New Delhi on Tuesday lost hosting rights for the 2021 men’s boxing World Championships after the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) failed to pay the host fee. The International Boxing Association (AIBA) said that additionally, the BFI will now have to pay a cancellation fee of $500.
“After New Delhi didn’t fulfill its obligations to pay host fee as mentioned in the Host City Agreement terms, AIBA has terminated the contract. Therefore, India would have to pay a cancellation penalty of 500.000 USD,” said the AIBA in its statement.
The tournament has now been awarded to Belgrade, Serbia and AIBA Interim President Mohamed Moustahsane said that it will hold the World Championships after the postponed Tokyo Olympics next year.
“Because of rescheduling of the Olympic 2020, AIBA Executive Committee will discuss with the host country possible dates to adjust. We believe that we will keep the planned timeframe and conduct World Championships in 2021 after the Games if the pandemic situation is under control. As soon as it is fixed, this will help our boxers to plan preparation for next year properly,” said Moustahsane.
India was awarded the hosting rights in July 2017. However, it has since run into troubled waters with the AIBA with the latter first saying that it will “re-open the bidding process for the 2021 men’s World boxing championships due to take place in India” in November 2018 after Kosovo boxer Donjeta Sadiku was excluded from the 2018 women’s World boxing championships that was held in the country due to visa issues.
In February 2020, it was reported that the AIBA had sent a legal notice to the BFI for not paying boxers who participated in the 2019 Indian Open and a reminder for the BFI to pay its hosting fees for the 2021 World Championships.