Billy Walsh fiasco - Explain or have funds frozen

ANY organisation lucky enough to have a leader who is an agent for change is indeed blessed. Any organisation lucky enough to have a leader that sets and realises new targets by motivating those around him to give of their best is indeed doubly blessed.

Any country that has a person of huge energy, ability and vision leading a group of its elite athletes is indeed lucky because that person’s work, and those athletes’ achievements, is not only measured in sporting terms but in how a country’s reputation is enhanced on the international stage. International sport is, after all, as much about international image as it is about competing in any sport.

In that context the fiasco surrounding Irish boxing’s head coach Billy Walsh’s decision to quit his position cannot be allowed stand. People like Walsh, people who change the world around them for the better, are in very scarce supply in all walks of Irish life and it is simply incomprehensible that such a positive influence be lost to this country over the minor, non-monetary details of an employment contract. That assertion is strengthened by the fact that Walsh has been offered a very similar position in America — a country that could have chosen anyone it wished for the job.

The IABA have, very unwisely, remained silent on the issue but until such time as a proper explanation is forthcoming all State funding for the organisation should be frozen because, on the face of it, this is far more important than sport.