Chairman of Sport Ireland blasts ‘unconscionable’ demands placed on Billy Walsh

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The fallout from Billy Walsh’s resignation continues, with the chairman of Sport Ireland describing the demands placed on the boxing coach by the Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) as totally unacceptable.

On Monday Walsh stepped down from his role as head coach with Irish boxing’s High Performance Unit, saying the IABA had “not made it possible for me to continue on in the role”.

Kieran Mulvey said the association has imposed demands which have forced Ireland to lose the best boxing coach in the world.

Mr Mulvey is giving evidence at an Oireachtas committee this morning, a day before Billy Walsh is due to travel to the United States to sign contracts with their national women’s boxing team.

He’s told the committee that the association wanted to control all of Billy Walsh’s media appearances – which is “unconscionable”:

“We don’t operate on that basis,” Mulvey said. “You have meetings weekly; monthly.

“Imagine an organisation that says to its chief coach – imagine Joe Schmidt being told he had to contact Philip Browne every time he selected a team or made a decision?

“Or (before) he could talk to the media. This is unconscionable and unacceptable.”

The Irish Sports Council are threatening to review their funding of the organisation as a result of the resignation – the IABA are expected to make a further statement today after a meeting to discuss the fallout.

Irish Sports Council chief blasts ‘ridiculous situation’ as Billy Walsh says his position was ‘dismantled’

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