Legal ruling: IOC can proceed with replacing IBA as the Olympic boxing organizer
Legal ruling: IOC can proceed with replacing IBA as the Olympic boxing organizer
By Scott Shaffer
20/06/2023
By Scott Shaffer
20/06/2023
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), a body that conducts sports-related arbitrations, has issued a ruling in favor of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that will enable the IOC to appoint a new organization to oversee Olympic boxing instead of the International Boxing Association (IBA). This ruling is another nail in the coffin of the corruption-plagued IBA, because the IBA was seeking to block an IOC meeting to beheld latrer this week that will determine the details of how to replace IBF at the 2024 Olympics, as well as in the boxer qualification process leading up to the Olympics.
The IOC provisionally suspended IBA (then known as AIBA) prior to the 2021 Olympics, and IBA was not involved in those Tokyo games. The IOC then gave IBA a roadmap to follow for reinstation for the 2024 Olympics, but the IOC maintains that IBA did not comply. Therefore, the IOC is now looking to permanently remove IBA from any role in the Olympics.
Here is the CAS press release on the ruling:
In the context of the appeal filed by the International Boxing Association (IBA) against the decision taken by the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on June 7th 2023 (see below, the Challenged Decision), the President of the Appeals Arbitration Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has today dismissed the IBA’s urgent request to stay the execution of the Challenged Decision. Accordingly, the Challenged Decision remains in force and the IOC Extraordinary Session remains undisturbed.
In the Challenged Decision, the IOC Executive Board noted that the IBA had failed to fulfil to the IOC’s satisfaction the conditions set by the IOC in its decision communicated to the IBA on December 9, 2021 for the lifting of the suspension of the IBA’s recognition, and recommended that the IOC Session withdraw the IOC’s recognition of IBA, in accordance with Rule 3.7 of the Olympic Charter. The IOC Executive Board also resolved to recommend to the IOC Session to decide that the IBA should not organise the Olympic Games LA28 boxing tournament, but that in the interest of the boxing athletes and the sport of boxing, boxing be maintained on the sports programme of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, in accordance with the IOC Executive Board’s decisions taken on June 24th, September 8th and December 6th 2022. Finally, the IOC Executive Board and the IOC President decided to convene an IOC Extraordinary Session to be held remotely on June 22, 2023.
