Item 10: Referee and Judges

A. Championships: in the World Championship, World Cup competitions, Continental Championships and other international championships each contest shall be controlled by an IFMA approved Referee who shall officiate in the ring but shall not mark a scoring paper. 

B. Judges: each contest shall be marked by five IFMA Judges who shall be seated separately from the public and immediately adjacent to the ring.  Two of the judges shall be seated on the same side of the ring at a sufficient distance from one another, and each of the other three judges shall be seated at the centre of one of the other three sides of the ring.  When the number of officials available is insufficient, 3 judges instead of 5 may be used, but this shall not apply to the World Cup competition, World Championships or Continental Championships. 

C. International Matches: in international matches consisting of the teams of two or more national associations, a contest may be controlled in such a manner as may be agreed between the official representatives of the associations concerned, provided that such agreement shall not override the basic principles for refereeing and judging laid down in the IFMA Rules.

D. Neutrality: to ensure neutrality, the names of the referee and the 5 judges for each contest shall be selected by the commission of refereeing and judging in accordance with the following directives;

1. That each such official shall be an approved referee/judge.
2. That each such official shall be of different country and association from each other and from each of the boxers taking part in the contest.
3. That each such official shall not be a national of or resident in any country which is a Dominion, Colony or Dependency of the county of any of the boxers taking part in the contest.
4. That in the event of a change of country of any official, such official shall not officiate in any contest in which a boxer of his original country is taking part or a referee or judge of that country is acting.
5. In no case shall more than 2 officials in one and the same contest come form the same continent.
6. The referees and judges for the finals shall be approved by the executive committee as a whole as being IFMA authorized persons.
7. That in the event of it being impossible for the commission of refereeing and judging to apply the above directives in a particular case they shall resolve the difficulty by ensuring as far as it may be possible the neutrality and impartiality of the officials appointed, and shall report the matter as soon as convenient to the Executive committee.
8. In the event of it being found impossible by the commission of refereeing and judging in any case to comply with the above directives, the name of names of an official or officials may be drawn by lot by the President of the commission of refereeing and judging, or someone acting on his behalf, for the contest in question.

E. Conflict of interest:      persons acting as referees or judges in any contest or tournament shall not at any time during the same contest or series of contests act as team manager, trainer of second to any boxer or team of boxers taking part in such contest or series of contest or so act in a contest in which a competitor of their nationality is taking part.

F. Disciplinary Action: the Executive Committee, or its duly authorized representative may, upon the recommendation of the jury, dispense (temporarily or permanently), with the services of any referee who, in its opinion, does not efficiently enforce the rules of the IFMA, or any judge whose marking or scoring of contests it considers not to be satisfactory. 

G. Replacing the referee during the bout: if a referee is incapacitated in the course of a bout, the timekeeper shall strike the gong to stop the bout and the next available neutral referee on the IFMA international list shall be instructed to control the bout and order boxing to be resumed. 

H. Obligation of attendance: the Association of which an international referees/judges selected by the Executive Committee is a member shall be under obligation to send him to the World Championships, or Continental Championships to carry out the duties for which he has been selected unless such person for adequate reasons personally refuses such invitation.  In Nations where the responsibility of financing their teams or similar area games is handled by another organization, that organization will be responsible to transport and maintain officials selected to the Games under their responsibility.