Commonwealth Sport chiefs have dismissed Idi Amin’s grandson’s claims of corruption and racism after he was disqualified for a head-butt in the super-heavyweight boxing.
Aziz Abdul lashed out at the decision by the Argentinian referee, Manuel Vilarino, after losing his quarter-final fight to England’s Damar Thomas. It came after he was correctly docked a point for a standing count in the first round, another for repeatedly punching on the break, and then disqualified for a blatant butt.
Abdul, representing Uganda, took a different view. “Of course it’s unfair,” he said. “When you watch the previous fights of England, their boxers play a lot of bullshit. They cannot judge them wrong. I took a light punch and they counted. I landed a heavy punch on him and they deducted my points and warned me.
“I’m a black African, I know,” he added. “It’s God’s plan. I don’t know why the officials are scared about this fight. Why can’t they let this fight continue? All I can say about this is the referee’s decision is not right and I am not happy.”
However Abdul was contradicted on Thursday by Dr Donald Rukare, the president of Commonwealth Sport, who is also from Uganda. “We at Commonwealth Sport believe that every athlete is treated fairly in a non discriminatory manner,” he said. “We are inclusive. I think that was probably something said in the heat of the moment.
“As far as we’re concerned, we have a good relationship with World Boxing, the athletes are treated fairly, so as far as we’re concerned it was a fair playing field,” he added. “I don’t represent Uganda here but I’m sure that that matter will be handled appropriately in terms of our colleague’s conduct and the appropriate channels that we have.”
Insiders have pointed out that African nations are guaranteed eight boxing medals at these Games – two from Lesotho, two from Ghana, three from Namibia and one from Zambia – making it one of the continent’s best-ever returns from a Commonwealth Games.
Meanwhile Katie Sadleir, the chief executive of Commonwealth Games, has defended TNT Sports’ coverage of Glasgow 2026, after widespread social media criticism of the switch from the BBC.
Sadleir did not comment on reports that TNT is attracting daytime peaks of just 120,000 viewers – while the BBC’s coverage of Birmingham 2022 regularly got more than five million.
She said: “We are really proud of the decision that we made in terms of WBD and TNT. TNT has been a fantastic partner in terms of ensuring every single athlete has coverage.
“And to pay £4.99 to get 600 hours of television coverage, I think that’s a fantastic first step towards a different way of looking at it.”
However Sadleir said she hoped the BBC would decide to bid for the Amedabad Games in 2030. “The BBC will definitely be part of that mix and they were definitely part of the mix for these Games,” she added.
