The TAS ruled against IBA and ratified the IOC’s decision to remove its recognition
After the International Olympic Committee (IOC) removed its recognition and left them out of the Olympic movement, the International Boxing Association (IBA) decided to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) with the objective of annulling the decision of the body chaired by Thomas Bach.
Finally, the TAS decided to dismiss the request submitted by the IBA on June 27 of last year and argued its ruling on three points:
- The IBA had not increased its financial transparency and sustainability, even through revenue diversification.
- The IBA had not changed its procedures related to referees and judges to ensure their integrity, including a period of monitoring the IBA’s own competitions before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
- The IBA had not guaranteed the full and effective implementation of all the measures proposed by the “Governance Reform Group” established by the IOC, including a change of culture.
In the statement, the TAS - meeting with both parties on November 16 - stated that “these three elements justified the decision of the IOC session (of June 22, 2023) to withdraw recognition of the IBA” and explained that “the right of the IOC to control the circumstances and conditions under which it grants recognition prevails over the rights of the personality of the IBA”.
The IOC suspended the IBA in 2019 for financial irregularities and the investigation into rigged fights at the Rio 2016 Games. Within this framework, it had also taken away the possibility of organizing the qualifying tournaments for the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
“We have an extremely serious problem with the IBA because of its government (the president is Russian Umar Kremlev),” said Bach during the historic IOC session in which recognition of the IBA was withdrawn with 69 votes in favor, one against and 10 abstentions.
The IOC had provided a “road map” to the IBA to meet different objectives between 2021 and 2023 in search of lifting the suspension, but seeing no progress, it decided to leave it out of the Olympic movement, a decision that the TAS ratified with its ruling.
The #IOCSession, meeting remotely, has withdrawn the recognition of International Boxing Association (IBA), upon the recommendation of the IOC Executive Board (EB).
— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) June 22, 2023
Decision is based on the IOC Comprehensive Report on the Situation of the IBA, discussed by the IOC EB on 7 June.
The future of boxing in the Olympic program is unknown. Although the International Olympic Committee organized the qualifying tournaments for Tokyo and Paris, it announced that it will not do the same for Los Angeles 2028.
Thus, without the IBA as an option, the IOC needs a new Federation to take charge of Olympic boxing and in search of that recognition, World Boxing emerged, with the United States and Great Britain at the helm and about 30 associated Federations.
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