The members of the Georgian Boxing Federation held a protest on Tuesday in Tbilisi, where they demanded the dismissal of Tea Tsulukiani, a minister of culture and sports, accusing her of “paralysing” the federation’s work. 

The demonstrators said that they would also address the prime minister to separate the federation from the ministry. 

“The problems started after the ministries of culture and sports were united in 2017, and during the administration of Tsulukiani. In a number of cases, I would say that there was probably an inaccurate transfer of information, which resulted in these problems”. Davit Tsiklauri, president of the Boxing Federation said. 

Athletes said they were starting to collect signatures, and that other federations would also join their protest.

Tsulukiani said at the end of September that the country’s boxing federation would no longer be funded from the state budget, while boxers would receive necessary finances directly, following her accusations that the federation head, Tsiklauri, tried to physically assault her in June, at a meeting in the ministry office. 

For his part, Tsiklauri said that he was verbally abused by the minister on which he had reacted but “attacked noone”.