Crisis in Olympic boxing: IBA loses another member and suspends Federations days before a key tournament for Paris 2024

The Swiss Boxing Federation officially announced that it is leaving the International Association (IBA) and will join World Boxing, the new entity that emerged in the midst of the conflict between the IBA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in search of keeping the sport in Los Angeles 2028.

In this way, the Swiss Federation is the second to leave IBA to join World Boxing after the United States and it is expected that other bodies will make the same decision in the immediate future, something that, for example, New Zealand has already anticipated.

As Swiss Boxing explained in the statement, the resolution is of “immediate effect” and is “motivated by the announcement of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to withdraw from the IBA -formerly AIBA- the organization of the Olympic boxing competition for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, including qualifying competitions”.

Financial irregularities and the investigation into manipulated fights at the Rio 2016 Games led the IOC to suspend the International Boxing Association in 2019, and also deprived it of the possibility of organizing qualification for the Tokyo and Paris Olympic Games.

“We share the dismay of the Swiss Boxing Federation at the continued and persistent failure of the IBA to address the massive accusations of corruption and ethical violations that mean that it has not been trusted with the management of the Olympic boxing tournaments in Tokyo and Paris, and we welcome their decision to apply for membership,” they said from World Boxing after learning about the European country’s decision.

Boxing today has not guaranteed its place in Los Angeles 2028 and in search of “keeping it at the heart of the Olympic movement” in April the creation of World Boxing was announced, which will be precisely based in Switzerland and the first objective will be to obtain recognition from the IOC. The new Federation is initially composed of representatives from the United States, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and New Zealand. The president will be announced in November, when the elections take place.

Because of this closeness to World Boxing, IBA announced on May 22 that it was suspending New Zealand, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands as members because they were “guilty of violating rules and regulations”. In addition, the Czech Boxing Association was also sanctioned for allowing American boxers to participate in the international tournament “Grand Prix”.

Amid the dropouts and suspensions, boxing will have the main qualifying tournament in the region for Paris 2024 at the European Games that will be held in Krakow from June 21 to July 2.

IBA, which at first spoke out against this competition providing tickets to the Olympic Games, gave boxers, coaches and judges a free way to participate. “Athletes are protected and separated from sports politics,” said Russian Umar Kremlev, the president of the Association.