeting between some state units opposed to him. “AIBA does not appreciate such meetings, once they got to know such a meeting was held, they terminated the entire federation, which is completely unfair,” Matoria said. AIBA President Ching Kuo Wu said the IBF is unlikely to be re-recognised till the time a new set of officials take charge after fresh elections, the screening of candidates for which would be done by the world body. Matoria said the IBF will now approach the IOA to resolve the deadlock. “We will take this up with the IOA. We will try to approach AIBA through the IOA. AIBA could have consulted us just once before taking this decision,” said Matoria. Asked if he would be among the applicants for the setting up of as new federation which the AIBA wants, Matoria was non-committal. “I would speak to my group before taking a decision on the matter but what has happened is unfair,” he said. After provisionally suspending the IBF on December 6, 2012, AIBA has not recognised any official activities and did not support the Indian officials for almost 16 months. However, AIBA promised to review the situation when the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) had its suspension lifted by the IOC. AIBA has now decided “to give the opportunity to any group of people with passion and love for our sport to submit applications for the establishment of a new National Federation.” PTI