World Series of Boxing - Boxers

ROLE OF NATIONAL FEDERATIONS
There are 196 National Federations that are affiliated to AIBA. Each of these federations can play a role in providing boxers to franchisees as they have trained and developed the best amateur boxers during their careers, as they work towards the ultimate objective of representing their country in the Olympic Games. The National Federations, working together with the WSB Panel, will seek to identify and secure the best boxers who are under their control and make them available to the WSB franchisees under the provisions of the selection process as outlined below.

In many cases the National Federations also have extensive facilities for the training and development of their amateur boxers. Subject to individual negotiation on a case by case basis between the franchisee and the relevant National Federation, these training facilities may be made available by the National Federation to its local franchisee on a commercial basis to enable the franchisee to manage the training and development requirements of its boxers.

In view of the role that the National Federations have played in training the boxers and developing their skills and prowess in their chosen sport, under the provisions of their employment contracts with each franchisee, the franchisee will be obliged to deduct a percentage of the salary payable to each boxer and to pay that to WSB SA who will in turn pass that commission on, without deduction, to the relevant National Federation which trained and developed the specific boxer. The purpose of this commission payment is to provide the National Federations with a revenue stream by way of compensation for the resources that the National Federation has put in place in order to train and develop the boxer.

BOXER SQUAD SIZES
The maximum number of boxers that a franchisee will be permitted to engage at any one time is 20. The franchisees will be involved in matches every week during the season and so each franchisee will need a minimum of two squads of five boxers so that each boxer is not obliged to compete every week and can have the minimum 13 day rest period between matches.

WSB SA realises and acknowledges that franchisees may choose to have a majority of boxers from the country in which the franchise is based in order to drive local interest in the matches. However, WSB SA also wishes to encourage the participation of boxers from a large number of countries and so each franchisee will be obliged to have a minimum number of boxers in its squad which are not nationals of the country in which the franchise is based.

These minimum numbers are as follows:

Squad Size     Minimum number of non-national boxers
   10 - 12                      3
   13 - 15                      4
   16 - 18                      5
   19 - 20                      6

The maximum number of non-national boxers that can have the same nationality is two. This is designed to ensure that an equitable spread of nationalities is put in place amongst the non-national boxers in each squad.

BOXER CONTRACTS
The contracts between the franchisees and the boxers will have an initial term of three years. The boxers will be contracted and paid on an annual basis and so will be available for training and development for the off season, in addition to being available for promotional activities and other purposes.

A major benefit of boxing for a WSB franchise is that the boxer will be allowed to participate and represent his country in the Olympic Games. Normally, a boxer who has turned professional and left the AIBA competition structure is not eligible to participate in the Olympic Games. However, because WSB boxers will continue to compete under AIBA’s umbrella, they will retain their eligibility to represent their countries in the Olympic Games.

This will be an important benefit both for the boxers themselves who aspire to win an Olympic medal, as well as for the franchisees who will enjoy the recognition and other commercial benefits of boxers within their squads who are successful in the Olympics.

BOXER SELECTION PROCESS
In terms of eligibility for participation in WSB for the inaugural season 2010/2011, the following boxers will be eligible:

• All AIBA amatuer boxers;
• All boxers who turned professional after the Olympic Games 2008.

In order to identify the best boxers to participate in WSB, AIBA will obtain from the National Federations the names of boxers who are eligible and willing to join WSB (the National Federations will provide comprehensive information about the boxers including their CVs and boxing records).

WSB SA will then establish a Boxer Selection Panel which:

• Will define selection criteria
• Will evaluate the list of boxers and their individual records in order to:
· allocate boxers into three groups.
· determine the salary category for each boxer.

The three groups of boxers will be as follows:

1) National boxers: boxers from the country of the franchise city reserved for the franchisee:

• Franchisees will sign contracts with the national boxers of their country with the National Federation in accordance with the salary structure set by the WSB panel;
• The number of national boxers signed by franchisees is at the discretion of the franchisses;
• Remaining boxers will go to the pool in Groups 2 and 3 below.

2) AIBA contracted boxers: top boxers (20-30) to be reserved before the World Championships 2009 in Milan who are not signed as national boxers:

• AIBA will negotiate with the National Federations the contracts for the Group 2 boxers before World Championships 2009 in Milan;
• Franchisees will bid for the Group 2 boxers to contract them to a franchise.

3) Draft boxers: remaining boxers (90-100) to be selected by the franchisees in a draft system:

• Franchisees will be drawn from a hat to decide the priority in which they select boxers from Group 3;
• Franchisees pick in order of the draw one boxer from the pool, taking each weight category in turn;

RESERVE BOXERS
• Each franchise can contract between 10 and 20 boxers;
• National Federations will create a pool of reserve boxers who will be trained to compete in the WSB compeition format (these boxers are still eligible to participate in AIBA events);