Sports Council tightlipped as boxing stand-off continues

THE row between the IABA and the Irish Sports Council over the withdrawal of funding for the Irish boxing’s new Chief Executive Officer and Director of High Performance rages on.

Last month the Irish Sports Council informed the IABA it was not prepared to fund the positions in 2010 as it was unhappy with the recruitment process for the two posts.

Details of the correspondence were revealed in a brief statement from the ISC after it became known that the President of the IABA, Dominic O’Rourke, had been appointed to the position of Director of High Performance over Head Coach, Billy Walsh.

Walsh had been carrying out the duties of the Director of High Performance along with his own duties since Gary Keegan left the post to take up the top job at the Institute of Sport.

Walsh’s record as one of the top boxing coaches in the world, combined with his experience with High Performance and his familiarity with the position, made him hot favourite to take over at the helm.

Since the world championships in Chicago in 2007 when Paddy Barnes became the first Irish boxer to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, Ireland has won medals at every major tournament including the Olympic Games and world and European championships.

Only last weekend Moate teenager Joe Ward won a gold medal at the world youth championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, to add to the gold medal he won at the world juniors 11 months earlier in Armenia and Belfast’s Ryan Burnett won a silver medal.

Both boxers qualified for the inaugural World Youth Olympics in Singapore next August.

They are members of the junior High Performance Squad coached by Jim Moore from Arklow, father of former world bronze medallist James Moore who is now a professional based in the US, and Jimmy Payne from Waterford.

The Sports Council discussed the matter at their monthly meeting on Tuesday but no statement was issued.