As expected, the 140th General Assembly of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of the International Boxing Association (IBA) withdrawn recognition. The IBA is the first Olympic federation to be so severely punished for decades of scandals of mismanagement and corruption. The large-scale corruption in Olympic boxing (whether as AIBA or IBA) has been a fundamental IOC problem for decades and has never been worked through, some IOC members are largely responsible for it.
Despite the 69:1 vote against the IBA, the IOC received Olympic status for the sport of boxing. That too is unique. In concrete terms, this means: At the summer games 2024 in Paris the boxing competitions will be organized by the IOC, as in 2021 in Tokyo. Normally, the currently 31 Olympic summer sports associations organize their competitions at the Olympic Games themselves. Boxing remains the exception.
Lana Haddad, COO of the IOC, presents the points to be voted on. (Screenshot 140th IOC session)
The Olympic qualifications already start on Friday with the competitions at the European Games in Poland. “We can guarantee that boxing will be on the agenda in Paris and Los Angeles in 2028,” he said IOC Director General Christophe de Kepper now even. IOC President Thomas Bach said at the Extraordinary General Assembly:
“We have no problem with boxing. We have no problem with the boxers. We value boxing as one of the most global sports.”
80 of the current 99 IOC members took part in the vote. 10 members abstained. 69 voted for the final Olympic exclusion of the IBA. An IOC member voted for the whereabouts of the world association.
Weightlifting still on the cross-off list
As early as December 2021, the IOC Executive Committee temporarily removed boxing and weightlifting from the Olympic program for the summer games in Los Angeles after next. Although the final program for Los Angeles will not be decided until the next IOC session in October in Mumbai, it has been known since today that boxing will remain – only the IBA will be banned from the Olympics. This means that the royalties that IBA should receive from the IOC after a distribution key negotiated with all summer sports associations from the Olympic TV marketing also remain frozen. For the summer games in Tokyo and Paris, boxing is entitled to a total of around $40 million. It can be assumed that the IOC will distribute at least part of this sum in other ways over the next few months and thus finance the Olympic preparations of boxers from numerous nations. Another part of this sum is likely to continue to be managed by the IOC and may be available to the new association in the future World Boxing (WB) available, it should be recognized by the IOC in 2025 at the earliest.
For sports funding in Germany, the decision of the IOC session means very practically: The German Boxing Association (DBV), which is funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) with 2.5 million euros annually, represents an Olympic sport at least until 2028, most likely also thereafter.
State subsidies are retained by the DBV
The fear of sliding into bankruptcy and finally into the sporting sidelines without this million-dollar subsidy has been banished. There is no formal reason to stop sports funding after the Paris Games or to reduce it to the level of non-Olympic sports (that would be maybe only 10 percent of current funding). The bureaucrats in the BMI only have to find a technical solution to the problem that the DBV is now the only German Olympic sports association to belong to a world association that is no longer recognized by the IOC. But that should also change shortly, because the DBV’s sports-political egg dance will soon come to an end.
The DBV has never been on the side of the scouts in Olympic boxing. DBV officials have almost consistently supported corrupt international presidents over the decades of Boxing corruption. As of today, however, there is no longer any reason for the opportunistically acting DBV leadership to remain a member of the IBA.
Until a few weeks ago, the current one from the Russians Umar Kremlew led IBA, which is on a total confrontational course with the IOC, still 201 national associations, including the DBV. So far, only the Americans and the Swiss have declared their withdrawal from the IBA. Most of the remaining 199 national associations will part with the IBA very quickly. An alternative is available World Boxing ready. Formally, the establishment of World Boxing only take place in November of this year. The IOC’s decision will also speed up this process. It may even be that entire continental associations split off from the IBA. Such a decision is expected from the Asian boxing confederation ASBC in the near future.
Battle for the national associations
Umar Kremlev and the IBA will continue to attack the IOC and all breakaway national associations for some time. But that excitement will wear off. IBA has nothing to offer apart from money from dubious sources. The Olympic future alone is an enduring value.
World Boxing will be under the designated Dutch President Boris van der Horst want to continue to establish themselves as an alternative to the IBA and strive for recognition by the IOC as quickly as possible. However, this process will take years. Because the IOC will continue to act tactically and will not shake the so-called one-association principle – this monopoly principle is sacred in the Olympic sports system: A sport should be represented by one association. So the IOC will do everything to prevent this fundamental principle from being weakened. Finally, there are many other Olympic federations with decades of history of scandals. So it’s also about preventing the establishment of new associations in other sports that could present themselves as clean alternatives.
The IOC keeps a low profile on all these details. Also the question of the joint responsibility of numerous IOC members and even IOC Presidents for the developments in Olympic boxing under the umbrella of the IBA (formerly known as AIBA) was not debated. Since boxing will retain its Olympic status and the sanctions will only be directed at the world federation, there will be no widespread resistance among the national federations.
Three weeks ago, the then IBA Secretary General George Yerolimpos told SPIEGEL in Lausanne that an Olympic exclusion of boxing would be part of the Olympic movement Destruction “like an atomic bomb” dish. Meanwhile, Yerolimpo’s story is like many boxing officials before him. The Greek was fired by IBA boss Kremlev a few days ago.
With the decision of the IOC session, the IBA and Kremlev are basically history. There will still be some headlines – but in Paris and Los Angeles there will be Olympic boxing, no matter under which label.
A shorter version of this text was first published in SPIEGEL published: The world boxing association goes ko
