"The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has been suspended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and stripped of the right to organise the sport at Tokyo 2020.

The decision, which was announced by IOC President Thomas Bach after a meeting of his Executive Board, comes after repeated warnings about its governance to the crisis-hit federation.

A devastating report said the IWF’s behaviour presented “a serious reputational risk to the IOC and the Olympic Movement”.

Bach told reporters there will be an Olympic weightlifting competition in Tokyo but the IWF will have nothing to do with it.

"These decisions were taken in the interest of the athletes and the sport of weightlifting," he said. 

"We want to ensure, on the one hand, that the athletes can continue to live their Olympic dreams, while at the same time drawing the necessary consequences for the IWF.

 "We have offered a pathway back for lifting the suspension after Tokyo 2020 but for this, there must be fundamental change within the IWF.”

 The IOC confirmed that it continued to have concerns about conflicts of interest among several IWF Board members."

The "slight modifications" are the substitution of weightlifting for boxing and IWF for the International Boxing Association (AIBA), the discredited governing body of Olympic boxing which lost control of the sport for Tokyo 2020 to an IOC task force.

Thousands of people within weightlifting are thinking: "If only this were true, if only the same thing would happen to us."

They include the American woman who, because of those "vested interests" among Board members, failed in her attempts to reform the IWF, the British chair of the IWF’s own Athletes Commission, the Italian President of the European Weightlifting Federation (EWF) and more than 11,300 people (and counting) from all over the world who have so far signed a "vote of no confidence in the IWF Board" petition.

This is not the usual "clean" countries stamping their feet, there has been support for IOC intervention from Cuba, Tunisia, Samoa, Ecuador and many more nations.

More than 50 national federations have said they will officially request an Emergency Congress, which must be called within 90 days if one fifth of members (38 is enough) demand it.

That "no-confidence" petition will be sent to Thomas Bach by Sarah Davies, the Athletes Commission chair who started it in the hope of persuading the IOC to create a weightlifting task force for Tokyo 2020 and perhaps beyond.

Ursula Papandrea, who was deposed as Interim President of the IWF by her own Board last Tuesday said: "I would prefer if we could clean our own mess, but from what I experienced an IOC task force would be the only way to get true reform implemented.

"It must be an unfettered process without political meddling, and a task force seems like the quickest route.

"If we get an election and a clean Board it’s possible but there are risks that the same people will be elected.

"A task force is certainly more likely to succeed."

Antonio Urso, who resigned from the IWF Board on Thursday night (October 15), 12 hours before Papandrea did likewise, said he was "waiting for an answer from the IOC – a strong answer."

Urso, the EWF President said: "To say ‘we are watching’ is not an answer, to say ‘you may be in or out of the Olympic Games’ is not an answer.

"The IOC members need to be connecting the IWF directly to the IOC to really innovate, to really make change.

"We must have a new Constitution, new edicts, new rules, an entirely new approach to managing weightlifting but that will not happen with this Executive Board.

"We are stopped, nothing is happening, there is no suitable leader on this Board – we need direct action from the IOC."

“This Board" comprises 17 members, seven of whom represent nations that are banned from Tokyo 2020 or restricted in how many athletes they can send because of multiple doping offences.

The new Interim President, the third in three tumultuous days last week, is the British doctor Mike Irani, whose national federation has called for the entire IWF Board to stand down.

Irani, appointed on Thursday evening, has already lasted longer than his predecessor Intarat Yodbangtoey from Thailand, whose nation is banned from Tokyo 2020 for multiple doping violations.

Because there was such an outcry over his appointment Intarat had to stand aside almost immediately.

Intarat and Irani were both close allies of the IWF’s long-standing leader Tamás Aján, who resigned in April after 44 years in high office.

Aján was at the centre of a corruption scandal that was exposed by German television in January and which made negative headlines for weightlifting for months.

An investigation led by the Canadian law professor Richard McLaren showed that Aján had overseen widespread corruption in finance, anti-doping and rigged elections.

The McLaren Report, published in June, criticised a number of Board members for failing to cooperate with the investigation, and named Intarat as a suspected "bag man" for vote-buying, though Intarat denied it.

Irani is not named in the report and is well respected in British weightlifting.

Davies, who is on course to qualify for Tokyo 2020, posted a social media video in which she said: "The IWF is corrupt and needs change. What we are seeing this week is very scary."

Davies voiced her support for Papandrea and said: "I know the IWF Board has a resistance in the first place to creating an Athletes Commission because they don’t want the athletes’ voice to be heard.

"They were even more opposed to putting me in charge of it.

"Ten days ago I wrote to the IOC, before their meeting (which resulted in a statement that strongly criticised the IWF).

"I wrote on behalf of athletes to say there was still a lot of doping, that clean athletes weren’t being rewarded, that there were people on the Executive Board trying to change the Olympic qualifying rules, which would be so unfair to all my fellow athletes who have done all that’s been asked of them.

"These athletes have competed so frequently over two years, pushed their bodies to the absolute limits – if that (qualifying rules) changes it would be so upsetting for all of us who have worked so hard for it.

"The Board is made up of too many people who should not be there and it would be for their gain.

"It blows my mind – trying to put the words together for this video is so difficult and it’s hard not to swear.

"I have sat in these meetings as an observer without a vote, which is itself disgusting.

"This is an organisation that exists because of weightlifters - without the athletes we wouldn’t have an IWF.

"The way those people spoke to Ursula - how on earth in 2020 people think they can talk to anybody like that is outrageous.

"But they speak to her like that because she’s from America and because she’s female.

"That Executive Board needs to stand down and we need a complete reform if this is to be an Olympic sport in Paris and the future."

Athlete representation is one area of concern for the IOC, reluctance to accept independent advice is another, and then there is governance reform, which may sound a lot less exciting than a corruption scandal but is widely seen as the biggest problem at the IWF.

The current Constitution features areas that need redrafting, rules that need further explanation.

There is no contingency for a postponed Olympic Games, as happened this year.

One contradiction that irks many is the fact that a technical official from a suspended country cannot referee a competition, but if that technical official or anybody else from the same country is elected to the Board or Presidency of the IWF that’s fine.

"If your nation is banned you should have to step down from your position at Board level," said Davies.

One of the recommendations of the McLaren report - which said the IWF was "in need of resuscitation and fundamental foundational restoration" - was precisely that point.

"Board members should be suspended if their national federation is sanctioned for doping violations," it said.

The report also featured a warning that has not yet been heeded: "Failure for the organisation to act on the (report’s) recommendations has the potential to cause irreparable harm to an organisation facing constitutional, governance and membership challenges as a result of (Ajan’s) reign."

When Papandrea tried to remove certain Board members her attempts were blocked, she said in her resignation letter.

One of her biggest frustrations was being thwarted by inadequacies in the Constitution and the Board taking advantage of them.

One battle that went on for months was an attempt by Board members to get access to evidence that potentially implicates some of them in corrupt or possibly criminal activities.

Their efforts were rebuffed by Papandrea.

When the McLaren Report was published in June a second dossier was sent to her with instructions from McLaren himself that it should not be presented to the Board.

The report, published in June states: "As the investigation progressed, the MIIT (McLaren Independent Investigation Team) became aware of activities that demonstrated possible criminal conduct.

"The MIIT has reported separately, on a strictly confidential basis, to the Oversight and Integrity Commission on these matters."

The McLaren team had not had enough time to investigate fully and deemed the material not sufficiently robust for publication.

A problem arose when the Oversight and Integrity Commission soon ceased to exist.

It received the report but it was a short-term Commission whose mandate ended on June 19.

Papandrea, who was on that Commission, proposed an external Integrity Commission to take its place on June 21.

She was blocked by the Board and decided to send the report instead to the Disciplinary and Ethics Commission (DEC), which was in the Constitution but not operating because it needed five members and had only two.

"I decided it was better to fill the DEC than continuing to fight or have them change the composition of an Integrity Commission,” said Papandrea, who was worried about “the potential for meddling by the Executive Board."

Papandrea had spoken of her intent to put all Board members in front of the newly composed DEC, and had been trying to fill the seats since September 7 – three Board member selections and two by her as Interim President.

She scheduled a Board meeting for last Wednesday (October 14).

"I told them I had selections ready to go and was waiting for theirs.

"I found out one was from a vetting body that had already approved one member who had been a concern during our attempt to get an auditor.

"This worried me."

On Tuesday (October 13) the Board called their own meeting and voted to remove Papandrea from office – a day before the DEC was due to come to life.

"By removing me, they made sure I had no appointments," added Papandrea.

Irani was asked if he had seen the unpublished McLaren dossier and if he knew where it was.

"I have not seen it," he said.

"I have, however, asked the remaining members of the Oversight and Integrity Commission (Karoliina Lundahl of Finland, Birendra Prasad of India and Marcus Stephen of Nauru) to see it and it may be that Professor McLaren may have to be asked to vary his instructions in order for me to see the full report.

"In this, as in all things, I would far rather we follow a clear and credible process.

"It may require patience, but we do need to do things the right way and be seen to do things the right way. The IOC has made that very clear."

Papandrea’s list of "observations" in her resignation letter was very long and detailed, and immediately caught the attention of the IOC, which said it “continues to be highly concerned about the confusing decisions taken by the Board in the last few days."

That was the third IOC statement about its "concerns" in the past nine days – no match for the rate at which the IWF is getting through its Interim Presidents but a red light for the Board, for sure.

After a week of adverse publicity and stern statements from the IOC Irani gave reassurances over Olympic qualifying and said the IWF would work with the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF).

Papandrea’s resignation letter pointed out that the Board had ignored advice from ASOIF in recent months.

Irani was asked by insidethegames if he thought the IWF was in a better position now than it was last weekend to reform its governance and win the confidence of the IOC.

"Yes, and we’ve already taken steps to reform our governance within the last 48 hours that the IOC has been happy to hear about," he said.

"For example, the IWF Athletes Commission participates in meetings of the Executive Board for the first time ever."

Actually, athletes were invited to Board meetings for the "first time ever" by Papandrea.

Sarah Davies has been to two and her fellow Athletes Commission member Fernando Reis, from Brazil, spoke at a Board meeting recently.

Both of them were shocked by the behaviour they witnessed from Board members who were clearly unhappy to have athletes taking part, they told insidethegames.

"We have restated our commitment to maintaining the agreed principles that underpin the Olympic qualifying system for Tokyo 2020," Irani continued.

"And we are completing a contract with the ITA (Independent Testing Agency) that would extend its independent management of anti-doping for weightlifting all the way to the end of 2024.

"These are all critical requirements that the IOC had asked for less than two weeks ago.

"Meeting them in short order will, I hope, instil a confidence."

As Papandrea pointed out, attempts to extend the ITA contract and to "beef up its investigative capacity" had begun before the new regime came in.

Irani is in favour of giving athletes a meaningful voice, but participation is one thing, a vote is another – what about giving a vote, or more than one, to athletes now that there are vacancies on the Board?

"We need to assess the scope for this in a way that is credible in terms of the Constitution and bylaws," said Irani.

"There is nobody on a weightlifting team that understands the need to listen carefully to the athletes more than the team doctor.

"So I do know the importance of this from long experience.

"My own view is that the more athlete voices we listen to, the better."

On governance reform he said: "The IWF’s commitment to the IOC is straightforward.

"We will work to meet and, where possible, surpass the standards and requirements that have been set out for us.

"For our governance reform, there is already something of a blueprint we can follow in the way the IWF met and even surpassed the anti-doping requirements asked for by the IOC.

"As a result of that hard, and sometimes painful work the IWF is even becoming an acknowledged leader in the field.

"We must now aim to achieve the same result when it comes to governance, using the principles that worked for us so well with anti-doping reform, like reaching out to independent experts and working in partnership with external bodies like ASOIF."

Will that be enough to keep the Board in control, or will it be too little too late?

The IWF has sent the IOC a lengthy report on its plans for the immediate and long-term future.

What happens next is in the IOC’s hands.