Delegates from Irish boxing will vote at an extraordinary general meeting (egm) on April 12th to decide if a team from Ireland can compete in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.
Members of the Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) will be asked to decide if its constitution should be changed so that it can join World Boxing, one of two global governing bodies. The other body, the International Boxing Association (IBA) to which Ireland is currently affiliated, is not recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) while World Boxing is.
The IOC have made it clear that only federations belonging to World Boxing, which has 84 national member federations, will be permitted to participate in the Olympic qualifying competitions for LA 2028.
A vote against constitutional change would mean a team could not participate in Olympic qualifying events, leaving Ireland without boxing in the Olympic Games for the first time since the foundation of the state.
And while leaving the IBA for World Boxing would mean Irish boxers would no longer compete at the existing IBA world championships, the new organisation has established its own tournament. The inaugural World Boxing Championships will take place in September of this year in Liverpool.
“I would say it is the most important egm that we have ever had, and potentially that we will ever have,” said IABA chairman Niall O’Carroll. “The Olympics is everything to boxing and we are the most successful sport in [Irish] Olympic history and could lose that legacy. To remove that for the kids of the future would I believe be devastating.”
The IABA called a similar egm in August 2023, but the motion was rejected by club delegates. The change to the constitution, which would have enabled the association to link up with the then fledging World Boxing organisation, fell five votes, or 4 per cent, short of receiving the required 75 per cent majority.
“The difference between this egm and the one in August 2023 is that there was an awful lot of confusion and ‘what ifs’ at the time,” said O’Carroll. “World Boxing had only been in existence for a couple of months. People were wondering, what if they don’t get off the ground. They only had a handful of members at the time.
“There was no calendar for competitions at underage so our clubs were saying it’s great that the Olympics are taken care of but what about all our clubs who just compete at county level or provincial level and may not even get a national champion. What benefit is the Olympics? They had a point at the time. I feel this time it is a much more informed conversation, a much more informed debate.”
O’Carroll recently sent out a letter to all clubs affiliated to the IABA explaining the reasons for the egm and urged them to vote for change and support Irish boxing as an Olympic sport.
Have the Lions left Ireland in the lurch?
“When we vote this time the choice is much clearer,” added O’Carroll. “We have no choice. We need to change the constitution to give us the freedom to make a decision. Who knows if World Boxing will be the federation to run boxing forever more. But they absolutely will be for LA, and we need to be at LA. It is a very simple conversation now. If we change our constitution we will join World Boxing. The reality is if we don’t join World Boxing we don’t go to the Olympics, and that would be a disaster.”
Boxing has won 19 of Ireland’s 42 Olympic medals, and along with athletics and swimming has won four golds. It tops Ireland’s medals table with five silvers and 10 bronze medals also won.
If the constitutional amendment at the egm reaches the 75 per cent threshold then members are free to direct the company to join World Boxing without any constitutional issues. If it does not reach the 75 per cent threshold members will be canvassed for their vote on whether to join World Boxing as a dual affiliate that requires the express permission of the IBA, which could withhold it. The threshold for that resolution is an ordinary majority.
