IBA wants boxing in Olympics but will not be run by third parties - Kremlev

PARIS : Boxing must stay in the Olympic Games and the International Boxing Association (IBA) will do everything for it to happen but the sport also wants respect and will not be run by third parties, IBA President Umar Kremlev said.

Kremlev told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday that any decision to exclude boxing based solely on feelings of revenge against the IBA and its Russian president, and without any direct consultations, was "even worse than terrorism."

The International Olympic Committee's Executive Board will meet on Wednesday to discuss the state of reforms by the IBA with the sport's Olympic future in the balance.

"We would like IOC President Thomas Bach and all the executive board members and IOC members to know that we want to be part of the Olympics," Kremlev said.

"We will do everything to achieve that but we don't want to be dictated and governed by third persons. We will not let it happen. We would like to be respected."

The IOC suspended the IBA in 2019 over governance, finance, refereeing and ethical issues and did not involve it in running the boxing events at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

It has already provisionally excluded the sport from the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics and has demanded immediate reforms but has warned repeatedly the IBA was not doing enough.

In an IBA report sent to the IOC recently the association blamed the Olympic body for intransigence and false statements.

It also said the IOC completely ignored the involvement of former boxing boss and then-IOC member CK Wu, who was banned for life by the AIBA, now the IBA, in 2018, for the association’s financial and governance problems dating back to 2016.

IOC CRITICISM

"I would like to ask ... why did the IOC keep its eyes shut and keep silent (over