Boxing: ABA must adopt new format to survive: Board under pressure

THE FUTURE of the Amateur Boxing Association, whose status has been threatened by the suspension of its annual Sports Council grant, will be determined at a meeting of the ABA's national committee in Oxford on 3 April.

Although a meeting of the ABA council on 13 March gave a vote of no confidence in the association's officers and recommended winding up the organisation, it is unlikely that the 112-year-old governing body will disappear. Instead, it will almost certainly approve a series of Sports Council recommendations in order to regain its pounds 108,000 grant.

'Contrary to reports, the ABA of England has not disbanded and is not debt-ridden,' Colin Brown, the ABA secretary, said. 'We have some financial difficulties which will be discussed by our national committee in April.'

'We will be dissolving the present format, but I am confident that sense will prevail and that the ABA will still be in existence, albeit in a different form,' Bert Pontremoli, the Southern Counties secretary, said. 'Money from the Sports Council and other sponsors is the lifeblood of amateur boxing. Without it, we will perish.'

An uneasy relationship between the Sports Council and the ABA has existed since 1991, when the Council aired concerns over the Association's ability to spend public funds in a responsible and accountable manner.

The Council has offered to help amateur boxing review its structure on several occasions, but despite threats of a grant withdrawal, all overtures had been rejected. The hard line now adopted is an indication that the Council's patience has finally run out.

A series of future guidelines have been produced which include the establishment of a committee to oversee ABA finances and team selection processes, a youth development commission and the appointment of a full-time administrator. In all, the Sports Council has proposed a six- point plan which, if adopted by the ABA, should lead to the restoration of its annual grant.

'I do not believe amateur boxing can flourish without the Sports Council's help,' Lord Oaksey, the ABA's president, said. 'I would like the ABA to remodel itself along the sensible and reasonable lines the Sports Council is suggesting.'