An AIBA referees and judges meeting has taken place ©AIBA

All 36 referees and judges who officiated at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games could be permanently banned from officiating as part of an investigation into match-fixing, it has been reported.

According to the Irish Independent, this scenario was proposed following a meeting of the AIBA Referees and Judges (R&J) Commission in Assisi this week.

The newspaper report that this has been recommended to "redeem the brand of boxing".

The decision must now be ratified by the world governing body's ruling Executive Committee.

"The AIBA Referee and Judges Commission had their meetings this past weekend in Assisi, Italy," AIBA Executive Committee member Pat Fiacco told insidethegames.

"It was a very good meeting with many topics including the officiating in Rio. 

"All of their recommendations have been forwarded to the AIBA Executive Committee for approval as per the AIBA statutes. 

"The Executive Committee will review the recommendations and then vote on them."

All 36 referees and judges used in Rio were suspended by AIBA pending an investigation into their conduct.

The findings of the investigation have never been published, however, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have called for more analysis.

Ireland's boxing manager Joe Hennigan claimed in a report this week that they were aware of the likelihood of Olympic boxing bouts at the Brazilian Games being fixed before they happened.

The bout lost by Michael Conlan, right, was one of many controversial fights at Rio 2016 ©Getty Images
The bout lost by Michael Conlan, right, was one of many controversial fights at Rio 2016 ©Getty Images

Irish bantamweight world champion Michael Conlan was involved in one of the most controversial contests of Rio 2016 after appearing to dominate a quarter-final against Vladimir Nikitin before the Russian was awarded the victory.

Other suspect results at Rio 2016 included Russia's Evgeny Tishchenko winning the gold medal in the men's heavyweight final over Kazakhstan's Vassily Levit, even though he appeared to be on the back-foot throughout.

Judging controversies are among several reasons why boxing was placed on probation by the IOC and at risk of being removed from Tokyo 2020 if concerns are not addressed soon. 

"We at the time received reports from a committee established by AIBA which was dismissing these concerns," IOC President Thomas Bach said about judging suspicions last month.

"But from the fact that refereeing is part of the decision we already took in December last year, we were requesting more info and you can conclude that we are still looking into this issue. 

"We want to have a satisfying explanation that the results presented to us does reflect the reality."