IOC strips world boxing body AIBA of Olympic status

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) yesterday stripped Olympic status from the troubled world boxing body AIBA. 

As a result, the IOC will now organize qualifying and final tournaments for the 2020 Tokyo Games. IOC members had voted to endorse the executive board's recommendation last month to suspend AIBA's Olympic status.  

Olympic inquiry panel chairman Nenad Lalovic said in Lausanne, Switzerland that AIBA had created very serious reputational, legal and financial



risks for the IOC and its American stakeholders. 

Lausanne-based AIBA has said it is near bankruptcy with debts of about 17 million US Dollars. It is cut off from future income from Tokyo revenues, and the 2019 world championships for men and women in Russia are no longer Olympic qualifiers. 

The AIBA president, Gafur Rakhimov is under the United States federal sanctions for suspected links to eastern European organized crime.