The boxing body was appealing against a decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session to withdraw the recognition of IBA as an international boxing federation.
Recently, the IOC announced that if boxing remained without a recognised governing body, there would be no boxing on the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic programme.
The decision hinged on the CAS ruling on the IBA appeal. According to the ruling passed on Tuesday (April 2) in Lausanne, Switzerland, CAS dismissed the appeal filed by IBA against the decision taken by the IOC Session of June 22, 2023, withdrawing the IOC’s recognition of the IBA as the international federation for the sport of boxing. “The IOC Session took its decision based on the recommendation issued by the IOC executive board on June 7, 2023, following a long process, initiated shortly after the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, during which the IOC requested the IBA to undertake various measures to address serious concerns related to its governance and financial stability,” the ruling reads in part.
CAS said in the ruling, that the process included the implementation of a roadmap, recommended by the IOC to the IBA in December 2021, to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the IOC executive board that boxing had successfully addressed ongoing areas of concern ahead of the IOC session in 2023 where the inclusion of boxing in the Olympic programme would be discussed. “On June 29, 2023, the IBA filed an appeal at CAS against the decision of the IOC Session and sought to have it annulled and set aside in full. The CAS panel constituted to handle this matter heard the parties and their legal representatives on November 16, 2023, at the CAS headquarters,” the document reads.
The IBA failed to comply with conditions set by the IOC for recognition, amongst others, failure to increase financial transparency and sustainability including through diversification of revenue.
The IBA had not changed its process relating to referees and judges to ensure its integrity, including a monitoring period for IBA’s competitions ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics and that the body had not ensured the full and effective implementation of all the measures proposed by the governance reform group established by the IOC, including a change of culture. IBA director of communications and public relations, John Hewitt, said they are disappointed that CAS did not uphold IBA’s appeal against the decision of the IOC Session that withdrew the recognition of the organisation. “Despite the IBA’s hard-working and diligent efforts to establish a robust and stable home of boxing for its athletes and coaches through extensive reforms, the initiatives were overlooked by both the IOC and the CAS. The IBA strongly disagrees with the oversimplified language of the CAS statement,” he said in a statement.
Hewitt argued that the IOC has never provided any form of a coherent roadmap to the IBA nor established a direct communication channel even after the IBA proposed a liaison person to be available full-time. He said IBA has made considerable progress in all areas mentioned by CAS and beyond. Amongst the key areas, the IBA congress changed its constitution and elected a new board of directors that went through a rigorous vetting process.
The association has cleaned its pool of competition officials and established the processes to vet all involved in the field of play operations. The Botswana Boxing Association (BoBA) president, Gilbert Khunwane, said the CAS decision was a blow to boxing. “IBA failed to comply and issues of referees and judges come from far and according to CAS, IBA did not adequately address it. Governance has also been something the IOC has been complaining about,” Khunwane told MmegiSport.
