First elected in November 2018 at the IBA Congress in Moscow, the vice-president of the Bulgarian Boxing Federation suggested there were "inappropriate acts of leadership" within the organisation.

"I no longer believe in the way IBA is being led and I am more and more ashamed to be a member of its Board because I think that Board has been the most undemocratic and untransparent ever, being overly secretive, manipulative and controlled by external parties, including lawyers, and not by its Board of Directors," said Grueva in her letter to the National Federations for boxing and the IBA Board of Directors.

She stressed that a meeting held on March 4 was the tipping point towards her decision, alleging it had many examples of poor governance.  

The Bulgarian claimed members received the agenda and documents only the day before meetings and that all issues were presented by lawyers and external contractors instead of the IBA President Umar Kremlev or its secretary general István Kovács.

"Clearly the legal team in IBA has the mighty power over its Board," added Grueva.

Others accusations include Board members not being able to view financial documents as required by the International Olympic Committee and that members had a "feeling of fear and an attitude of obedience towards the IBA President".

Grueva claims she requested all of the Executive Committee to resign and take responsibility for the suspension of IBA in June 2019 - then known as AIBA - by the International Olympic Committee.

"Nothing happened at the time," said Grueva.

However, she was quoted as saying "We cannot penalise all the committed people who work hard for the good of the sport of boxing, just because of some bad apples", in August 2019 when asked by insidethegames about the whole Executive Committee quitting.

"It may be too late to send any message to our colleagues in National Federations now," she continued.

"However, after finally receiving the financial reports from IBA on May 3, given the way IBA manages our sport, I thought it is the time to dissociate myself from the current leadership.

"There are too many unresolved and questionable issues ahead of us.

"However, for me, the main agenda should be the Olympic Games.

"The existence of IBA and boxing within the Olympic movement is at stake and it seems that the current IBA management and the current IBA Board do not realize that it does not take appointing governance and/or integrity experts to resolve IBA issues.

"The example must come from the top and so far, for me, none of the IBA issues have been properly addressed.

"Finally, I could never accept some comments the IBA President made on several occasions, that even without the Olympic Games, we still can focus on organising, managing and developing our world events professionally.

"As we all know, participation in the Olympic Games is a boxer's ultimate dream, and I believe it is yours too.

"Therefore, I would like to emphasize the importance of the existing risk at IBA because our boxers could be faced with the serious possibility of losing all their Olympic dreams, which we must prevent."

In her resignation, Grueva warned there was still uncertainty over the vow from Kremlev to clear IBA's debts, how the IBA accounts were managed and the terms and conditions of the sponsorship agreement with Gazprom.

Her resignation came less than a week before the IBA Presidential election at the Extraordinary Congress on Friday (May 13) with Kremlev being challenged by Dutch Boxing Federation President Boris van der Vorst.

The IOC raised issues with all seven candidates for the 2020 election, which Kremlev defeated Van der Vorst in, in the second round of voting.

In response to Grueva's letter, Kremlev responded to her claims with his own letter, obtained by insidethegames.

Kremlev countered the criticisms made in 2019 around leadership, finances, statutes and reforms.

"Since then, IBA elected a new leader, found the money to save IBA's finances, adopted new statutes to guide us to do serious reform, and finally, was awarded the responsibility of developing an Olympic qualification system that is based on IBA events," said Kremlev.

The IBA President added that the organisation was following a roadmap for reinstatement from the IOC with a target of May 2023, while also stating it could run independently and stage its own competitions, as well as assist with Commonwealth Games and Pan American Games preparations.

Kremlev said it was necessary to have a sponsor like Gazprom for the stability of IBA finances.

"At the time of my election in 2020, IBA had just three full-time staff members," said the IBA President.

"We could not have achieved all that we have achieved together in such a short time without bringing in the best possible external support.

"At the same time, we have developed our internal capacity to the point where IBA is now a fully-functioning International Federation.

"IBA should, however, continue to turn to independent expertise, especially for help with reform and integrity."

Kremlev said the Board met eight times in 2021 - five more than the minimum requirement - and 50 submissions were made to the Board in 18 months.

"This represents an exceptional level of consultation," claimed Kremlev.

"Of course, improvements can always be made.

"You will be aware that the IBA office team recently committed to provide more detail and more notice around key decisions that are put to the Board."

insidethegames has contacted Grueva for comment.