Little by little, the bird is building its nest. The World Boxing executive board has validated the integration of six new members. The national federations of Kosovo, Syria, Hungary, Malawi, Estonia and Switzerland officially join the ranks of the youngest international boxing federation. World Boxing now has 78 member countries, which is anything but insignificant in view of the Olympic future of the discipline. “This is a very important milestone for World Boxing and I am delighted to welcome our six new members, comments the chairman of the body, Boris van der Vorst. I thank each of them for making the decision to join our mission to ensuring that boxing remains at the heart of the Olympic movement. It is a particular pleasure to welcome Hungary as our 75th member, as it means that World Boxing has reached one of the widely established criteria for a sport to be included in the Olympic Games. This is very positive news for everyone involved in boxing, at all levels, around the world. We continue to receive applications national federations around the world who wish to be part of World Boxing, and I invite all boxing leaders who want to ensure that their boxers have the opportunity to compete in the next Olympic Games to apply to join World Boxing." The IOC is expected to decide later this year whether or not to include boxing in the next Olympic Games.
