Thailand's boxers could miss next year's Olympics because of a dispute over control of the country's amateur boxing body.
The International Boxing Association (AIBA) has expelled the Amateur Boxing Association of Thailand for failing to call fresh elections by the end of June. AIBA had demanded new elections, having annulled the results of March's poll when General Narin Tabprasit was elected unopposed as the successor to General Taweep Jantaroj as ABAT's president.
Citing doubts over the conduct of that voting, AIBA responded by banning Taweep from all boxing activities for two years, while issuing Narin a one-year ban.
AIBA has called for other Thai boxing bodies to take over ABAT's role, and until the situation is resolved, no Thai boxers will be able to take part in AIBA tournaments, including the Olympics.
Thai national team coach Kammanit Nareerak was quoted in the Bangkok Post as saying the team was preparing to depart for the President's Cup in Indonesia when it was told of the ban, and the boxers were sent home.
''We don't know when they will return to training,'' Kammanit said. ''Nobody from the association informed us about the punishment. We had to find it out on AIBA website.''
A new Thai governing body can be ratified, at the earliest, at September's world championships in Azerbaijan, allowing Thai boxers to attempt to qualify for the 2012 Olympics in London.
''I believe that our boxers still have a chance of gong to the Olympics,'' said Yuttasak Sasiprapha, president of the National Olympic Committee of Thailand.
