India leaves IOC-suspended IBA, joins breakaway World Boxing

NEW DELHI: Left with no choice after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled against Umar Kremlev-led International Boxing Association (IBA), India’s national governing body for the sport – BFI, headed by SpiceJet chairman and managing director Ajay Singh – on Friday switched allegiance to avoid International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) wrath and joined hands with Switzerland-based breakaway body, World Boxing (WB).

This move will save the country’s boxers from facing isolation at both the international and multisport events.

The IOC’s warning to all its affiliated National Olympic Committees (NOCs), that any association of their national federations (NFs) with the suspended IBA would result in the country’s non-participation in boxing events at the Los Angeles Games 2028, made it “incredibly difficult” for BFI to continue supporting IBA, whose lack of financial transparency led to the IOC withdrawing its recognition in 2023 and subsequently suspending it.

The development marks a significant shift in BFI’s stand, whose president Singh has been a vice-president of IBA for 14 months and was instrumental in brokering a peace deal between IBA and Thomas Bach-led IOC, which eventually fell through after Kremlev failed to transparently explain the source of his organisation’s financing.

Interestingly, Singh hasn’t severed all ties with IBA since he doesn’t want to deprive Indian boxers of competing in future IBA-sanctioned events till the time World Boxing puts a proper organisational structure in place and wins over IOC’s trust to become the sole governing body for the sport globally. Singh expects a backlash from IBA and its Russian head Kremlev because they had obliged India with the hosting rights of the prestigious women’s World Championships in March last year and also elevated Singh to the post of VP.

Eventually, Singh said the decision had to be made after the CAS ruling made it impossible for IBA to get back on the boxing roster and that it was for the betterment of the country’s boxers to side with Van der Vorst-led World Boxing. Now, the effort would be to get IOC’s recognition at the earliest, convince at least 50 national boxing federations to join World Boxing, put the sport back on the LA 2028 programme and help the newly-incorporated global body to set up its Asian Confederation in the region.

“It is absolutely vital to the sustainability of boxing that it retains its Olympics status, so we are delighted to join World Boxing and look forward to working closely with the Executive Board and our fellow members to shape the future development of the sport and deliver a brighter future for boxers across the world,” Singh said.

World Boxing was launched in April 2023 and aims to ensure that boxing remains at the heart of the Olympic movement. The membership application was approved by the BFI’s General Assembly and will be ratified by World Boxing’s Executive Board.

Boxing at the Paris Games will be overseen by the IOC. It will be the second successive time, after the Tokyo Olympics, that IBA will have no involvement in the event.


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