IABA boss warns of 'disaster' for Irish Olympic boxing if members don't vote for change
"I said 14 months ago that it was very much in our interest to remove IBA from our constitution and that vote failed. It failed by a small margin, but it still failed."
Niall O'Carroll has warned that it will be "catastrophic" for the Olympic hopes of young Irish boxers if the IABA's EGM vote doesn't pass on Saturday.
Forty four clubs have requested the EGM to vote on a special resolution to remove any references to the International Boxing Association from the Irish organisation's constitution.
The sport is currently on course to be omitted from the LA Olympics in 2028, with the International Olympic Committee refusing to recognise the controversial IBA - and having run the boxing competition at the Tokyo and Paris Games without the IBA.
READ MORE: Irish boxing body IABA now standing on the precipice, warns Sarah Keane
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Unless there is a move en bloc by national boxing bodies to recently-formed World Boxing then it is hard to see boxing, Ireland's most successful sport at the Games, participating in LA.
O'Carroll, who is the chair of the IABA's board of directors, says that the vote must not be a personal vote of confidence in those who run Irish boxing.
"I said 14 months ago that it was very much in our interest to remove IBA from our constitution and that vote failed. It failed by a small margin, but it still failed," said O'Carroll in a video posted by the IABA.
"I have respected that for the last 14 months and if it fails again at the weekend then I'll respect that too, but I truly believe that this is extraordinarily serious and important to the future of this organisation.
"People turning up to vote because they're angry with me or they're angry with the coaching commission, the central council or the board of directors are completely losing sight of the fact that this vote is about an Olympic future for our children.
"No-one benefits from boxing not being in Los Angeles and absolutely no-one in Ireland benefits from Ireland not being part of boxing at the Olympics, we are the most successful Olympic sport in the country - and it would be catastrophic to lose that.
"Does that mean we don't have a lot of work to do and ensure that once the decision is made that we have competition for all age groups and all of our kids?
"Of course we do, and we'll have an awful lot of work to do to make sure we take care of providing opportunities for our kids to box."
O'Carroll pointed out that Irish boxing is "really struggling" from the lack of international competition it is currently involved in. He puts that partly down to many of the countries that Ireland have developed relationships with over the years are with World Boxing.
"The reality is we can only start to move this forward by taking control of the future ourselves, I honestly believe that," he added. "If some people don't believe that then fine, come and vote, the worst thing you can do is not vote. Come and vote, if you vote against it, so be it.
"But I would ask you just to think about the fact that every kid has the right to an Olympic dream - and a vote against this on Saturday would remove that right for boxing kids from this country and I think that would be a disaster."
O'Carroll added: "This EGM has been called for by the members. So the first thing is that it's not the board of directors who are driving this, it's the members.
"And under our constitution, when a sufficient number of members request an EGM then the organisation is bound to hold it within 40 days.
"Secondly, the IBA have lost what looks like their final appeal in a Swiss court to their expulsion from the IOC, so it looks like the IBA are finished as an Olympic federation.
"And we are tied to IBA in our constitution, we can only be a member of IBA and we have to follow all of the rules of IBA, which then impacts on our ability to travel or to have international competitions with some of the nations that we've developed relationships with over the years.
"We are very much tied to the rules of IBA, including the ruling yesterday that female boxers have to compete without headgear. We were told this a day before our team were heading out to the Europeans, which I find remarkable, that there was no consultation or no opportunity for the kids to prepare."
O'Carroll insisted there is no 'sweetheart deal' for the IABA, as he says has been claimed in some quarters, involving an immediate move to World Boxing if the vote carries.
"As much as people like to attack me at the moment, I think every time I have stood up in front of our members I have always told the truth and I like to stand over what I'm doing," he said.
"The members will decide what federation we join if we decide to sever our constitutional connection with IBA. We will have another vote where members will decide on World Boxing or whatever other federation is out there.
"But the vote on Saturday is purely and simply to give us the freedom to step away from IBA and make whatever decisions we need to make for the future."
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