Indian boxer Sonia Chahal’s win in the AIBA Women’s World Championships on Monday was marred with controversy after both her opponent Stanimira Petrova and Bulgaria coach Peter Yosifov expressed displeasure at the result and accused the judges of corruption, reports News 18

Petrova was seen laughing after the result was announced and even told reporters after the event that the result was not a fair one. Yosifov threw a bottle of water inside the ring and had his accreditation revoked as a result.

And Petrova’s accreditation was also removed as a result of her “inappropriate behavior” and the fact that she made “false and misleading statements”, the AIBA confirmed on Tuesday.

“The Bulgarian boxer Stanimira Petrova has shown inappropriate behavior at the conclusion of her participation in the event. After 197 bouts in five days conducted under the highest standards of level playing field Ms. Petrova has made false and misleading statements regarding the AIBA officials,” said AIBA executive director Tom Virgets in a strongly worded statement.

“In doing so, she has disrespected her opponent, the judges, the referee, the event organizers and AIBA. Unfortunately, her actions are reflective of her coach who disrespects and tries to damage the credibility of the sport we all love and defend.”

The subjectivity of the sport’s scoring system has led to many such controversies over the years and with the rules being open to interpretation, there is increased scrutiny on judges whenever the decision becomes too close to call.

The belief that judges may sometimes favour the home team is nothing new at this point. However Dean Groth, a member of Australia’s coaching staff, simply put it down to the local boxers feeding off the crowd’s energy.

“If you’ve got this beautiful crowd behind you, the home team boxers are bound to do well,” Groth said to reporters as he pointed to the cheering audience members after Australia’s Kaye Scott lost to India’s Lovlina Borgohain on Tuesday.

Full statement from AIBA:

“The Bulgarian boxer Stanimira Petrova has shown inappropriate behavior at the conclusion of her participation in the event. After 197 bouts in five days conducted under the highest standards of level playing field Ms. Petrova has made false and misleading statements regarding the AIBA officials. In doing so, she has disrespected her opponent, the judges, the referee, the event organizers and AIBA. Unfortunately, her actions are reflective of her coach who disrespects and tries to damage the credibility of the sport we all love and defend.

AIBA has recently put into place, many safeguards to ensure fairness within the competition, and I am very pleased with the results. But we must also change the culture of our coaches and athletes who have been taught that it is acceptable to yell corruption ‘without providing evidence’ every time they lose a close bout. This culture must also change, and our coaches and athletes must develop habits of good sportsmanship.”

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