IOC no longer recognizes IBA

The surprise effect was almost zero when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided at its virtual meeting number 140 last Thursday to withdraw recognition from the International Boxing Association (IBA). When has the Elephant Round in the sign of the Five Rings ever made a decision that was completely different from what the Executive Committee had just recommended?

And weren’t the signs long since unfavorable after she recently rejected all offers from the boxing association to present his arguments for remaining in the Olympic family at a joint meeting instead of just having 400 pages of documents sent to him? Decision-makers prefer to act in this style if they basically no longer want to get involved with the other side.

Organized by IOC task force

If you look at things from the perspective of the athletes, which is often the wiser decision, the new situation does not appear catastrophic: at least they received something like a guarantee of continued existence for their greatest sporting goal at the meeting. At least until the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, their three-round duels are to remain part of the official competition program.

However, as in Tokyo in 2021, these will again be organized by an IOC task force, including the upstream qualifications. And anyone who still didn’t want to understand last week in which direction the targeted punch was going was informed by IOC President Thomas Bach himself.

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“We have no problem with the sport of boxing,” said the former fencer at the meeting. “But we have an extremely serious problem with the IBA. The boxers deserve to be represented by an association that lives integrity and transparency.”

Not a full day passed before two boxing organizations took a position on the matter. The IBA complained about the “enormous mistake” and the “truly political decision” on the part of the IOC. “All requirements have been implemented” in order to regain the recognition that was suspended four years ago due to a lack of transparency and dubious association management. In addition, ominous referee decisions were processed and prize money increased several times over. That is why we will continue to fight for the “rightful place within the Olympic movement”, as the Russian IBA President Umar Kremlev emphasized in an open letter to the national associations and “the boxing family” the next day.

“A New International Organization”

World Boxing, on the other hand, welcomed the IOC’s decision without reservation as a “positive development”. She made it clear “that the IBA will never again be allowed to organize a boxing tournament at the Olympic Games”. Instead, “a new international organisation” would soon be required to take on this task. Which is why all national boxing associations should consider who they will join in the future: the ousted IBA or World Boxing, the competing association that is currently being set up and that has started to form behind the scenes since last autumn.

Behind this is a coalition of critical, some experienced officials from primarily Western to Asian national associations who no longer want to follow the course of the IBA leadership. The unspecified millions from the coffers of the sponsor Gazprom acquired by Kremlev are as scary to them as its embrace of Russian or Belarusian athletes.

How much does the IOC care about the bride?

They are suddenly allowed to compete with national flags and anthems at tournaments, while Ukrainian boxers remain suspended for the time being. Some also resented the crude maneuvers used to eliminate opposing candidates before presidential elections. For example the Dutchman Boris van der Vorst, who helped initiate World Boxing.

The IOC has not yet revealed how much the bride posing at the open window is actually interested. Nevertheless, World Boxing claims to have registered “a significant increase in inquiries” from national associations in the first few days after the verdict, as a spokesman assures. Others – such as USA Boxing, Swiss Boxing, Sweden and Denmark – broke away from the IBA weeks ago in order to set an example. However, it is currently difficult to predict how many will follow their example. This applies above all to associations from Latin America or Africa. There, the IBA’s “Financial Support Program”, worth a good ten million dollars, has made many a boxing nation a loyal member.

“It’s one of several options”

Kremlev and his comrades-in-arms will probably still have money for quite some time, even for tournaments with enticingly high prizes – just no longer have access to the five rings. The German Boxing Association (DBV) is now required to position itself more clearly. Without an Olympic perspective, he would soon only have a fraction of the funding from the Ministry of the Interior and other partners. He’s also up in the air anyway, as the IBA recently suspended him – because several of his athletes competed in an unsanctioned tournament and sports director Michael Mueller allegedly made contacts with World Boxing.

The back and forth, which has already been criticized as “opportunism” (“Der Spiegel”), should not last long, as DBV President Jens Hadler hints. An extraordinary executive board congress is scheduled for July, “we will sound out how to proceed together”. According to Hadler, world boxing could be “one of several options”.