CHENNAI: Days after the International Olympic Committee warned the international boxing federation (AIBA) to mend its ways or face possible eviction from 2028 Olympics, the AIBA renames itself to International Boxing Association. According to AIBA president it’s an endeavour to shed all its dirty past and usher in a new clean future.
According to a statement, the extraordinary congress tried to usher in a new era for the sport as the federation changed its acronym from AIBA to IBA while adopting a comprehensive set of governance reforms developed by independent experts. A total of 107 of IBA’s national federations were in attendance to approve these wide-spread changes.
AIBA president Umer Kremlev during a press briefing said that it’s been a year since he took over as its chief and since then has managed to bring in a lot of reforms. “In preparing the measures approved by the members of IBA today, we have had the support of leading independent experts in sports integrity and in governance.”
The Congress discussed Richard McLaren’s investigation report and then Ulrich Haas presented the report of the Governance Reform Group, previously approved by IBA’s Board of Directors and the national federations. According to AIBA, included among the amendments were the creation of a new Boxing Independent Integrity Unit, which is expected to become operational in the course of 2022.