Switzerland: International Boxing Association Appeal against Derecognition by the International Olympic Committee

By Dr Lucien Valloni, Managing Partner, Valloni Attorneys at Law, Zurich, Switzerland

Of the several sports cases dealt with by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court (TFS), on appeal from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), during last year, perhaps the most important one concerned the International Boxing Association (IBA).

The background to this case is as follows:

The IBA appealed to CAS against the IOC decision of July 2023 to strip the IBA of its Olympic recognition based on concerns about its governance, financial mismanagement and ethical issues.

On 2 April 2024, CAS dismissed the IBA appeal and upheld the IOC decision.

The IBA then appealed to the TFS against the CAS ruling and, on 12 September 2024, the TFS dismissed the appeal and upheld the CAS ruling. The TFS agreed with the IOC that, despite the efforts by the IBA to support athletes, coaches, officials and national federations by funding competitions, the IBA had not addressed sufficiently the issues which had led to the IBA derecognition in the first place.

It is extremely rare for the IOC to derecognise an international sports governing body, which testifies to the seriousness of the IBA situation.

It will be recalled that the IOC itself organised the boxing tournaments at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, and this, again, was quite unusual.

In the meantime, a rival body, World Boxing, is seeking recognition from the IOC to replace the IBA, with a view to securing boxing a place on the programme for the next Olympic Games to be held in 2028 in Los Angeles in the United States.

It will be interesting to see what happens next in this unhappy saga!

Dr Lucien Valloni may be contacted by e-mail at ‘valloni@valloni.ch’