Irish Sports Council supremo John Treacy has called for a “cultural change” within the beleaguered Irish Amateur Boxing Association in the wake of the controversy stemming from Billy Walsh’s failed contract negotiations.
Walsh, who has enjoyed enormous success in his role as head coach in the IABA’s high performance unit, seems destined to continue his career in the United States after protracted contract negotiations came to nothing except rancour and disagreement.
The Wexford man is expected to board a plane to the United States tomorrow, where he will finalise a contract with USA Boxing in Memphis to spearhead the nation’s women’s programme.
The IABA released a statement on Monday following Walsh’s resignation, but subsequent communiques have been conspicuous by their absence, with an exasperated Treacy telling RTÉ Sport that lines of communication between the Irish Sports Council and the IABA remain down.
“We haven’t heard anything from them since Billy Walsh resigned,” he admitted.
“It’s a matter of grave concern to ourselves that they hadn’t shown us the respect to tell us officially that Billy has resigned, even though we all know.”
With the Irish Sports Council effectively charged with bankrolling the IABA, Irish amateur boxing’s governing body could now find itself scrutinised in a far more exacting manner.
“We’ve written to the IABA today with a series of questions around this Billy Walsh issue and we’ll expect them to respond to us by next week,” Treacy revealed.
“We will probably also carry out a corporate governance review, which we do with organisations anyway on an ongoing basis, and that will be independently commissioned by Sport Ireland.
"He’s gone. End of story.” John Treacy holds out no hope of Billy Walsh returning to his old role
“We will also set up a liaison process with them and if we’re talking about a funding review, what were actually talking about is working with them and funding them on a month-to-month basis with a very high level of oversight from ourselves.”
Treacy held out no hope of an eleventh-hour rapprochement between Walsh and the IABA, adding: “I spoke to Billy Walsh this morning to wish him the very best and Billy wasn’t changing his mind. He’s gone. End of story.”
The Irish Sports Council chief executive described the lack of communication from the IABA as “extraordinary”, and fumed: “I’ve never come across an organisation that has treated Sport Ireland - and the minister - with the disrespect that we’ve been treated with.
“Even up to last week, we were told a deal was done. And a deal wasn’t done.
“I was clearly worried last week that there was a lot of issues not sorted and it came to pass.”
While the Irish Sports Council will not draw its purse strings closed to the IABA, they will be guarded more vigilantly.
“On the high performance side, we fund their programmes and we’re very clear in terms of exactly what we’re funding,” Treacy insisted.
“Normally when we fund governing bodies, we give them 75% at the start of the year and then they report in to us and we pay them the second 25% when we’re satisfied.
“What I’m talking about doing with the IABA is funding them on a monthly basis, where they will come in every month and account for every penny in terms of how that money is spent.
“It’s a high level of oversight from the Sports Council.
“We’ve done it before with organisations that had corporate governance issues.
“Let’s put it this way, we’ve a lack of confidence in terms of the corporate governance operating within the IABA and how the organisations functions.”
With improvements now being sought in how the IABA conducts its business, Treacy added: “A cultural change needs to happen within the IABA.”
