The power struggle between the controversial amateur boxing world association IBA and its newly founded rival organization World Boxing has reached a new level of escalation.
The IBA, led by the pugnacious Russian Umar Kremlev, suspended the German Boxing Association (DBV) and three other national associations (New Zealand, the Netherlands and Sweden) because of their World Boxing affiliation. According to a statement by the new association, the quartet concerned must publicly renounce World Boxing in order to revive the respective IBA membership.
In addition to Germany and the other three nations, the Czech Republic, Liberia and Equatorial Guinea were also suspended. While the two exotics were excluded because of violations of reporting obligations, the IBA sanctioned the Czechs for organizing a tournament with players from the US association, which had left the IBA.
IBA suspended due to “lack of financial transparency”.
In the recent past, the IBA and Kremlev had thrown the sport of boxing increasingly into chaos, thereby extremely jeopardizing the future of the Olympic Games program. 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 IOC organized the competitions in Tokyo 2021. The same is planned for Paris 2024.
In the fight for the Olympic future, the DBV and several other national associations founded World Boxing as a new umbrella organization in mid-April. The new association aims to “ensure that boxing remains at the heart of the Olympic movement,” World Boxing said.
The US and UK also belong to World Boxing, which the official statement said was formed “in response to ongoing problems surrounding the existing international governing body of Olympic boxing”. According to the IBA, World Boxing wants to “address the IOC’s long-standing concerns about sporting integrity, leadership, transparency and financial management”.