US Boxing, An Irish Coach, and The Financials

By John Considine

Billy Walsh in now in the US where he is taking up a position with the US women's boxing team (here).  Now that he is gone, the media storm is likely to die down.  The media coverage seemed to reflect the saga itself.  The issue simmered in the background until this week when it became news as well as sports news.  The Minister for Sport, the Chief Executive of the Irish Sports Council (ISC), and the Chairman of the ISC all seemed to be caught by surprise.  They believed (rather than knew) that a deal was sorted to keep Walsh in Ireland.  They had invested significant time into solving this potential problem.  When the "news" broke of the collapse of the deal, Messrs Ring, Treacy and Mulvey, were not happy.  They took to the airwaves on primetime news and current affairs programmes.  Their anger and upset was genuine.  Mulvey threatened to review the funding of the IABA if Walsh departed.  It seems the government and the ISC were disappointed that their view did not carry greater weight given the way they have funded the IABA.

In the period since 2008, ISC funding for National Governing Bodies as a whole has declined by around 20%.  However, during this same period the funding for boxing increased by over 60%.  This can be seen in the chart below.

The increased funding of boxing largely reflects the performance of Irish boxers, lead by Walsh, on the European and World stages.  Irish boxing receives other state funding.  For example, Irish boxing receives funding via High Performance Grants.  Again, as the graph below shows, boxing punches above its weight (pun intended).  In addition, individual athletes receive state funding under the International Carding Scheme.

Those who paid the piper were left wondering what tune that piper was playing.