IOC suspends International Boxing Association

In an extraordinary decision, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially approved an executive board recommendation to ban the International Boxing Association's (IBA) status as the governing body for the sport.

During the IOC's extraordinary session on Thursday, the proposal received overwhelming support with 69 votes in favor and only one dissenting vote.

The withdrawal of recognition was attributed to the IBA's inability to implement essential reforms in areas such as governance, finance, and ethical standards, as highlighted by the IOC.

The report established that the IBA has failed to fulfill the conditions set by the IOC in its decision communicated to the IBA on 9 December 2021.

"Despite so many chances given to the IBA, including the roadmap 2021 to 2023, to address the various concerns with actual, effective evolution, the IBA failed to provide any concrete solution which would have allowed the lifting of its suspension," the report said.

The IBA also appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, sports highest court, calling the IOC board's recommendation "truly abhorrent and purely political" but the appeal was rejected on Tuesday.

The IOC had previously suspended the IBA in 2019 over governance, finance, refereeing, and ethical issues and did not involve it in running the boxing events at the Tokyo Olympics.

Boxing is part of the Paris 2024 Olympics but the qualification bouts and the competition are being run by the IOC and not the IBA, as was the case in Tokyo.

Many other issues such as a sponsorship deal with Russian energy giant Gazprom that was terminated in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine further complicated the position of the IBA, which is led by Russian businessman Umar Kremlev.