Friends of Boxing identify problems in the sport

Poverty and lack of adequate equipment have been identified as responsible for the poor results of the country's amateur boxers at international arenas.

Additionally, the ganging up of both amateurs and professionals in the same gymn under the same coaches have been sited as part of the causes for the lack-lustre performance of amateur boxers in competitions.

These came to light at a forum mounted at the Eurotel Hotel in Accra by the Friends ,of Boxing held at the weekend.

Led by the chairman of the Ghana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) , Mr Eddie Duplan, the forum noted that mixing amateurs and professionals gave no chance for the separation of methods of "scoring" between the two categories of boxers.

"Since modern methods of scoring in amateur ranks defers from that of professional boxers the nation's amateurs box as professionals and therefore fail to satisfy ring officials inn tournaments", it was discovered.

Tracing causes of downward trends in the sport, the forum agreed that indiscipline arising from unruly behaviour at tournaments scared away sponsors and thereby starved boxing of not getting credible sponsors.

In order to safeguard the interests of sponsors, the forum asked that Parliament should legitimise the instrument guaranteeing tax rebates for sponsors since its present loose form does not favour sponsors.

Alternatively, the forum encouraged private sponsorship in order to win the assistance of corporate bodies.

The forum asserted that it was unreasonable to expect government to solely fund sports including boxing.

In this connection, it was suggested that the Department of Social Welfare in concert with the Ministry of Youth and Sports should assist with the provision of equipment for gymns to answer their civic responsibility to their communities..

Tax exemption for imported boxing equipment was al so identified as a boost ,for the development of boxing.

Mr Solomon Nortey, Proprietor of Eurotel Hotel, said boxing needed the highest attention as a means of raising the image of Ghana which until recently boasted of one world champion in every decade.