The IBA refuses to give up in the outward facing challenges initiated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), led by Thomas Bach, who has made it clear that he does not want the IBA to manage Olympic boxing as it has always done in the past.

Political, personal, economic and many other factors have led to a situation in which the boxers, the main protagonists in all this, are uncertain about how to proceed with their individual performance pathways and sporting careers.

In this context, the IBA has not allowed the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to close the door on what it considers to be its right: to represent boxers and national federations in the Olympic arena, not only organising the qualification system, but also in providing valuable resources and working towards the sustainable growth of the sport and its athletes, both in sporting and welfare terms.

Speaking exclusively to Inside The Games, IBA General Secretary Chris Roberts said that every effort had been made, working behind the scenes, to change the IOC's perspective, but it had simply not been possible.

"Aware of the outcome of the CAS case, we felt during that process that some of the questions that we asked were not answered in detail. It is absolutely clear that we were not given the opportunity, within our right to be heard at the hearing in November".

Meanwhile, the IBA continues to act, manage and organise events while the future of Olympic boxing is decided in the Swiss courts.

Dissatisfied with the decision of the IOC and CAS in early April, the IBA appealed to the Swiss Federal Courts for justice.

The Swiss Federal Tribunal accepted the appeal and opened the proceedings after the IBA filed an appeal against the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) of 2 April 2024.

With a deadline of today, the parties have the right and the obligation to respond in accordance with Article 47 of the Federal Court Act (LTF).

The purpose of the submission in Lausanne is to determine whether the law has been applied and whether the lower court's decision was lawful. An appeal does not re-examine the facts, but examines whether the applicable law has been applied and whether its non-application could or has harmed the appellant.

This is the point the IBA is making. They feel they have been wronged by the non-application of the law and are seeking in the Swiss Federal Tribunal what they could not find in CAS.

"We felt that CAS violated our right to be heard, we felt that they didn't properly analyse all the issues and the arguments that we put forward, so we appealed to the court," said Roberts.

The deadline expires today after a 20-day extension was requested and granted, with no possibility of further extension, making this critical to the IBA's efforts to regain the path from which it believes it has been unjustly removed.

In addition to the IBA's appeal, the IOC and CAS, which issued the contested decision, must provide the Swiss Federal Tribunal with the case file, including a list of the documents on which their early April decision was based.

The Swiss Federal Tribunal has invited the IOC to comment on the appeal in accordance with Article 102 of the Federal Tribunal Act (FTA).

The IBA considers the CAS decision to be unfair and is appealing to the Swiss Federal Tribunal to decide whether the existing legal framework has been applied.

The IBA feels wronged. "CAS did not adequately consider all of our arguments; we feel that the CAS decision was biassed in favour of the IOC," said Roberts.

"We've made a lot of progress with extensive work in the last two years. We have worked extremely hard in the sports transparency space, managinggood governance practices, bringing in many subject matter experts and ensuring that everything that we have been asked to do, we have done" said the IBA Secretary General.

"So we felt that our arguments were completely ignored during the CAS hearing. That's basically where we are, we're working in accordance with the decision made by CAS, we've appealed to the Swiss Federal Tribunal. Normally the Swiss Federal Tribunal is considered to be to be challenging, and will only accept those exceptional requests, but great news they didn't reject the appeal and therefore the IOC has been asked to make a statement by July 1st. So the story continues," Roberts concluded.