The Swiss boxing association SwissBoxing is leaving the amateur boxing world association IBA and instead, like many other associations before it, is joining the newly founded competing organization World Boxing.
SwissBoxing announced this decision by its association council on Thursday. The decision has “immediate effect,” the statement said, but is “subject to subsequent approval by the delegates’ meeting.”
Boxing faces Olympic withdrawal
The reason for the Swiss decision is the announcement by the International Olympic Committee IOC that the IBA will no longer be able to host the Olympic boxing competition for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, including qualifying competitions.
In the fight for the Olympic future, the German Boxing Association (DBV) and several other national associations founded World Boxing as a new umbrella organization in mid-April. The new association wants to “ensure that boxing remains at the heart of the Olympic movement”.
Boxing thrown into chaos
The IBA and its pugnacious Russian President Umar Kremlev had thrown the sport of boxing increasingly into chaos in the recent past, thereby extremely jeopardizing the future of the Olympic Games programme.
The IBA has been suspended since 2019 due to “lack of financial transparency” and “lack of integrity in arbitration processes”. Boxing has already been removed from the Los Angeles 2028 program, and a task force set up by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) organized the competitions in Tokyo 2021. The same is planned for Paris 2024.