The IOC Executive Board recommended to deprive the International Boxing Association of recognition

The long-standing conflict between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Boxing Association (IBA) has escalated to the breaking point. The IOC Executive Committee recommended depriving the IBA, which has been in a state of acute confrontation with the parent sports structure for several years, of recognition. An organization that is trying to become an alternative to a federation led by the Russian Umar Kremlin already exists. This is the World Boxing association, created in the spring by a number of countries that boycotted official IBA competitions.

The International Olympic Committee has published the decision of its executive committee regarding the International Boxing Association. It consists in a recommendation to deprive it of recognition by the IOC. IN press release it is said that the decision was made on the basis of the IOC report on the situation in the IBA, dated June 2.

The recommendation will be considered at an extraordinary session of the head sports structure specially initiated for its consideration on June 22. At the same time, the issue related to the participation of boxers in the Paris Olympics in 2024 will also be considered. But the IOC clarified that the executive committee had recommended keeping boxing on its agenda.

This news means that the long-standing conflict between the IOC and the IBA has reached a peak.

In a state of confrontation with the IOC, the IBA, and so previously temporarily deprived of recognition by the head structure and suspended from the organization of Olympic boxing tournaments, has been since the end of the last decade. AND election Umar Kremlev, the president of the federation, who solved, among other things, its financial problems largely thanks to sponsorship contract with Gazprom, the position of the IOC has not softened.

The confrontation moved into a particularly acute phase after the start of events in Ukraine. Last spring, the IOC recommended that international sports federations remove Russians from participation in competitions, which the vast majority of them did. However, the IBA still in the autumn of 2022 this ban canceled and allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their own flag. This led to boycott Tashkent World Championship by 17 countries, including those that play a leading role in boxing, such as the USA and Great Britain.

A fresh round of conflict was publication earlier this week, the text of a letter sent by the IBA to the IOC. In it, the federation notified of the fulfillment of all the requirements of the committee put forward to restore its rights. Key among them are ensuring managerial and financial stability, as well as solving the problem of refereeing.

At the same time, the IBA complained that, despite all efforts, they did not receive a response from the IOC. In the federation, as it turned out, they believe that he defiantly refuses to cooperate. The IBA also confirmed that did not extend the contract with Gazprom that expired in 2022, which for some reason caused concern to the IOC. The IBA claimed to have diversified its sources of income.

The most notable part of the document was the federation’s rather harsh criticism of the IOC’s actions.

According to the IBA, hosting the Paris Olympics tournament without the participation of the IBA “in itself created a problem in the boxing world.”

The implementation by the IOC session of the recommendation of the executive committee may actually lead to the exclusion of one of the largest sports federations from its composition. Meanwhile, it already has a candidate to replace the IBA. This is an alternative association, World Boxing, established in the spring, mainly by those countries that boycotted the world championship.

Alexey Dospekhov