The former chairman of the Swedish Boxing Federation is not sure that the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) ban on the International Boxing Federation Iba will have the desired effect - namely that many more will choose to switch to the new federation World Boxing. This is a requirement that the IOC has set for boxing to remain in the Olympic Games.
There are many countries that receive economic assistance from Iba. As long as many countries see that they do not have the opportunity to produce Olympic boxers, it is much better to receive financial assistance than to be part of a federation that has no money but is an Olympic federation, says Per-Axel Sjöholm.
The Challenge
He himself was involved in forming the new international federation World Boxing (WB) after the scandals in Iba that led to the IOC wanting to remove boxing from the Olympic program. Currently, WB has 42 member nations, including Sweden, but no continental federations have yet chosen to leave Iba, which Sjöholm sees as the biggest challenge.
The IOC has sent a letter to all national Olympic committees, according to the website Inside the Games. The IOC is urging countries to break with Iba and instead join WB in order for boxing to retain its Olympic status. In the beginning of next year, the IOC will make a decision about boxing.
Sjöholm hopes, of course, that more countries will join WB by then, but is not sure that they will succeed.
It's about money very much. You can't forget that boxing has historically been a very corrupt sport, both when it comes to judging and countries receiving money to vote for one or the other. And you can't forget that many countries are not democratic, he says.
"A Whole New World"
He says it's a "challenge unlike any other" to get national boxing organizations to switch from a corrupt international organization to a new one where there is no corruption or bribes to be had.
It's a whole new world that many don't recognize. So it's a gigantic challenge, it's in the balance whether it will work or not work.
World Boxing cannot currently produce enough competitions, and not enough attractive competitions.
June 2019: The IOC decides not to let the International Boxing Federation (Aiba) arrange the Olympic qualifying and Olympic competitions in Tokyo. The reasons were Aiba President Grafur Rachimov's connections to organized crime and suspicions of fixed matches in the 2016 Olympic Games, doping, and financial problems.
September 2021: Lawyer Richard McLaren's report reveals major problems with cheating in boxing, not least during the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
May 2022: An Eastern European faction in the boxing federation, now under the new name Iba, succeeds in getting the Western alliance's candidates for chairman and board positions excluded due to false accusations. Including chairman candidate Boris van der Vorst, Netherlands, and Swedish board candidate Per-Axel Sjöholm. The sitting chairman Umar Kremlev, Russia, is thus re-elected. The IOC questions the election and later four from the Western alliance, including Sjöholm, appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).
June 2022: Cas rules that it was wrong for Iba to disqualify chairman and board candidates before the election. However, they only demand a new election for chairman, not for other positions. The IOC decides that Iba will not be allowed to arrange the Olympic qualifying and Olympic competitions in Paris 2024, due to how the federation is governed, including financing (Russian Gazprom is the main sponsor) and judging scandals.
September 2022: The Extraordinary Congress decides at a meeting in Yerevan that there will be no chairman election in Iba, despite Cas' decision. The Western countries' alliance Common Cause Alliance begins discussing whether to form a new international federation to save boxing's Olympic status.
October 2022: Iba decides that Russians and Belarusians will be allowed to compete internationally again. Sweden decides to boycott matches against Russians and Belarusians.
April 2023: Sweden is involved in forming the new international boxing federation World Boxing (WB) and is suspended by Iba.
June 2023: The IOC decides to cut ties with Iba, and its chairman Umar Kremlev becomes so angry that he calls an IOC member a criminal who killed boxing and should be shot.
August 2023: Sweden switches international affiliation to WB.
