The President of the International Boxing Association (IBA) Umar Kremlev stated that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is taking revenge on the IBA and announced the imminent start of legal proceedings; lawyers are currently working on the case.

On Tuesday, at the 142nd IOC Session in Paris, a decision was made to exclude the IBA from the list of recognized international federations.

— Regarding this criminal organization with Thomas Bach as its leader… They are trying to take revenge on a transparent organization. The funniest thing is their words: “We are excluding them.” And where were we excluded? We are an independent organization where elections are held, not just appointments. I was re-elected three times during the year. First because I was Russian, then as if there was something wrong with the elections. Well, we invited independent experts, everything was done.

Our goal is to have boxing everywhere, including the Olympics. The Olympics will be a selection for the right to fight for the IBA champion title, and we will also pay boxers prize money for their achievements at the Olympic Games (the total prize fund is $13 million from the IBA). That’s why they are furious.

Our World Championship is rated so much higher. It all pays off thanks to marketing. Our task is to help athletes, including financially. We have great mistrust of the IOC, we are excluding them. The boxing community will make a statement soon. For boxers, the main thing was not the Olympics, but the World Championship, because all the conditions were created there.

The court proceedings will begin soon. We have lawyers working for us. There should be no politics in sports, there should be no monopoly in sports. And the current IOC leadership, in particular Thomas Bach, is not up to their job. He has lost himself in every sense. The IOC today divides, but should unite. Let’s take the athletes of Russia and Israel. Russian athletes are guilty, but Israeli athletes are not. There is no freedom of speech, democratic elections. But why are they afraid of the IBA? Because we defend athletes. And how many threats there have been… — the Match TV correspondent reports Kremlev’s words.

In April, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected the IBA’s appeal against the IOC Session’s decision to revoke its recognition. In 2019, the IOC temporarily revoked the IBA’s recognition status due to economic reasons and a management crisis within the organization, and also put forward demands for reforms.

Russian and Belarusian boxers, in accordance with the decision of the International Boxing Association (IBA), compete in international competitions with national symbols.

• “IOC decision on IBA is pure politics and harm to the development of sports” – Oleg Saitov
• “We are being pressured by sanctions, but we will become even stronger” – Lebedev on the IOC decision to exclude IBA