Boxing won’t miss the Olympic Games but it’s definitely the other way around, says International Boxing Association (IBA) president Umar Kremlev while claiming the sport will be part of Los Angeles 2028.
The IBA was expelled by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) earlier this year. This was the first time that a governing body was removed by IOC in its 129-year-old history.
The IOC took the major step after a near four-year-long dispute with IBA over financial mismanagement, dubious referring and governance issues.
However, at the Ordinary Congress of the IBA, held in Dubai on Saturday, the governing body’s president Umar Kremlev said IOC makes money from boxing and that Olympic Games will miss ‘one of the popular sports’.
“There is going to be boxing at LA 2028. And that’s only because it won’t be boxing that misses the Olympic games, it’s the Olympic games that will miss the event of boxing. Boxing is one of the most popular sports in the programme. The IOC makes money from boxing, and we want to see that money redistributed among the boxers,” The Indian Express quoted Kremlev as saying.
IBA won’t be involved in conducting boxing at the Paris Games next year while the event has been left out from the LA Games programme.
Earlier this year, during the IOC session in Mumbai, committee chief Thomas Bach had said there will be no boxing with the involvement of IBA.
“With the IBA there’s no ongoing process, for us the case is closed. There will be no boxing with IBA in the Olympic program. It’s done! Full stop!” Bach had said.
IBA secretary general Chris Roberts has brushed aside any concerns with regards to boxing.
“Boxing is still going to be at the Olympics, there’s no reason to worry. For us, we’re just business as usual. Carry on doing what we’re doing,” the publication quoted Roberts as saying.
Thanks to the troubled relationship between IOC and IBA, a separate organisation called World Boxing was formed to ensure the sport remains part of Olympic.
Several federations including the likes of US, UK, Australia, Switzerland and Brazil terminated their IBA memberships in the wake of the conflict but the German and Dutch federations remained part of both the groups.
USA (through a separate federation US Boxing) and Switzerland have since re-joined IBA while the memberships of German and Dutch federations have been terminated.
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