Moscow: The International Boxing Association said on Thursday that it may impose sanctions on members, national federations, and athletes for joining an alternative organization called World Boxing or participating in its competitions.
Earlier on Thursday, the national federations of Great Britain, the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, New Zealand, and the Philippines announced the establishment of World Boxing to “address the IOC’s [International Olympic Committee’s] longstanding concerns over sporting integrity, governance, transparency and financial management [which] has placed boxing’s future as an Olympic sport in doubt,” adding that the organization “will seek recognition from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and plans to work constructively and collaboratively to develop a pathway that will preserve boxing’s ongoing place on the Olympic competition programme.”
“Following the announcement of the rogue international boxing organization established, reportedly, in Switzerland, the International Boxing Association (IBA) has initiated a series of actions to protect its autonomy as the official worldwide governing body and global Home of Boxing. These actions are designed to provide absolute clarity to all 204 national federations and their confederations regarding the clear and present threat faced by the global boxing community and what it means to our athletes,” the IBA said.
The IBA noted that “the announcement today does not come as a surprise,” adding that it is in “line with the divide and conquer rhetoric seen from the individuals that are currently being investigated by the Boxing Independent Integrity Unit (BIIU) for breach of the IBA Disciplinary and Ethics Code, specifically for ‘Inciting a Boycott of a Competition.'”
The organization strongly condemned “the efforts of individuals to damage the significant strides taken by the IBA over last years to secure boxers’ the best future possible” as “there is no other reason of establishing a rogue organization, other than to attempt to destroy the integrity of the International Boxing Association.”
The IBA said, recalling the IBA Constitution, IBA Membership Policy, IBA Disciplinary, and Ethics Code, and Technical and Competition Rules, that national federations, confederations, and their officials, as well as their teams, individual athletes or officials, who join or participate in another international boxing association or its competitions, will be excluded from the IBA and sanctioned by the BIIU Tribunal.
In October 2022, the IBA announced that Russian and Belarusian athletes would be allowed to return to the ring and compete under their national flags. Following the admission of Russians, boxing associations of several countries, including the US, Canada, the UK, and Ukraine, refused to participate in the world championships. The IBA opened a disciplinary case against the heads of the national federations boycotting the championships.
In 2019, the IOC suspended the IBA, whose president is Russian national Umar Kremlev, from administering the boxing tournament at the Olympics as well as the qualifying events for the sport. The boxing tournament at the Tokyo Games was held by a special IOC commission. In June 2022, the IOC announced that the IBA will not be involved in the boxing tournament at the Olympics in Paris. Boxing is also not included in the preliminary program of the 2028 Olympics.
