Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
£200,000 FOR BELFAST BOXERS JUST THE JAB
Sport strategy gets a ringing endorsement from council
BOXING clubs can look forward to a knockout future after being thrown a £200,000 lifeline by councillors.
The cash boost was agreed by Belfast City Council yesterday as part of an ongoing strategy to support the sport.
Even though it was set up in 2012 as a 10-year programme there had been fears money from the city’s Amateur Boxing Strategy would dry up. But the Policy and Resources Committee agreed funding for another year.
Sinn Fein’s Matt Garrett said: “This is a proven strategy benefitting thousands of young boxers across the city.
“However, we had been pushing for the funding to be set in place over a three-year period to allow those involved to really plan for the future.
“There is fantastic work going on and it deserves to be supported. I would say the boxing fraternity needs to be asking the parties who voted against funding for three years why that is. They need to be lobbying those parties.”
Yesterday’s decision came after a presentation in which Paddy Barnes Snr told councillors the programme has a “proven record” of benefitting the sport and producing world-class boxers.
Referring to fighters being sent to the Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast in April, he said: “I’ve no doubt the boxers we’re sending will be bringing back medals.”
Of course his son Paddy is among fighters from Northern Ireland to have punched their way to glory, having won two Commonwealth golds and a pair of Olympic bronze medals, while his pal Michael Conlan also picked up a Commonwealth gold and Olympic bronze. Both are now fighting professionally and will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of former two-weight world champion Carl Frampton and current bantamweight king Ryan Burnett.
However, the council meeting was not without controversy as Terry Mccorran of the Northern Ireland Boxing Association told representatives they are “being starved out of existence” due to a lack of funding.
The NIBA is not recognised by Sport NI while the Irish Athletic Boxing Association is.
Mr Mccorran said to fight for Northern Ireland “a boxer from here would have to join a club in England, Scotland or Wales” and he called on Sport NI to officially recognise the NIBA in the same way it does the IFA and FAI.
The DUP welcomed the funding, but said more needs to be done regarding the NIBA.
Group leader on the council Lee Reynolds said: “DUP councillors have repeated highlighted the council’s boxing strategy was failing to support Niba-affiliated clubs across the city – North, South,
East and West.”