Hardly anyone at the World Cup
In amateur boxing, Russia is one of the leaders
03/14/2023 1:33 p.m
Gazprom as a sponsor, Russians and Belarusians are allowed to hear their anthems at competitions: In amateur boxing, the world is almost the same as it was before the war of aggression against Ukraine. This only escalates the already strained relationship between the association and the IOC.
Umar Kremlev and Vladimir Putin are on the same wavelength. Again and again, the IBA boss and the Russian war leader laugh side by side, exchanging intimacy at the opening of a boxing center in Moscow in the autumn. Kremlev, a Russian, likes to fight at the helm of the teetering world amateur association with his own resources – and has to take massive criticism for it.
Around a dozen nations are boycotting the Women’s World Cup in New Delhi, India, starting on Wednesday in protest, including the USA, Great Britain – and of course Ukraine, which has been hit by the Russian war of aggression. Because unlike most of world sport, Russian and Belarusian athletes have unrestricted permission to participate in the title fights in India and at the men’s World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (May 1 to 14) – with a flag, with an anthem. Just a few months ago, the IBA extended the contract with main sponsor Gazprom.
The German Boxing Association (DBV) also does not send any athletes to the title fights – but this is said to have official preparation-related reasons. The qualification for the 2024 Olympics in Paris will take place at the European Games in Kraków at the end of June – if there is even an Olympic future for boxing. “I’m absolutely not assuming a boxing knockout in Paris,” said amateur European champion and DBV athlete spokeswoman Stefanie von Berge.
The IOC complains, Kremlin rages
But the IBA’s misconduct is long, the association is counted and has been suspended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 2019 due to “lack of financial transparency” and “lack of integrity in the arbitration processes”. With 500 days to go before the Games begin in the French capital, the future of amateur boxing is more uncertain than ever.
The IBA had “no real interest in boxing and the boxers” but was only “interested in its own power,” the IOC said most recently after the IBA Congress. Boxing has already been removed from the program for Los Angeles 2028, and a task force set up by the IOC organized the competitions in Tokyo 2021.
The boycott at the World Cup is now a further level of escalation – and shows how things can work in world sport. While the IOC is desperately looking for a solution to the “Russia question” for the games in Paris and, for example, the International Fencing Federation (FIE) is daring a much-criticised approach by re-admitting Russian and Belarusian athletes, the IBA under Kremlev has long since left own way.
The boycott decision-makers are “worse than hyenas and jackals,” said Kremlev, who is still allowed to welcome 300 boxers from 65 nations to New Delhi – but no Germans. This could also be related to the fact that the Federal Ministry of the Interior, which is responsible for sports, still does not pay for the posting costs if Russian and Belarusian athletes take part. For this decree of March 2022, however, the BMI now wants to allow exceptions – because “athletes from Germany should not suffer from decisions by international sports associations”.