Walsh: IABA Clearout required or boxing will be left behind

Unless there is radical reform and a clearout of the current IABA board, boxing in Ireland will fall behind and consistent Olympic success will become a thing of the past, according to former high performance director Billy Walsh.

Minister for Sport Jack Chambers said yesterday the body would face "immediate and severe financial sanctions" if governance reforms were not implemented, which would include a new 12-member Board of Directors to oversee its running, half of which would be independent. The report is to be put before the IABA's EGM in June.

High Performance director Bernard Dunne resigned his position earlier this month, the third person in the role to resign following in the footsteps of Gary Keegan and Walsh.

Dunne's exit stemmed from a complaint he lodged against two volunteers back in October 2021 after an unsigned SWOT analysis critical of his performance was circulated at board level prior to the Tokyo Games.

The amateur boxing body responded by saying it is "acutely aware" of the need for reform, but noted it was aware of considerable opposition among the ranks of volunteers.

Walsh, who left his position due to internal politics in 2015, last week called for government intervention to assist change within Irish boxing.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, the current head coach of USA Boxing, welcome the government response to the ongoing governance issues within the IABA.

"They (IABA) need to change it and quickly," he said. "There are people that are at the helm, over those three performance directors leaving, and a lot of them are there since the last two left, and still haven't changed, so I think it is time for a good clear out and bring in a new board with a mindset of working in the 21st century.

"With the