International Boxing Association

International Boxing Association
AbbreviationIBA
Formation29–30 November 1946
TypeSports federation
HeadquartersLausanne, Switzerland
Region served
Worldwide
President
Umar Kremlev[1]
Main organ
Congress
WebsiteIBA.sport

The International Boxing Association (IBA), previously known as the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur (AIBA), is a sports organization that sanctions amateur and professional boxing matches and awards world and subordinate championships. It is one of the oldest boxing federations in the world, coming into existence after the 1920 Summer Olympics. The IBA consists of five continental confederations, the African Boxing Confederation, American Boxing Confederation, Asian Boxing Confederation, European Boxing Confederation, and Oceania Boxing Confederation. The association includes officially 198 national boxing federations.[2] It is led by a committee headed by Umar Kremlev.

The IBA's status in the boxing community has declined in recent years.[3] It governed boxing at the Summer Olympics until 2020, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended the organization in 2019 due to governance and finance issues under prior leadership. In the interim, an IOC-organised task force oversaw the boxing competitions at the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics, and the sport's status for 2028 is currently undetermined. In 2020, Umar Kremlev was elected president of the organisation, with a promise of taking on reforms and paying off the organisation's debt. It also commissioned an independent report indicating that there had been systemic attempts to manipulate match outcomes during the 2016 Olympics.

Kremlev's tenure has been controversial, with concerns raised by the IOC over its increasing ties to Russia after assuming the presidency (including moving much of its operations to Russia and having state-owned Gazprom as sole sponsor for a period), opposition to the independent appointment of judges and referees, irregularities during subsequent presidential elections, and the controversial disqualifications of Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting during the IBA's 2023 world championships.[4][5] Amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a group of national federations known as the Common Cause Alliance demanded transparency over the IBA's finances and the Gazprom sponsorship, and pledged continued support for boxing as an Olympic event. In October 2022, the IBA lifted a ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes competing under their national flags, which had been imposed amid the invasion.[6][7] Its 2023 world championships faced boycotts from a number of countries, and false statements by the IBA claiming that they were an "approved" qualifying path for the 2024 Summer Olympics.[8] The Common Cause Alliance later evolved into a competing amateur boxing federation known as World Boxing.

In June 2023, the IOC voted to formally revoke its recognition of the IBA, due to a lack of sufficient progress on addressing governance, finance, and corruption concerns since the original suspension; the IBA became the first international federation to ever be expelled from the Olympic movement.

  1. ^ "Umar Kremlev Wins AIBA Presidency". 12 December 2020. Archived from the original on 12 December 2020. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  2. ^ "AIBA Presidential Candidate Wants Better Communication". 12 July 2021.
  3. ^ Carpenter, Les. "Olympic boxer who faced gender-eligibility claim wins, igniting outcry". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 1 August 2024. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  4. ^ "Joint Paris 2024 Boxing Unit/IOC Statement". International Olympic Committee. 1 August 2024. Archived from the original on 1 August 2024. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  5. ^ "Olympic 2024 boxing controversy: IBA add to confusion over eligibility row". BBC Sport. 2024-08-05. Retrieved 2024-08-07.
  6. ^ "Putin's ally running world amateur boxing looks to uphold Russian soft power". Le Monde. 2022-12-11. Retrieved 2024-08-07.
  7. ^ Carpenter, Les (27 September 2022). "Boxing's governing body nixes new election, jeopardizing Olympic future". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 6 October 2022. ...Though Kremlev has promised to reform the IBA, he has alarmed IOC officials by moving much of the organization's operations from Lausanne, Switzerland to Russia.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :6 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).