Boxing’s place at the Olympics is in danger as IOC fights back

THE International Olympic Committee has frozen planning for the boxing tournament at Tokyo 2020 and started a process that could see it completely cut ties with the International Boxing Association (AIBA).

Boxing’s governing body has been on the ropes for several years as it has struggled to answer questions about its finances, governance and refereeing standards but its relationship with the IOC reached crisis point when it elected Gafur Rakhimov as president last month.

The Uzbek businessman was named interim president in January, having previously been a vice-president, but he has also been on a United States Treasury Department sanctions list since 2012 for alleged involvement with a global crime network.

Despite his repeated denials of any links to organised crime, the IOC sent several strong hints to AIBA that there would be grave consequences if it left Rakhimov in charge, including withholding the federation’s share of the funds generated by the Olympics and banning the 67-year-old from attending October’s Youth Olympic Games.

None of that prevented his election, though, so the IOC has dramatically upped the ante by setting up an “ad-hoc inquiry committee” to investigate its concerns about the federation.

At a meeting in Tokyo yesterday, its executive board agreed to maintain all sanctions imposed in July and decided to “freeze planning for the boxing tournament at Tokyo 2020, including official contact between AIBA and the organising committee, ticket sales, approval and implementation of a qualification system, test event planning and finalisation of the competition schedule”.