IBA suspends four National Federations for joining "rogue governing body"

Lausanne (Switzerland), May 23 (IANS) The International Boxing Association (IBA) has suspended four National Federations (NFs) due to their participation in a "rogue boxing organisation".

"The four (federations) consisting of the New Zealand Boxing Association, German Boxing Association, Swedish Boxing Federation, and the Dutch Boxing Federation were guilty of breaching the rules and regulations and were suspended as IBA members.

"All of them were given the right to be heard but none refused categorically their participation in the rogue governing body nor distancing themselves from the organization," IBA said in a statement.

In April this year, a group of countries including the USA and Britain announced the formation of a new organisation called 'World Boxing' hoping to preserve boxing as part of the Olympic programme amid an ongoing feud between the IBA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The IBA had filed an official complaint to the Boxing Independent Integrity Unit (BIIU) last month against individuals and entities involved in the creation of a "rogue boxing organization".

An Interim Executive Board of World Boxing featured representatives from Germany, Britain, The Netherlands, the Philippines, Sweden and the United States but only USA Boxing has officially quit the IBA.

Last month, USA Boxing revoked its membership in IBA, hence, depriving their athletes, coaches, and officials to take part in any IBA and affiliated member events.

The IBA said that the four suspended federations will be reinstated if they demonstrate to IBA that "it no longer has any affiliated officials participating in another international boxing federation;" and is required "to provide a written statement to IBA, confirming that it has ceased its participation in any other international boxing federation; commits not to participate in such federations in the future" and must "publish a statement on its official website explicitly condemning any attempts to establish an alternative international boxing federation."

Moreover, the Czech Boxing Association (CBA) was suspended following the organisation of the international tournament "Grand Prix" where it allowed non-eligible boxers from USA Boxing to participate.

The organisation can be fully reinstated if CBA guarantees that only eligible boxers from member National Federations will participate in its events going forward, and there will not be other serious violations of the IBA Constitution and Regulations by the Czech Boxing Association within the next 6 months.

Furthermore, the Liberia Boxing Association, Federation of Boxing of Equatorial Guinea, and Iceland Boxing Federation were also suspended following their failure to provide annual reports as per the IBA Membership Policy.

The IBA also said the athletes of suspended NFs will still take part in IBA-owned and sanctioned competitions but they must be registered through the IBA Sports Department.

The IBA has also vowed to ensure boxers and coaches from the seven countries can compete "under their national flag and anthem but without any symbols of the suspended National Federation".

It is uncertain that Boxing will feature in the 2028 Summer Olympic Games as the sport has been left off from the initial program list of the Los Angeles Olympics.

The IBA has been suspended by International Olympic Committee (IOC) over its governance and other issues since 2019. This led to IOC administering boxing at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 directly and is managing the qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics as well.