THE VOICE OF BOXING ASKS: HOW MUCH LONGER CAN THE SPORT BE ALLOWED TO SUFFER FROM INCOMPETENCE AND …

 

The hoarse whispers in amateur boxing in England are as prevalent as snowflakes in a snowstorm. The difference is that snowflakes are often pretty and when they settle they change the bleak winter vista to one of Christmas card beauty.

 

The whispers running rife in amateur boxing in England are continuing to sprout and gaining strength despite the winter of discontent that has fallen upon amateur boxing in England.

This is no climate change as it has been the situation for many a year and while the scene has never been pretty nor beautiful, it has not been as widespread and ugly as the current fermenting allegations.

There is no doubt Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABAE) is under siege. The emergence of British Amateur Boxing Association (BABA) from years of deep sleep caused by inactivity never came with an official explanatory explanation.for their sudden decision to given them the kiss of life

In my view BABA was jerked back from its coma because ABAE had been Red Carded, which meant they were deemed unsuitable for funding of £5 million – part of the allocation of taxpayer’s money for amateur boxing.

This meant a £5 million cheque was waiting to be cashed without a name on it to whom it should be paid. With the black sheep Red Carded, the alarm clocks started ringing, so it had to be Wakey, Wakey! BABA.

London 2012 Olympics is cast in stone and money needs to be provided by the taxpayer to ensure English boxers are given a fighting chance to develop and win Gold Medals but if the so called National Governing Body, ABAE could not be given the money there had to be found an untainted organization to take care of the £5 million, so with indecent haste a discarded BABA was given the kiss of life and brought to life.

Boxing Action pointed out on a number of occasions the title of NGB given to ABAE was nothing more than a name, and a very misleading one at that!

The name implies they have statutory authority, which is nonsense. The authority they have is that given to all registered Members Clubs – nothing more but there may be something less.

ABAE the co-called National Governing Body has no statutory authority and for it to claim it has would cause it to fall foul of the Standards Trading Centre of UK and its European counterpart.

Boxing should be grateful for this because had ABAE been given statutory authority it would mean the British Boxing Board of Control and Schools ABA would be under the direction and governance of ABAE.

A more disastrous thought for boxing is difficult to imagine.

Boxing in England is administrated by three regulatory bodies, the senior is BBBofC, which administrates professional boxing, Schools ABA introduced boxing into Schools and needs to continue to do so and then there is the highly controversial ABAE.

The NGB title was bestowed upon ABAE by civil servants with, probably, the most limited understanding of administration boxing and without a scintilla of respect for democracy.

Remarkable as it may seem it was made without consultation or agreement by BBBofC or Schools ABA, which in itself is a scandal.

The NGB card has been played by ABAE and Sport England for what appears to be solely for the benefit of expediency. In company with the vast majority of

undemocratic policies the result has been seriously lacking in achievement.

Many millions of sterling pounds, estimated to be at over £10 million have been given to ABAE and the result is they are now Red Carded due to serious administration faults.

Before the Red Card was shown to ABAE, Sport England commissioned a highly respectable firm of accountants to investigate ABAE.

Their report was extremely condemning, so much so that when the report was leaked to Boxing Action and we began to publish it in episodes we were asked by decent amateur boxing people to cease publishing because the long term effects could be disastrous for the sport.

After deliberation we conceded. The big question is why did Sport England spend the high cost of such a report only to fail to act upon it?

The seriousness of the matter has been compounded by Sport England, if only because since that time it has given millions of sterling pounds to ABAE and, matters have worsened as evidenced by them currently being Red Carded.

This was not a Rubik Cube style puzzle but a relatively simple isse for which to find the correct answer because of the availability of the details contained in he Accountant’s report.

This serious state of affairs means another thorough investigation into amateur boxing has to be made and this time results made public, and referred to a House of Commons Select Committee watchdog on taxpayer’s money used for investments.

The justified Red Card given to ABAE means that one of the NGB’S whose appointment is recognized by Sport England was considered to be a failure in administration and under the terms of the Red Card system could not be relied upon to invest the money suitably in amateur boxing.

Yet Schools ABA, a registered charity without a blemish on their character in over 50 years of their existence, and some 20 years before that time without charity status, is told it must be governed by the flawed ABAE.

People have been certified as insane for less madness.

Instead of seeking guidance and help from BBBofC or Schools ABA, the authorities chose to reawaken the comatose BABA and appoint Derek Mapp as the Chairman.

Boxing people are entitled to ask: who is Derek Mapp?

He is the former Chairman of Sport England who was relieved of his position without any official statement. Mr. Mapp was most disappointed at being sacked

but treble glazing was imposed in the Ivory Tower and silence ruled over the incident and no formal announcements were heard or made available.

However, the amateur boxing ‘family’ internal relationships became more insidious when Mr. Mapp was suddenly made a director of ABAE Ltd.

Mr. Mapp is no stranger to national newspapers headlines and The Independent on Sunday headline on Mr. Mapp in their edition dated Sunday 15^th referred to Nr Mapp as being a crony of Tony Blair

The emergence of BABA now means it is now recognised by Sport England as an amateur boxing authority with the responsibility to fund the elite squad of boxers, IN my view, this implies that the greater investment in amateur boxing by the taxpayer is now vested with BABA.

With two organizations given responsibility to making policy decisions at club level and with BABA as the purse holders this begs the question who is now the appointed NGB? Is it ABAE or BABA?

The London 2012 Olympic Games are of the greatest importance politically because the World spotlight will be firmly focused on UK. Therefore our athletes have to be high in the the Gold Medal winners league

.

With BABA charged with the spending therefore, iIf the old axiom is applied of: ‘He Who Pays the Piper Calls The Tune’ the answer has to be BABA.

The evidence on which to reply the answer to the question is BABA is now the NGB are the reports in national newspapers, which have not been rebutted.

Media reports said the decision to dispense with ABAE appointed director of coaching Terry Edwards is a decision by BABA and its Chairman Derek Mapp.

If Mr. Mapp was appointed to bring peace and stability to amateur boxing at club level the manner in which the replacement for Terry Edwards was dealt with is like an episode of Fawlty Towers, with apologies to Basil and Mrs. Fawlty.

Without, it would appear, speaking to Richie Woodhall the highly respected former World Boxing Council Super Middleweight Champion; boxing Coach and TV commentator, his name was paraded as the replacement for Terry Edwards – and Emmanuel.

This was very useful because it had the temporary effect of cooling the fire of the media who strongly support Mr. Edwards but it was a lull before the storm because it appears the first decision by BABA Chairman Derek Mapp has opened the flood gates of combustible fuel onto the situation because Richie Woodhall has come out and said there is no way he would consider taking on the role.

"Nobody has contacted me, certainly I am not in the frame and I rule myself out of it. I wouldn't take it if they offered it me, mainly because it's a full-time post and I've got a great career in television with Setanta and the BBC and I wouldn't stop that for anything. So I'm out of it."

Meanwhile BBBofC and Schools ABA go about their business without problems and have a clean bill of health with regard to financial matters. The satisfaction that Schools ABA is giving to Schools and education authorities is very impressive and yet neither New SABA nor BBBofC has received a penny of taxpayer’s money.

When the so-called NGB, ABAE, decided to arbitrarily disenfranchise SABA there was no meeting arranged to discuss any problem.

Pre 2006 Schools ABA survived by running the Schools ABA Championship an annual championship that developed many Olympic qualifiers, including four in Beijing, and from donations made by well-wishers. Without any government funding that survived.

However, prior to the disenfranchisement ABAE with despicable cunning set-up a rival championship and decided to run their cadet championship at a date close to the regular date of the Schools ABA Championship.

Schools ABA realised this would create to much pressure for the then limited of number of school age boxers and were not prepared to impose this hazard upon vulnerable youngsters.

ABAE adamantly refused to change their date, so due to their concerns Schools ABA were forced to cancel their championship and lose their main income.

ABAE were told the championships were the main income for Schools ABA and allowed the association to survive. The pleas were ignored.

.

There was zero democratic procedure and in the manner of a dictatorship the decision was made to ‘outlaw’ SABA and they were disenfranchised as an associate of ABAE. The fact this behaviour was made in violation of an agreement made when the formerly independent Schools ABA allowed itself to come under then umbrella of ABAE was ignored.

Is this the way a National Governing Body is meant to behave? Of course, it is not and the treatment of Schools ABA by the so-called ‘NGB’ of boxing has been shameful.

The loyal people who had kept SABA together under such trying circumstances finally decided they had to re-group or SABA would be forced out of existence.

I was invited to become Chief Executive and I reasoned that as all future Olympic champions would be former School pupils this made Schools the ‘nursery’ of talent that had to be seriously developed.

I have experience in promoting businesses, international boxing promotions and international wrestling but none of this prepared me for the skullduggery and trench warfare that takes place with in amateur boxing.

How the many, many decent people in amateur boxing tolerate this behaviour is another Rubic Cube..

I concluded Schools ABA had to learn from the mistakes made with ABAE and with help of dedicated Schools ABA people like, Dudley Savill MBE, Comdr. Rod Robertson MBE, Tony Cesay and Frank Collinson the first task priority had to be to build an infrastructure that could compete in modern sport.

This was not without complications because it meant SABA people that had given years of service would need to be replaced.

Situations like this are never pleasant but if SABA was to survive it had to change or expire. Finally agreement was reached to form a worthwhile human resource infrastructure capable of competing in modern sport.

My first appointment was Tony Cesay as Ethic Liaison Officer. Tony is a former ABA National Champions and highly respected by people in sport and commands the respect of politicians and young people.

Eventually a completely fresh Human Resource group was carefully assembled.

Only the most suitable people were recruited. There were no ‘musical chairs’ rearranged appointments or jobs for the ‘old boys’. Square pegs do not fit into round holes, so each person invited to join New SABA was carefully selected and they are all unpaid volunteers.

The result is it would be very difficult to match, let alone beat, such an amalgamation of maturity, youth and experience in any nationwide sports government. Compare it to any other amateur boxing association and the better difference is startling.

Both ABAE and BABA were asked to meet with representatives from New SABA. Neither one acted upon the invitation. WHY?

Yet, Derek Mapp was described by a spokesperson for Sport England as a person, "Focusing on the job of developing grassroots sport in England".

To focus on developing grassroots sports and not meeting with New SABA is akin to a wheat farmer not planting seeds.

With such blinkered thinking driving amateur boxing is it any wonder it is in a parlous administrative state.

New SABA has the most impressive human resource group in, probably, all

the medium and smaller divisions of sports association. They are people

with vast experience in boxing including administration, coaching, and

businessprocedures.

I feel privileged to be part of this dedicated and outstanding group.

We have first class connections with the most powerful people in World

boxing and are able to reach-out to people for help that is denied to others.

It is with personal satisfaction that I am able to state that not one person in

pro’ boxing, including the reputed most hard nosed, I have spoken to did

not want to help amateur boxing and, in particular, New SABA.

There is passion within New SABA to make available the benefits young

people would gain from the disciplines demanded by the sport of boxing

and allow the tenets of boxing to ease the uncontrolled violence on urban

streets caused by the build-up of unreleased pressure cooker style force..

ABAE has been threatened with legal action by Mr. Edwards and with his services as Director of Coaching no longer required it is highly likely Terry Edwards and ABAE will now have a catch-weight contest at The Royal Courts of Justice in The Strand, London, for a costly judicial review.

It is difficult to understand the thinking by whoever is responsible for setting-up BABA.

When Derek Mapp was sacked as Chairman of Sport England , the ‘musical chairs syndrome was put into action and he was appointed a director of ABAE Ltd.

This in itself was a surprise announcement because Mr. Mapp was not recognised as a known boxing person but obviously that is not a prerequisite for Board membership of ABAE Ltd.

The first decision making by Mr., Mapp as Chairman of BABA is to appoint Kevin Hickey, who was ABAE Head Coach in the 1980’s and has been retired from active participation in amateur boxing administration for some years, probably over ten years.

If the appointment of Derek Mapp is confusing, his decision to install Kevin Hickey as OIC of Coaching is even more baffling. It really is a return to all our yesterdays but without historical value.

What does Chairman Mapp believe Kevin Hickey is able to do in 2009/12 that he

did not do in the 1980's?

ABAE has been in a parlous state for a number of years. If the value of

reinstalling Kevin Hickey as OIC coaching and the preposterous naming of

Richie Woodward as the likely successor to Terry Edwards when Richie

says he had not been spoken to, is an indication of the judgment of

Chairman Mapp then it could mean amateur boxing is in for a rerun best

described by the title of the Woody Allen comedy, Play it Again, Sam, and

replacing Sam with Derek and ABAE with BABA.

Or will it be Bye, Bye, BABA with little time lost?

Whatever, it is difficult to understand how all this is going to improve amateur boxing and allow our best prospects to be prepared for London Olympics 2012.

The situation developing in amateur boxing is worsening, if that is

possible. Reports are coming into Boxing Action that must not be allowed

to pass

without investigation by Sport UK. If Boxing Action is aware of these added serious problems then surely the authority has knowledge of them - or have they?.

If any authority is unaware of these serious problems and cares to contact Boxing Action then we will pass on the information.

The London 2012 Olympics are less than three and half years away. No

further time must be lost in ensuring stability and efficiency at club level in

amateur boxing if the British boxing team is to prove successful and bring

credit to their country in 2012 and thus justify the taxpayer’s multi million

sterling pounds investment in amateur boxing at club level.

In no way must the widespread reported shambles be replicated that were

allowed to overtake the British boxing team at the Beijing Olympics in

London 2012 Games.

For the 2008 Beijing Games the largest number of British boxers in history,

eight qualified and at least four Gold medals were confidently predicted by

boxing experts would be won.

Instead just one Gold Medal, Silver and a Bronze were secured. Ironically

the Gold and Silver were won by two of the lesser fancied British boxers.

Instead of hitting the headlines with success stories the World media

reported on the British boxing team shambles that became a daily

occurrence and had to be acutely embarrassing to the UK.

Favourite to win a Gold Medal Frankie Gavin for GB made the long journey

to Beijing only for it to prove his warning was proven to be correct and was

unceremoniously put on the earliest flight home. So, after months of

training his reward was a long flight to Beining and back.

Have those responsible for such emotionally cruel behaviour no sense of

decency and understanding.? The answer has to be NO!

With emotions running high AE decided to discipline the youngest member of the squad for an alleged offence they admited was trivial that, according to media reports happened before the Games commenced

With such inexplicable bad timing by ABAE is it any wonder Billy Joe failed to reproduce his best form and was eliminated early.

He was advised to turn professional. He has now signed a professional contract with Frank Warren..

The view of Boxing Action is that Billy Joe would have won an Olympic Gold Medal in 2012.

If amateur boxing is to rise from the ashes of despair it will be done by responsible people; not wishful thinking nor wing and a prayer decisions without experience of the complexities of the sport of boxing and have to be heavily dependent upon hope.

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Sport England's Derek Mapp forced to quit

But today senior Tories are demanding an inquiry into the appointment following an Independent on Sunday investigation into his links to senior Labour politicians.

Mr. Mapp, himself a former Labour councillor, has twice given the Deputy Prime Minister and his wife, Pauline, the keys to his luxury holiday apartment in Majorca. Mr Prescott, who appointed Mr Mapp head of the East Midlands Development Agency (Emda) in 1998, paid a market rent for the apartment in exclusive Port d'Andratx.

Mr Mapp also has extensive links to Richard Caborn, the sports minister. Mr Caborn, the Deputy Prime Minister's closest political ally, told the IoS he has known Mr Mapp for "more than 30 years". The two men first met during negotiations over a brewery in Mansfield, he said.

Mr Mapp, who made a £3,000 donation to Labour two years ago, made his fortune in public houses and a chain of nurseries. In 1996 Mr Prescott was a guest of honour at the opening of a pub in Newark, Nottinghamshire, owned by Mr Mapp's firm, Tom Cobleigh.

Cherie Blair, in her professional capacity as a QC, represented Mr Mapp's Leapfrog nursery business in a planning dispute with Northamptonshire County Council in 1998. A Conservative councillor later expressed surprise that such a senior barrister was involved in a "pettifogging dispute", usually the preserve of "the local jobbing solicitor".

The presence of the Prime Minister's wife at a local planning hearing might be explained by the fact that Mr Prescott's daughter-in-law, Ashlie Prescott, was a solicitor in the Hull firm Gosschalks that reportedly handled Mr Mapp's legal affairs. Mr Mapp and his wife attended the wedding of Jonathan and Ashlie Prescott in 2002.

As head of the Emda, Mr Mapp is credited with persuading Formula 1 to continue holding Grand Prix events at Silverstone after Bernie Ecclestone had threatened to pull out. Labour was forced to repay a £1m donation to Mr Ecclestone shortly after the 1997 election amid concerns it had influenced a decision to exempt F1 from a ban on tobacco advertising.

Officials from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport insist that the appointment of Mr Mapp to the two-day-a-week, £32,000-a-year job was made "on merit" and was carried out in strict accordance with rules laid down by the Office for Public Appointments. The department refused to release the minutes of the meeting of the assessment panel or name its members.

However the IoS has learnt that of five applicants two were recommended to Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport: Sir Andrew Foster and Derek Mapp. Sir Andrew is a former chief executive of the Audit Commission, a board member of Sport England and the author of a major report on athletics in the UK. Ms Jowell chose Mr Mapp. Her decision was then approved by Tony Blair. Chris Grayling, shadow transport minister, called on the Government to publish all relevant paperwork to prove that it was "above board".

Hugh Robertson, shadow sport minister, said: "The Government should have recruited someone of the very highest quality for Sport England - not simply looked around the Labour Party for someone who might put party loyalty before sport."

However, Mr Caborn accused the Tories of mischief-making, insisting that Mr Mapp had proved his worth during two terms as head of the Emda. A spokeswoman for Sport England said Mr Mapp was "focusing on the job of developing grassroots sport in England".

A press release on the appointment, slipped out on a Friday afternoon before the Conservative Party conference, was, unusually, not forwarded to the Press Association. It was reported, without comment, in the sports pages of only two newspapers the following week. The release said that Mr Mapp is a "keen follower of sport and is a particularly avid supporter of rugby league and the Warrington Wolves. He also enjoys football and golf."

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Sport England's Derek Mapp forced to quit

By David Bond
Last Updated: 2:05AM GMT 30 Nov 2007

Derek Mapp fired a bitter parting shot at the Government last night after he was forced to resign as chairman of Sport England in a row over the future direction of the funding body.

Mapp, who was appointed last October to the £32,000-a-year, two-day role, quit after a showdown meeting with James Purnell, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, on Wednesday night.

Although Mapp insists he was willing to push through reforms at Sport England, Purnell told him that he did not believe he was fully behind his plans to shift the organisation's resources away from active pastimes, such as jogging and walking, to more traditional sports.

"I am bound to say I think it's unfair," said Mapp, a millionaire who made his money in the brewing industry. "I was mandated to produce an agenda which I was delivering on but now that has been changed and I have been dumped on.

"This is a big change and a lot of people are being fed by the current system. I was just warning James and his advisers to be careful. He is the boss but it was my job to warn him about this about turn. He took that as a sign that I was not supportive of him.

"He has been impetuous in taking this decision and has not consulted with as many stakeholders as he should have done. He is clearly much more of an autocrat than a man of consensus."

In a statement, Purnell's department confirmed Mapp's resignation but noticeably did not pay tribute to Mapp's 13 months in charge.

Instead, Purnell announced he had appointed Richard Lewis, the former executive chairman of the Rugby Football League, to carry out a full review of Sport England's funding priorities.

He had already told Mapp in a meeting on Nov 14 that the organisation, which distributes £238 million a year to grassroots sport projects, would have to re-focus on community sports, a directive backed up in a letter on Nov 23.

Although Mapp says he was starting to deliver on his pledge to get two million more people off the couch and taking part in physical activity by 2012, Purnell believes the job of tackling obesity should be financed by the Department of Health.

That, he says, would free up more money for sports' governing bodies to develop a world-class community sports legacy - one of the key pledges London's bid team made when they won the right in July 2005 to stage the 2012 Olympics in London.

Purnell and his advisers, however, were dismayed to find Sport England's money for governing bodies was being slashed to help pay for the spiralling costs of staging the Games.

He said: "We should not be cutting sports' money when we have the Olympics coming."

The Lewis review is due to be concluded next March just before the next three-year spending round for Sport England is announced in April. An interim chairman will be appointed in the next few weeks, the Government added. ~

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Boxing: Amateur game badly bruised by fiasco of Edwards' sacking

Another medallist to go pro as sweet science turns sour despite Beijing success

By Alan Hubbard, Boxing Correspondent
Sunday, 18 January 2009

Things have moved swiftly since we revealed last week that, days after being awarded an MBE, the Great Britain Olympic boxing coach, Terry Edwards, had been handed his P45. On Monday, Edwards' No 2, Dave Pocknall, quit saying he could not work under the new programme being put in place for the elite squad in Sheffield, while Richie Woodhall, the former world champion wanted by the British Amateur Boxing Asso-ciation as new head coach, declared himself a non-runner, saying the treatment of Edwards was "shocking".

A further blow to the future of one of Britain's most successful Olympic sports is that the super-heavyweight David Price, 25, is the latest member of the Beijing squad set to turn professional, joining fellow bronze medallist Tony Jeffries with the promoter Dennis Hobson. Featherweight Joe Murray and light-welter Bradley Saunders are also considering offers. With gold medallist James DeGale, world champion Frankie Gavin and Billy Joe Saunders making paid debuts for Frank Warren next month, the 19-year-old flyweight Khalid Yafai is the only member of the "Magnificent Eight" of 2008 likely to go on to 2012.

The treatment of Edwards may be decisive in Price, his team captain in Beijing, opting to shed his vest. The 65-year-old was sacked by Derek Mapp, chairman of the BABA, the new umbrella body, who has recalled Kevin Hickey, 67, a former Olympic coach but out of boxing for two decades, as performance director. The decision has been widely condemned. Hickey started his role on 1 January and met Edwards, who worked under him over 20 years ago, on 5 January. Three days later, Edwards was gone. Kelvyn Travis, a friend of Hickey who trains Audley Harrison, was placed in temporary charge of the elite squad.

Last night, Richard Caborn, the former sports minister who is president of the ABA, the English part of the BABA, spoke for the first time about the developments, saying Edwards' departure was inevitable because "he had taken us as far as he could". He said: "Look, Terry is a star, a bloody good coach, and we are immensely grateful to him. But it's time to move on. Amateur boxing is being restructured and it needs a fresh approach. He is 65 and we do not feel he has the technicalskills to meet these new demands. We have to become more professional".

You cannot get more professional than, over eight years, masterminding a record number of Olympic, world and European medals. The reason for his dismissal goes far deeper. The former London cabbie has never taken kindly to interference from the blazers,and the ABA, an organisation riven by petty jealousies and financial disorder, have them in abundance. Some of the infighting would have done credit to the Thrilla in Manila.

The relationship between Edwards and the chief executive, Paul King, has not been harmonious, and some club coaches were unhappy at the priority given to the development of the elite squad. But if performances in the ring were unparalleled, behind the scenes things were chaotic, with rows and a string of unpaid bills. Edwards once had to put the boxers' accommodation expenses on his credit card.

Beijing brought matters to a head. He was criticised when Gavin, the best gold-medal hope, failed to make the weight and flew home. Then the day before DeGale, Price and Jeffries boxed in the semi-finals, details of a sensational suspension for Billy Joe Saunders for what the ABA admitted later was "a minor offence" were leaked to a national newspaper, along with a dossier of alleged misdemeanours by British boxers. It was a thinly veiled attempt to undermine Edwards.

Understandably, the boxers felt they were battling not only their opponents but their own governing body. "They tried to sabotage us," said DeGale, and Woodhall has hinted at why he wants no part of the amateur scene: "There were people out there who wanted to scupper and destroy the squad."

Following an ABA board meeting on Thursday the position of King has been "redefined", according to Caborn. He will concentrate more on administration than performance.

Edwards is not alone in predicting that Britain, which he once said "could be the new Cuba", will now struggle in 2012. It is clear Mapp and Caborn have to sort out an unholy mess. Whatever boxing's equivalent of an own goal is – punching themselves on the nose, perhaps – the blazers have delivered it. But Edwards might argue it was more a blow below the belt.

Punching their weight

Terry Edwards: Head coach since 2000. Led Britain to unprecedented number of international medals. Regarded as father figure by squads.

Paul King: Chief executive of English ABA. Has overseen huge rise in popularity in schools and clubs. Member of world governing body IABA.

Derek Mapp: Millionaire businessman, now overlord as chair of BABA. Resigned as chair of Sport England after row over Olympic legacy.

Richard Caborn: President of ABA and former sports minister who accused Olympic boxers of "biting the hand that feeds them".

Keith Walters: Retired school janitor who chairs English ABA and has been an Edwards supporter.

Kevin Hickey: Ex-GB Olympic coach brought back after 20 years by Mapp as BABA performance director.

Kelvyn Travis: Once fired by ABA for hitting fellow coach; Hickey put him in temporary charge of elite squad.

Alan Hubbard

ABA, an organisation riven by petty jealousies and financial disorder, have them in abundance. Some of the infighting would have done credit to the Thrilla in Manila.

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