IOC Strips the International Boxing Association of its Recognition

By Boris Esono Nwenfor

BUEA, June 22, 2023 – The International Olympic Committee, IOC, has voted to derecognize the International Boxing Association, IBA, at an extraordinary meeting on Thursday, June 22. This outcome had already been expected after the chair of the IOC Thomas Bach recommended it two weeks ago.

"We highly value the sport of boxing. We have an extremely serious problem with IBA because of their governance," Bach told IOC members during their online meeting. "The boxers fully deserve to be governed by an international federation with integrity and transparency," the IOC president said.

"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 IOC initially suspended IBA, then called AIBA, in 2019 over its judging and refereeing, financial stability and governance and other issues. This led to IOC administering boxing at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 directly and is managing the qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics as well. Throughout its 129-year history, the IOC has never banned any international governing body from overseeing a sport.

Olympic boxing has had a stained reputation for decades, typified by notorious judging at the 1988 Seoul Games that denied American light-middleweight Roy Jones Jr. the gold medal against home fighter Park Si-hun.

In 2012, there were allegations ahead of the 2012 London Olympics of cash deals planned to fix medals. There was further doubt cast by fighters on the integrity of bouts at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, all but giving a negative image to the International Boxing Association.

The vote was 69-1, with 10 members abstaining. Boxing, however, escaped from being banned from the Olympics. The IOC is already overseeing boxing competitions for the Paris Olympics without IBA involvement, as it did for the Tokyo Games in 2021, reports ESPN.

Boxing can now be confirmed on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic program, which the IOC and Bach withheld as leverage against IBA. Boxing is "guaranteed" to be in Los Angeles, members were told Thursday.

"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.

"We appreciate boxing as one of the most global sports. We embrace the values of boxing," Thomas Bach said, praising the sport's "important social role promoting inclusion."