(Paris) The International Boxing Federation (IBA), excluded last June from the Olympic movement, said it was ready on Thursday to appeal again if the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) confirmed its exclusion.
“We must defend our rights and if that does not work with the CAS, there is a court in Switzerland to which we can go to defend our case,” declared the president of the body Umar Kremlev during a conference press office in Paris.
Last June, after four years of conflict, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially banned the IBA from its fold, accusing it of governance problems, repeated arbitration scandals and its persistent financial dependence. to the Russian giant Gazprom.
As a result, the IBA permanently lost the organization of the Olympic boxing tournaments and the financial windfall that accompanies it to live solely on its own resources.
The president of the body deplored a decision taken not by the “Olympic family”, but by “officials”. “We believe this decision is unfair, but our lawyers are dealing with this matter,” he said.
The CAS, which examined the IBA’s appeal against this decision this Thursday behind closed doors, is not expected to rule for several months.
“We are not very worried about this, we are more concerned about our boxers,” Kremlev continued. “We support our tournaments and our boxers and their participation in the Olympics. »
“We will not allow the fate of boxing to be decided for him, it should be decided by the boxers themselves,” he insisted.
The Russian leader, who arrived at the head of the body in December 2020, also announced the organization of a World Championship in France in 2025 or 2026, committing to paying significant financial bonuses to participants.
The disgrace of the IBA coincides with the emergence of a new player, the very young international federation World Boxing, propelled behind the scenes by several Western federations and already joined by those of the United States and Switzerland. Great Britain, the Netherlands and New Zealand have indicated they want to follow suit.
The next IBA congress, scheduled for December in Dubai, will bring together around 200 national federations, stressed Umar Kremlev.