Boxing - AIBA bans African confederation head for three years

LONDON (Reuters) - Olympic boxing's governing body, AIBA, has banned African confederation head Kelani Bayor for three years for allegedly provoking the crowd at the continental championships in Brazzaville last June.

Bayor is an AIBA vice-president and executive committee member as well as chairman of Togo's national Olympic committee.

"The Disciplinary Commission found that a hostile and threatening reaction to AIBA officials by spectators after the result of a bout on the last day of the competition was exacerbated by comments from Mr Bayor," AIBA said in a statement on Monday.

It found Bayor had "committed serious and unacceptable violations of the AIBA Disciplinary Code" at the tournament in Congo Republic.

AIBA said the ban was from all boxing activities and responsibilities and could not be appealed.

The Congolese Boxing Federation, Fecoboxe, was barred from organising any AIBA competition for two years.

The Lausanne-based world boxing body is currently riven with in-fighting, with the executive committee passing a vote of no confidence in Taiwanese president Ching-kuo Wu last July.

A Swiss court is due to rule on the dispute later this month.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Gene Cherry)