Going by the recommendation of its Executive Board (EB), the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session has withdrawn the recognition of the International Boxing Association (IBA), throwing the sport into further turmoil.
The IOC has also decided that the sport will not be conducted by IBA in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, just like it was at the Tokyo Olympics and will be at next year’s Games in Paris.
The IOC Session, in an emergency meeting held remotely on Thursday, decided to withdraw IBA’s recognition under Rule 3.7 of the Olympic Charter (OC). This means that IBA is no longer an International Federation recognised by the IOC.
“This decision is based on the IOC Comprehensive Report on the Situation of the IBA dated June 2, 2023, discussed and approved by the IOC EB on June 7, 2023,” the IOC said in a statement.
“The report establishes that the IBA has failed to fulfil the conditions set by the IOC in its decision communicated to the IBA on 9 December 2021 — which was not challenged by the IBA - for lifting the suspension of the IBA’s recognition,” it added.
The decision was on the expected lines as the IOC has already rejected all attempts by the IBA to reform its governance and financial structure as it is still under Russian influence.
As an additional consequence of the above decision, the IOC Session has decided that the IBA will not organise the Olympic Games LA28 boxing tournament, the release said.
“In the interest of the boxing athletes and the sport of boxing, the IOC Session also followed the IOC EB’s recommendation to maintain boxing on the sports programme of the Olympic Games Paris 2024,” it said.
“The IBA had already appealed to CAS concerning the recommendation of the IOC EB. The IOC successfully opposed this request. As there is now a new opportunity to appeal, the IOC is not in a position to comment further on the situation,” the IOC statement informed.
The IOC suspended the recognition of AIBA (subsequently the IBA as of 2021) on June 26, 2019, upon the recommendation of the IOC EB. At that time too, the IOC had allowed boxing to be part of the Tokyo Olympic Games programme and had given the boxing administrators an exceptional opportunity to restore AIBA’s recognition in case of its full compliance with OC Rule 25 and the IOC Code of Ethics.
However, the IOC has subsequently ruled that the boxing administrators have failed to mitigate the situation and become fully compliant with the OC Rules and IOC Code of Ethics, despite relaunching AIBA in a new avatar as IBA.
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