Sectarian Anti-British Agenda Driving Boxing Investment
08 February 2013
Commenting on TUV’s submission to Sport NI’s Boxing Investment Programme Consultation party leader Jim Allister said:
“It seems evident to me that a sectarian, anti-British agenda is driving DCAL’s approach to funding for amateur boxing in Northern Ireland.
“In circumstances where sectarianism has not been addressed in the sport TUV does not believe that boxing merits the £3.27 million which is to be lavished on it, especially given that there does not seem to be a similar fund forthcoming to back the sport in which competitors from Northern Ireland achieved the greatest success at London 2012 – rowing.
“I suspect the fact that the rowers were all representing Team GB while boxers are excluded from competing under the Union Flag at the Olympics has a great deal to do with the Minister’s enthusiasm for boxing.
“However, if this funding is to be released to boxing it is essential that those clubs not affiliated to the IABA are able to apply for it. The Minister has previously given assurances that clubs not affiliated to the IABA would be allowed to apply. If she goes back on these assurances she leaves herself open to charges of sectarianism given that the most high profile club currently unaffiliated to the IABA was effectively driven out of the sport by sectarianism.
“The decision to withhold funding from any clubs which are not affiliated to an internationally recognised body is totally unacceptable given that the Assembly has recognised the need for a Northern Ireland body to be created. Creating a new body will take time. Therefore to demand that clubs be affiliated to an internationally recognised body and to allocate the money based on an application to be submitted by the IABA (page 6) is completely unacceptable.
“It seems evident that Sport NI and the DCAL are intending on using the threat of withholding this money as a stick to ensure that clubs do not leave the all-Ireland body and that those currently unaffiliated to it re-join in order to be eligible for the funding.
“Data collected for Belfast City Council’s Amateur Boxing Strategy demonstrated that boxing in Northern Ireland is an almost exclusively Nationalist sport with a massive 77.8% of clubs in the city reporting that there membership was either entirely or predominately Roman Catholic while just 14.8% were exclusively or predominately Protestant.
“Sport NI claims in the draft Boxing Investment Programme that it wants to “increase and sustain committed participation , especially amongst young people and underrepresented groups” yet the very criteria for applying for the funding sends out a message that Protestants are unwelcome within the sport as those who stood up against sectarianism in Sandy Row are excluded from applying!
“I very much hope that Sport NI and the Department will reverse their bigoted stance on this issue and that money will be allocated on the basis of need, not on the basis of whether or not one is affiliated to the IABA, a body which has shown zero interest in addressing the issue of sectarianism within the sport of boxing.”
