GENEVA: The International Boxing Association was banished from the Olympic family on Thursday, ending a years-long dispute fueled by defying advice and instructions from the IOC. Boxing, however, will keep its status as an Olympic sport at the 2024 Paris Games.
The International Olympic Committee voted to derecognize the IBA at a specially called meeting — an outcome that was inevitable after being recommended two weeks ago by the executive board, a body chaired by IOC president Thomas Bach.
The vote was 69-1, with 10 members abstaining.
Boxing was never really in danger of being kicked out of the Olympics over the four years since the IOC suspended the sport’s governing body in an effort to force changes.
“We highly value the sport of boxing. We have an extremely serious problem with IBA because of their governance,” Bach told IOC members during their online meeting.
The dispute centered on the IBA’s management under presidents from Uzbekistan and Russia who the IOC disapproved of, its finances being backed by Russian state energy firm Gazprom, plus the integrity of bouts and judging.
“The boxers fully deserve to be governed by an international federation with integrity and transparency,” Bach said.
The IOC is already overseeing boxing competitions for the Paris Olympics without IBA involvement, as it did for the Tokyo Games in 2021.
Boxing can now be confirmed on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic program, which the IOC and Bach withheld as leverage against IBA. Boxing is “guaranteed” to be in Los Angeles, members were told Thursday.
The sport is good for Olympic business with broad appeal — 25 different countries won boxing medals in Tokyo, with nine taking gold — and the IOC repeatedly said its problem was with boxing officials, not its athletes.
“We appreciate boxing as one of the most global sports. We embrace the values of boxing,” Bach said, praising the sport’s “important social role promoting inclusion.”
Olympic boxing has had a tainted reputation for decades, typified by notorious judging at the 1988 Seoul Games that denied American light-middleweight Roy Jones Jr. the gold medal against home fighter Park Si-hun. Jones, who now has Russian citizenship, was enlisted by the IBA last year to support its fight for Olympic status.
There were allegations ahead of the 2012 London Olympics of cash deals planned to fix medals, and further doubt cast by fighters on the integrity of bouts at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
At those Olympics, the president of boxing’s governing body, then known by its French acronym AIBA, was a long-time IOC member C.K. Wu of Taiwan.
After Wu was ousted by boxing officials in 2017, the sport’s problems with the IOC intensified.
National federations defied IOC warnings in 2018 by electing Gafur Rakhimov as president. The businessman from Uzbekistan allegedly had ties to organized crime and heroin trafficking.
Umar Kremlev’s election to replace Rakhimov in 2020 followed another round of IOC election warnings that went unheeded.
The IBA’s debts approaching $20 million were cleared under Kremlev and the IOC objected to the boxing body’s financial reliance on Gazprom.
Kremlev announced last month at the men’s world championships that the IBA was no longer sponsored by Gazprom, and his rhetoric against Olympic officials got more confrontational.
Thursday’s meeting went ahead after a late appeal by the IBA to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the IOC board’s recommendation failed this week.
The IOC can now start to work with a rival organization created this year called World Boxing. It has drawn support from officials in the United States, Switzerland and Britain, countries whose national federations resisted Kremlev’s leadership of the IBA.
IOC banishes boxing governing body from Olympics, but the sport will still be at the Paris Games
https://arab.news/ne82z
IOC banishes boxing governing body from Olympics, but the sport will still be at the Paris Games
- The vote was 69-1, with 10 members abstaining
- “We highly value the sport of boxing. We have an extremely serious problem with IBA because of their governance,” Bach told IOC members during their online meeting
Riyadh 2026: The gateway to LIV’s most global season yet
- We are the world’s golf league, says LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil
- Riyadh will host the LIV Golf League season opener for the second consecutive season
RIYADH: Under the lights of Riyadh Golf Club, LIV Golf begins its campaign from February 4 to 7 in the Kingdom’s capital, opening what is the most international season to date. With 14 events scheduled across 10 countries and five continents, LIV has doubled down on its ambition to position itself as golf’s leading global circuit outside the United States.
For LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil, that identity is no longer about staging tournaments in different timezones, but also about aligning more closely with the sport’s tradition. One of the league’s headline shifts for 2026 has been the switch from 54-hole events to 72 holes.
“The move to 72 holes was much talked about,” O’Neil said at the pre-season press conference. “For us, that was relatively simple. We want to make sure that our players are best prepared for the majors, that it’s not as much of a sprint, that our teams have a chance to recover after a tough day one.”
He added that the decision was also driven by the league’s commercial and broadcast momentum across several markets.
“With the overwhelming support we have seen in several of our markets, quite frankly, more content is better. More fans come in, more broadcast content social hospitality checks check,” O’Neil said.
Launched in 2022 after a great deal of fanfare, LIV Golf had initially differentiated itself from other golf tours with a shorter, more entertainment-led event model. This includes team competition, alongside individual scoring, concert programming and fan-focused activations.
After four campaigns with 54-holes, the shift back to 72 signals an attempt to preserve the golf identity while answering longstanding questions about competitive comparability with golf’s established tours.
Riyadh will now host the LIV Golf League season opener for the second consecutive season, following its debut under the night lights in February 2025. As the individual fund rises from $20 million to $22 million, and the team purse increases from $5 million to $8 million, LIV Golf is not backing down on its bid to showcase confidence and continuity as it enters its fifth season.
For the Kingdom, the role goes beyond simply hosting the opening event. Positioned at the crossroads of continents, Riyadh has become LIV’s gateway city — the place where the league sets its tone before exporting it across various locations across the world.
“Players from 26 countries? Think about that being even possible 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago,” O’Neil said. “That there would be players from 26 countries good enough to play at an elite level globally, and there is no elite platform outside the U.S.”
The departure of Brooks Koepka from LIV and his return to the PGA Tour has inevitably raised questions around player movement and long-term sustainability. O’Neil, however, framed the decision as a matter of fit rather than fallout.
“If you are a global citizen and you believe in growing the game, that means getting on a plane and flying 20 hours,” he said. “That’s not for everybody. It isn’t.”
Despite the separation, O’Neil insisted there was no animosity.
“I love Brooks. I root for Brooks. I am hoping the best for him and his family,” he emphasised.
Attention now turns to the players who have reaffirmed their commitment to LIV Golf, including Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cam Smith. Amid continued tensions with the DP World Tour and the sport’s traditional power centres, O’Neil insists the league’s focus remains inward.
“There is no holy war, at least from our side. We are about LIV Golf and growing the game globally,” he said.
From Riyadh to Adelaide, from Hong Kong to South Africa, LIV Golf’s 2026 calendar stretches further ever than before. As debate continues over the league’s place within the sport, LIV is preparing to show that its challenge to golf’s established order is not, as some doubters suggest, fading.
With the spotlight firmly on its fifth season, Riyadh will provide the first impression — the opening statement from which LIV Golf intends to show the world where it stands.
