The International Boxing Association (IBA) has accused the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of “lack of transparency” and “unlawful” conduct and raised questions about its “transparency principles” while inviting boxing officials for the 2024 Paris Olympics qualification process.
The IBA has threatened to take the IOC to court on the issue.
In an open letter to IOC president Thomas Bach ahead of the global sports body’s executive board meeting today, IBA has said its competition officials were being approached by IOC “without prior approval or communication to IBA”, which is a breach of the data transfer agreement signed between the two parties in 2019.
At the root of the problem is the ban imposed by the IOC on the boxing body due to concerns around its governance, financial transparency, sustainability and the integrity of the refereeing and judging process.
The IOC has informed IBA that it would conduct boxing qualification events leading up to the Paris Olympics, the same way it had done before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Despite the IOC’s instructions, the boxing body declared that the IBA-run women’s World Championships in New Delhi, which concluded on Sunday, would be the main qualification event for 2024 Paris.
Yesterday, IBA wrote to IOC, saying, “…sharing the IBA’s deep concerns regarding basic IOC governance, impartiality, and transparency principles seen during the monitoring process ahead of Paris 2024 which will mark the 120th anniversary of boxing’s participation in the Olympic Games.
IBA said the IOC could not keep the boxing officials’ data beyond a stipulated period as agreed upon by the two parties, and, in this case, should have been destroyed after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.