The body is led by an interim executive board made up of representatives of national federations from Germany, Great Britain, Holland, the Philippines, Sweden and the United States.
World Boxing said it prioritized five key pillars for its establishment, including keeping “boxing at the heart of the Olympic Movement”, putting the interests of athletes first and ensuring sporting integrity and fair competition.
It also promises to “create a competition structure designed in the interests of boxers” and operate with “the strongest standards of governance and transparent financial management”.
Despite insisting it is “not in a fight with the IBA”, World Boxing competes directly with the organization that has long been boxing’s main governing body.
The IBA, led by Russia’s Umar Kremlev, is locked in a long-running dispute with the IOC, which has raised serious concerns about its governance.
A key concern of the IOC concerns the IBA’s finances, as most of its funding is provided by Russian state energy giant Gazprom.
While this means the IBA is incredibly rich, offering up to $200,000 for gold medals at its events, it is also unstable.
Instead, World Boxing launches with a more modest budget of 900,000 euros, which is provided courtesy of several interested parties.
“We have various sources of funding,” World Boxing interim general secretary Simon Toulson told insidethegames.
“There are donations, affiliations, sponsorships, income and some various financing that we can find from various sources.
“The budget we calculated for this year is 900,000 euros.”
The finances are to be ratified at the first Congress of the body, which will take place in November of this year.
The president of the Dutch Boxing Federation, Boris van der Vorst, is one of the members of the Interim Executive Committee and also leads the Common Cause Alliance.
The alliance was created to prioritize boxing’s presence at the Olympics, which is in doubt from Los Angeles 2028 and not guaranteed for Paris 2024 due to a dispute over technical officials.
Despite this fact, Australia, France, Canada and Ireland, which represent half of the eight members of the Alliance, were not present.
However, van der Vorst is not worried.
“Based on the discussions we have had with several national federations around the world, a lot of national federations will join us in our common cause to keep boxing in the Olympic Games,” he told insidethegames.
There were fears that World Boxing would not be able to attract some federations from poorer countries to the IBA because of the lucrative prize money on offer.
Despite the fact that its main objective is Olympic recognition, World Boxing has not yet contacted the IOC.
Instead, it focused on registering in Switzerland and its laws, as it is possible to establish its headquarters in Lausanne.
“I have had no contact with the IOC regarding the establishment of this organization,” said Toulson.
“The idea is to become a recognized federation in Switzerland. This now allows us to start the process of seeking temporary recognition by the IOC and proper communication will begin after this launch.”
The council has suggested it will allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals, as recommended by the IOC, as it wants to “stay close and align with the IOC”.
The IOC is set to manage the sport at Paris 2024 for the second consecutive edition of the Games due to ongoing concerns over IBA governance, including finance and arbitration and adjudication.
World Boxing has said that next year’s Games is too early to handle operations, as it takes at least two years to gain provisional recognition.
The body scheduled its General Assembly for the end of this year or the beginning of 2024.
World Boxing intends to hold talks with the IOC “in the next month or two to clarify what procedure and availability there is for us to be recognized in some form by the IOC”.
The World Boxing competitions will start in the latter part of 2023 and should cover all age categories, from juniors to seniors.
“A comprehensive competition calendar is being developed that will include a series of new tournaments designed to create longevity and attract potential broadcast and commercial partners,” World Boxing said in a statement.
World Boxing states that, at present, nothing prevents national federations from being part of both it and the IBA.
However, it is expected that the latter will fight and exclude any organization that joins World Boxing.
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