Boxing judges accused of corruption

25.08.2008

BOXING officials were battling to contain major scandal as serious claims of bribery and the manipulation of Olympic judging panels emerged after a series of disputed bouts.

The International Boxing Association (AIBA) suspended Romanian technical delegate Rudel Obreja after he held an impromptu and rowdy press conference and made lurid allegations against senior officials.

AIBA also revealed that it had been tracking “possible attempts of manipulation” for more than two months and had brought in an International Olympic Committee (IOC) observer “when the situation became more serious”.

At a testy media conference late last Friday, AIBA technical delegate Terry Smith was grilled by journalists who questioned a series of Olympic results.

Smith insisted none of the fights was fixed although he said the scoring system, where three out of five judges needed to press a button simultaneously for a point to be awarded, was under review.