IOC President Thomas Bach warned that they are "very worried" by the lack of progress made by AIBA ©Getty Images

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has warned it is "very worried" about the lack of progress made by the International Boxing Association (AIBA) on governance reforms.

The IOC suspended recognition of AIBA last May following long-standing concerns regarding finance, governance, ethics and refereeing and judging.

An IOC monitoring group, led by United World Wrestling President Nenad Lalovic, has continued to report back to the organisation since on progress made by AIBA.

Governance reforms are considered key to the crisis-hit governing body being restored prior to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, with an IOC Boxing Task Force overseeing preparations for Tokyo 2020.

IOC President Thomas Bach admitted the Executive Committee remained concerned with the lack of progress made by AIBA over the reform process.

"We have received the report of the monitoring group," he said.

"I can summarise that we are very worried about the lack of progress with regard to the governance reforms of AIBA.

"There is talk of Presidential elections.

"But we do not see any progress about these governance reforms which are very important."

Governance reforms are viewed as key to the future of AIBA ©AIBA
Governance reforms are viewed as key to the future of AIBA ©AIBA

AIBA is due to elect a new President and vote for the new Constitution of the organisation in a virtual meeting in December.

The AIBA Ordinary Congress was originally due to be held in Budapest but rising COVID-19 cases in the Hungarian capital have led to increased restrictions on travel.

The virtual Congress, however, will still take place on the original dates of December 12 and 13.

AIBA Interim President Mohamed Moustahsane wrote a letter to all the National Federations in advance asking their opinion on the upcoming Congress format.

The majority of the members agreed that a virtual event is the best solution given the current pandemic situation.

AIBA has been without a permanent President for 18 months after Uzbekistan's Gafur Rakhimov stood down in March 2019 following allegations that he was involved in heroin trafficking.

So far, the only candidates to have declared publicly are Azerbaijan's Suleyman Mikayilov and the Dominican Republic's Domingo Solano.

The deadline for candidates to put themselves forward is November 2. 

Russia's Umar Kremlev, who tested positive for coronavirus on Monday (October 5), is expected to declare shortly that he is planning to stand.

Before they can officially stand, all the candidates must be approved by the AIBA Ethics Commission.