Nigeria Boxing Federation’s Olympic gamble sparks financial questions

The Nigeria Boxing Federation (NBF) joined the newly established international boxing body, World Boxing, on 20 October 2023, and became the first African country to form a membership on the continent. So far, six more African nations have joined the boxing organisation, while the total number of member federations around the globe reached 84.

Being among the pioneers shaping the new entity, NBF representatives attended the inaugural congress of World Boxing in November 2023, where the delegates elected the President, Boris van der Vorst from the Netherlands, as well as executive board. The stakes were high, as the motto of World Boxing was no less than to keep boxing at the Olympics.

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The IOC Executive Board recommended the inclusion of Boxing in the LA 2028 program. Whether it is approved, will be clear very soon during the upcoming IOC Session in Greece from March 18-21. Highly unlikely that the session will reject the EB proposal. Earlier, the IOC Executive Board granted World Boxing provisional recognition as a boxing governing body. However, the main doubt still remains, and it is, of course, the financial state of the organization.

In fact, World Boxing would not be able to exist at all without a $250,000 loan granted by USA Boxing to the newly established organization with a very easy repayment schedule extended till 2029, according to the audit report published late February 2025.

The report provided by the Statutory Auditor draws the conclusion based on 2024 operations: World Boxing is over-indebted. However, just in one and a half months, the organisation received a provisional recognition from the IOC, which claimed that it “has provided assurance with regard to its revenue-generating process on the basis of multi-year commercial partnership agreements covering the period 2025-2028.”

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The only claimed deal that might have been “multi-year commercial partnership” that ensured this necessary millions of dollars to persuade the IOC is Exceed Boxing, which signed an agreement with World Boxing on 24 February 2025. The statement announcing the deal said that Exceed Boxing is a “global leading event management and commercialisation company”, and that the parties “have established a model in which profits from the sale of media rights, sponsorships, ticket sales, and merchandise will contribute to the financial growth of both the International Federation and its member National Federations.”

Following the agreement, World Boxing sent a letter to the auditor to conduct an interim audit, which may mean a financial injection. Interestingly, the letter was signed by the US official, Mike McAtee, who is claimed to be acting secretary general. Where is Simon Toulson, who is still mentioned on the World Boxing website as a Secretary General? There was no public acknowledgment of his dismissal; there is no information that he has left.

This audit, supposedly, should confirm that World Boxing’s financial situation has dramatically changed. However, it remains unclear how the company, created as recently as January 2025, was able to solve the financial insolvency of a whole boxing governing body.

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While the country of origin of Exceed Boxing is not mentioned anywhere, a co-founder, Danny Menken is President’s van der Vorst’s compatriot.

It remains questionable how an event management company, a few months old, with no track-record can raise the few millions of dollars necessary to run a world-scale boxing organization, while the IOC was constantly claiming that International Boxing Association’s (IBA) finances were not transparent, leading to the IBA’s full exclusion from the Olympic movement. How World Boxing’s vague financial situation was persuasive enough for the Olympic governing body remains an unsolved mystery.

Currently most of the revenue of World Boxing is based on their membership fees and donations from their federations, called “additional contributions.” According to the yearly report, this way World Boxing received respectively over $100,000 from Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, England, Finland, Germany, Mongolia, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Sweden, and (again) USA who provided the initial loan. Some of the members paid the 2025 fee in advance, which brought World Boxing an additional $18,000 in cash. Not a lot, but certainly many little things, make a big thing.

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However, the Nigerian Boxing Federation has yet to pay the 2024 membership fee, according to the report. In fact, Nigerian boxers have not taken part in the World Boxing championships yet, not to mention getting any benefits from the organisation in any way. The NBF has struggled to send the national boxing team to any of the few World Boxing events to date, which won’t come as a surprise to many as – with zero support from the governing body and with no financial reward for the winners – the federation risks losing money which they lack and extremely need.

Back to numbers, World Boxing’s approved yearly budget for 2025 was slightly below $1.1 million (around ₦1.6 billion), which cannot serve the needs of any international sports organisation, not to mention any other expenses. However, the organisation found a workaround to manage Boris van der Vorst’s travels, which were claimed at the congress in 2024 to be not included in World Boxing’s yearly budget. So, does the president personally fund his many travels?

After a short time at home, I’m continuing my meetings around the world to discuss the future of Olympic-style boxing.

My next destination is Nigeria, where I will visit the Nigerian Boxing Federation and the Nigerian Olympic Committee, as well as attend a meeting with the… pic.twitter.com/xBTPA2SVtO

— Boris van der Vorst (@BorisvdVorst) February 22, 2025

On 23 February 2025 he announced his visit to Nigeria on his X account (formerly Twitter). The host, NBF, which extended the invitation, in order to be able to afford this expensive endeavour, raised their membership fee for 2025 from ₦20,000 to ₦50,000. This was disclosed to The Guardian by a highly-placed source who added that for the NBF to mitigate the situation, they offered “a donation” of gloves to member States and clubs who pay their dues. Smaller clubs and gyms received five pairs of gloves, while bigger clubs and states were given 10 pairs.

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Sounds like a fair exchange, but there was one small detail missing. These exact gloves were brought by IBA President Umar Kremlev during his visit to Nigeria last summer where he met with President Bola Tinubu. Kremlev delivered 500 pairs of gloves to Nigeria, personally gave away a few to boxers, and left the remainder with the NBF for wider distribution.

Apparently, NBF kept those till early 2025, when it was decided to use them as a tool to collect bigger membership fees, which were, possibly, in turn used to fund the World Boxing President’s visit to Nigeria.

 

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A post shared by Умар Кремлёв (@umar_kremlev)

This much was corroborated to The Guardian by the Secretary General of the NBF, Olalekan Faseesin, who in a telephone conversation with our correspondent confirmed that the distributed gloves were the same gloves that were donated to the federation by IBA President Kremlev during his June 2024 visit to Nigeria.

He, however, said the funds generated from membership fees weren’t used to finance Van der Vorst’s visit, along with his wife and daughter, to Nigeria. Faseesin told The Guardian that the NBF contributed ₦7 million towards the expenses for Van der Vorst’s visit, but that the funds were raised by members of the NBF’s board. He also said some NBF board members helped some clubs and boxing gyms to offset their membership fees.

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Considering the inability to send the national team to any event, and regardless how small the expenses might sound to some, some stakeholders believe it was clearly spent in the wrong place. A better solution would have been to invest the funds in the national team’s preparations as well as tickets and accommodation to attend major events, which they missed in 2024 and which have left the boxers without necessary practice.

For instance, the national boxing team missed World Boxing’s Youth World Championships, which ran from October 25 to November 5, 2024 due to their inability to travel to Pueblo, USA.

The upcoming World Boxing Championships scheduled to take place from September 4-14 in England among boxers in 10 male and female weight divisions would also cost the NBF an arm and leg, including visa arrangements for the whole team.

“Instead the NBF was busy planning and investing into a visit with no agenda nor any added value, distributing and printing t-shirts with President van der Vorst’s face, who by the way was accompanied by his wife and daughter on that trip,” said a source, who preferred anonymity.

Faseesin, however, disclosed to The Guardian that the NBF has secured a $40,000 grant from World Boxing, in the aftermath of Van der Vorst’s visit to Nigeria. He said part of the funds from World Boxing will be used to renovate the Brai Ayonote Boxing Gymnasium at the National Stadium, Lagos and the details of the arrangement with World Boxing will be made public in the days ahead.

In a parallel universe, the IBA, despite being cut off by the Olympic movement for political reasons, keeps being consistent and continues delivering world championships. The IBA last week organised the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championship 2025, in the city of Nis, in Serbia, offering a prize fund of $100,000 to each of the winners. To put this in perspective, each champion got almost the same amount of money World Boxing squeezed from more privileged member federations last year.

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IBA’s boxers were paid down to the quarter finalists, giving 96 boxers life changing benefits from the allocations. It was reported that the IBA support program, that brought national teams to the Championship, covering their flights and accommodation, was still in place and helped federations not to miss the opportunity.

Particia Mbata, one of the most active Nigerian boxers and the top ranked African woman in her weight category, took part in this championship, representing “IBA-Nigeria”. Mbata started the tournament with a victory, and guaranteed her spot among the prize winners by progressing to the quarter-finals where she, unfortunately, lost to China’s Lina Wang.

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In fact, NBF has never officially resigned from IBA, leaving the doors open for a possible return should it be considered. In 2023, Nigerian boxers won four medals at the continental championships affiliated with IBA, earning at least $35,000 prize money. Additionally, the men’s national team received financial support to attend the 2023 IBA World Championships in Tashkent.

With World Boxing’s budget being significantly dependent on member federations’ contributions, concerns have been raised over the long-term viability of this organisation. While larger national federations may withstand financial uncertainty due to government backing and sponsorship deals, smaller federations often struggle to cover basic expenses, including travel for international competition.

Seems the Nigerian Federation faces a complex decision.On the one hand, there is World Boxing, which represents a chance to maintain Olympic inclusion. On the other hand, IBA offers financial support, competition funding, stability and the much needed opportunity for boxers to perform and earn. Looks like an obvious choice towards the Olympic prospect. However, if Nigerian boxers are unable to participate in key tournaments due to financial constraints, the Olympic dream itself may remain out of reach for the time being.