OLYMPIC chiefs hace warned boxing could be dropped from Paris 2024.
The IOC say the International Boxing Association is “only interested in its own power” as controversies mount up.
After allegations of fight-fixing at Rio 2016, the IBA has now neglected to hold qualifying competitions for the 2024 Olympics.
The IOC is also worried the IBA is still sponsored by Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom.
And the Olympic organisation was “extremely concerned” when an IBA extraordinary congress backed Russian Umar Kremlev to stay as president rather than hold an election.
The IBA banned Dutchman Boris van der Vorst from standing against Kremlev, even though the Court of Arbitration for Sport told the IBA he should have been eligible.
Thursday’s full IOC statement read: “The recent IBA Congress has shown once more that IBA has no real interest in the sport of boxing and the boxers, but is only interested in its own power.
“The decisions and discussions to keep boxers away from the Olympic qualifiers and the Olympic Games cannot be understood differently.
“It has also become clear again, that IBA wants to distract from its own grave governance issues by pointing to the past.
“There is no will to understand the real issues, the contrary: the extension of the sponsorship contract with Gazprom as the sole main sponsor of IBA reinforces the concerns, which the IOC has expressed since 2019 over and over again.
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“This announcement confirms that IBA will continue to depend on a company which is largely controlled by the Russian government.
“The concerns also include the recent handling of the CAS decision which did not lead a new Presidential election, but only a vote not to hold an election.
“The IOC will have to take all this into consideration when it takes further decisions, which may – after these latest developments – have to include the cancellation of boxing for the Olympic Games Paris 2024.”
Kremlev, however, insists there are no major differences with the IOC, adding that most of its recommendations have been accepted by the IBA and an agreement can be reached.
But at a recent forum in Abu Dhabi he said: “The International Olympic Committee can issue recommendations but they have no right to dictate how to live.
“I would like to urge the International Olympic Committee to create a working party, and we will resolve everything quite quickly. There will be no problems.”
