The new board of the Finnish Boxing Association decided on Tuesday to leave the International Boxing Association IBA and apply for membership in the new international umbrella organization of boxing, World Boxing.
– The Finnish Boxing Association strongly condemns Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. The IBA has not done that, so we see that it is impossible to work in the IBA, says the Executive Director of the Boxing Association as the ultimate reason Marko Laine.
Among other things, Finnish boxers have been in a difficult situation because the president of the International Boxing Association IBA is a Russian Umar Kremlevwho is known for his close relationships to Vladimir Putin.
On February 24, 2022, Russia started a war of aggression in Ukraine. Already in the autumn of the same year, the IBA board canceled the ban on Russia and Belarus from competitive activities in the sport. In addition, it was agreed that Russians and Belarusians may compete under their own flag and they may be played the national anthem of their own country.
At the time, Laine considered the decision a sad and serious blow to boxing’s Olympic place, considering the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
The Finnish Boxing Federation was also in the middle of a small-scale uproar at the beginning of 2023. The Boxing Federation first said that it had changed its boycott decision and would send athletes to the World Championships, even if there were Russians and Belarusians participating.
The boxing association felt that the situation is unreasonable for athletes who are aiming for an Olympic place and international success. Later, however, the association decided not to send a team to India for the Women’s World Cup.
Vice President of the Boxing Association Jenni Karjalainen admitted that the union’s communication failed.
– The government was not planning to end the boycott, but an attempt was made to make a decision that would enable athletes to play sports and aim for Olympic places, Karjalainen commented.
According to Karjalainen, the purpose of the union was to remove the absolute ban on participation.
– It is difficult for many young athletes to understand whether they have to stay in Finland until the war ends, and whether they will not get international competition experience at all.
Since then, the Boxing Association’s position has been that Finnish boxers can participate in international competitions, but against Russian or Belarusian athletes a forfeit win would be given.
Laine says that the Boxing Federation has in practice operated in such a way that the team has not been sent to tournaments where Russians or Belarusians with their own country codes can be met. The Boxing Association has had to balance in a difficult situation.
Already at the beginning of the year, Karjalainen hinted that there have been discussions with like-minded countries about the establishment of a new federation in order to improve the international situation of boxing.
One scandal after another for years
International boxing has been colored by scandals even before the war of aggression against Russia. Before the Tokyo Olympics, the International Olympic Committee IOC made an extraordinary decision that the IBA is not allowed to organize Olympic qualifiers, but that the IOC will organize them itself.
The entire sport’s status as part of the Olympics has been at stake. Boxing has been part of the Olympics since 1904.
– The IBA has had difficulties with good governance, financial ambiguities and unclear refereeing for several years. The International Olympic Committee has called for changes to these several times. When things have not progressed, the International Olympic Committee has taken its own measures, Laine summed up the Olympic situation.
Umar Kremlev started as the chairman of the IBA in 2020. Since then, the IBA has been financially dependent on the Russian oil and gas giant Gazprom.
The IOC has also been concerned about the concentration of power in the Kremlin. The change front in the IBA, driven by the Western countries, received its most recent – and apparently very final – blow last fall.
The member countries of the IBA had to vote for the chairman between Kremlev and the Dutchman By Boris van der Vorst between. In the end, that vote did not take place, when in Yerevan, Armenia, the vote was only on whether to organize even the entire presidential vote. 106 member unions voted against and only 36 voted for the vote, so the Kremlin continued in power with sovereign support.
The decision was a huge disappointment for the Finnish Boxing Association.
– Money may be tight in the boxing federations of developing countries. Now I’m not directly saying that Kremlev has bought votes, but… Laine admitted his thoughts Ilta-Sanom.
In fact, the presidential election was supposed to be held already in the spring of 2022, but then the IBA rejected the Dutch candidacy, because it considered that he violated the rules of campaigning. Later, the International Court of Appeal for Sports (CAS) ruled that van der Vorst can run for office.
In the fall, the IBA unexpectedly forbade Ukrainians from using their national emblems at the Junior European Championships in Italy. Laine commented on that decision, which was later quickly reversed, Ilta-Sanom “snarky” and believed that the underlying reason was the IBA’s desire to poke Ukraine. The IBA had also not recognized the new president of the Ukrainian Boxing Association Kirilo Shevchenko.
– The recently held IBA Congress showed once again that the IBA has no real interest in boxing as a sport or boxers, but is only interested in its power, the International Olympic Committee announced at the end of 2022.
Of course, scandals are not limited to the Kremlin era. Between 1946 and 2021, the International Boxing Association was known as AIBA (Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur).
During the Tokyo Olympics, the sport’s Olympic status was at stake due to, among other things, refereeing, doping and corruption scandals. In 2017–2019, the union was headed by an Uzbek businessman Gafur Rahimovwho was on the US sanctions list, because authorities said he had connections to international drug crime.
In Finland, it is believed that Olympic status will remain
Boxing will be included in next year’s Paris Olympics organized by the IOC, but there are still plenty of questions about the next games in Los Angeles.
– In June, the International Olympic Committee decided that the IBA will not participate in the 2028 Olympics. When the wording is like that, there is a strong assumption that boxing is involved and organized by someone else, says Laine.
In June 2023, the IOC decided that it would no longer recognize the IBA’s status as boxing’s international umbrella organization. Among other things, the Washington Post by the decision paves the way for World Boxing and speaks of the IOC’s desire to save the existence of Olympic boxing.
The IOC also strongly condemned Kremlin’s “violent and threatening language.”
Previously, the Kremlin had accused IBA’s Troubled Former Chairman, Taiwanese Ching-Kuo Wu’ta saying that “Wu is a criminal who killed boxing” and that “people like that should be shot”.
Wu was in charge of the IBA from 2006 to 2017, but was subsequently banned for life from the organization for “significant negligence and financial mismanagement”.
Towards a new order
World Boxing currently has an interim board. The official founding meeting will be held in November.
The Finnish federation is currently working on an application to become a member of World Boxing, after which it will officially leave the IBA.
Federations of big countries will be transferred under World Boxing. Currently, 12 member associations of amateur boxing are already known to have moved to World Boxing: the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain, England, Holland, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Honduras.
This year, no more value competitions will be organized under the auspices of the IBA. There will be such events next year, but these countries moving to World Boxing have no business.
– I can see that World Boxing’s activities will start. I believe that this year there will be several tens of members and the situation will start to stabilize.
– Perhaps the most suspicious are some developing countries, which may make their own decisions on economic grounds, Laine formulates.
Laine did not describe in more detail how the IBA has reacted to the establishment of the new union.
– IBA is of course worried and tries to maintain its own position. IBA has promised to develop certain things for several years. Some things have moved forward, but the International Olympic Committee has stated that not enough.
The situation does not affect the Olympic qualifiers, because they are the responsibility of the IOC. A team from Finland participated in the European Olympic qualifiers in the spring, but Finland has not claimed any Olympic place.
The Paris Olympic boxing qualifiers, in which Finns can still participate, will be held in Italy from 29 February to 12 March 2024 and in Thailand from 23 May to 3 June 2024. Currently, the most potential Finnish boxers were born in 2001 Vilma Viitanen and born in 2002 Pihla Kaivo-oja.