Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
KINAHAN AXED BY SPORT FIRM
Prince of Bahrain drops Irish cartel chief as boxing advisor
CARTEL chief Daniel Kinahan has been dumped as a sports advisor to the mega-rich Prince of Bahrain.
The axe is a knockout blow to the Dubliner’s hopes of becoming a boxing powerbroker in the Middle East. He was dropped just weeks after being unveiled as an advisor.
A statement said: “KHK Sports confirms it has discontinued engagement with Daniel Kinahan and he is no longer an advisor to KHK Sports.
“KHK Sports is a global sports media property dedicated to the development of sports from the grass-roots level.
“KHK Sports is known for its contribution to the sports industry and is renowned and well respected for its integrity and deep-rooted principles in the sports industry.” The firm was set up by Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa to promote sports in the wealthy region.
Last month KHK announced a partnership with Kinahan’s former gym MTK to promote top-level fights.
In a press release it described the 42-year-old as its “special advisor” and quoted him on the deal as saying: “The sky’s the limit.”
However, days after Kinahan was caught up in an international storm over his alleged links to organised crime, KHK has cut its ties to him.
Sources say the Dubliner is furious at the latest blow to his dream of making it big in boxing.
A carefully laid strategy to reinvent himself in the sport began unravelling last week when it was revealed he was central to staging a historic superfight between heavyweights Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
The real-isation that Kinahan was pulling the strings for the £180million bout set alarm bells ringing.
Ireland’s Taoiseach Leo Varadkar confirmed the
Repiublic’s Department of
Foreign Affairs had written to authorities in the United Arab Emirates about the man named in courts here as a major player in organised crime.
Kinahan was also called a crime lord by leading figures in the Dail.
The heat was turned up on the exiled crime figure – who fled to Dubai when the Kinahan-hutch feud erupted – after Fury credited him with brokering the deal that was to cement his decade-long dream of becoming one of the top names in world boxing.
Irish politicians called on sports broadcasters to boycott the bout and both Sky and BT Sport distanced themselves from any deal.
Kinahan has been repeatedly named in Irish courts in connection with organised crime.
A High Court judge ruled he controls a crime gang which is involved in drugs and weapons smuggling on a global scale
The South’s Criminal Assets Bureau told the court the “Kinahan Organised Crime Group” was engaged in a feud with the “Hutch Organised Crime Group” with Daniel Kinahan, Liam Byrne and Freddy Thompson on one side and Gerry Hutch on the other.
The cartel was named in the Special Criminal Court as being behind a foiled hit on Patsy Hutch – the older brother of Gerry “The Monk” Hutch.
Several of its footsoldiers have been jailed for murder, drug and gun offences.