The International Boxing Association (IBA) has suspended the German Boxing Federation (DBV) and three other national federations. This was the reaction of the world federation led by the controversial Russian Umar Kremlev to the founding of the competing organization World Boxing. As the IBA announced on its website on Monday, the temporary exclusion was due to violations of the statutes and the membership policy. In addition to Germany, New Zealand, Sweden and the Netherlands are affected by the suspension.
"All had the right to be heard, but none of them strongly opposed their participation in the breakaway body or distanced themselves from the organization," the IBA said. For re-admission, the quartet would have to publicly renounce World Boxing, among other things.
Without symbols
The Czech Boxing Federation was also suspended for organizing a Grand Prix in which athletes from the United States participated. The U.S. Boxport Association withdrew from the IBA on April 26 of this year. Athletes of the suspended federations would be allowed to continue to participate in competitions of the world federation, but without symbols of their national federation.
The IBA has been suspended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 2019 due to dubious federation management and a lack of financial transparency, among other things. Several national federations have recently launched World Boxing in response to the events surrounding the IBA. However, this federation is still waiting for official recognition from the IOC, many organizational details are still unclear. According to World Boxing, DBV Secretary General Michael Müller is a member of the interim board. The official foundation is planned for November.
At the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games, an IOC task force was responsible for boxing instead of the IBA, and a similar approach is likely to take place in Paris in 2024. Because of the incidents in the controversial world federation, boxing was taken out of the program for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.