Boxing coaches appeal to Sports Company for helpSunday, March 14 2010
DISGRUNTLED boxing coaches, upset with the treatment meted out to them by the Amateur Boxing Association are appealing to the Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago for relief.
A spokesman for the group said yesterday he is appealing on his colleagues’ behalf to the Sport Company to step in and take control of their renumeration from the schools and community programme.
“We have been badly treated by the Amateur Boxing Association. Some coaches have been victimised while others have had their stipends witheld for speaking out,” said the coach who wished to remain anonymous fearing he could be sacked.
He said the Sport Company which funds the coaching programme should compile their own registry of coaches and pay them directly.
“We want the Sport Company to pay our stipends directly. We think that this makes better sense that through the ABA. It will relieve us from being used as pawns in the internal politics of the Amateur Boxing Association,” the coach said.
He also suggested should the Sport Company take up the suggestion, they will also help eliminate all forms of corruption associated with the programme.
“The Sport Company will also be able to properly monitor the programme to ensure that all the coaches are paid on time that the programme is effectively run and not used as a scheme to enrich a few,” he said.
He said the programme has been badly administered hence the reason why Trinidad and Tobago has not been able to produce amateur champions regionally or internationally despite the fact that $25 million of taxpayers’ funds have been spent by the Amateur Boxing Association over the past five years.
“Coaches have been wrongly blamed for the debacle. The Amateur Boxing association is to blame for doing the wrong things, putting focus on things that will not produce results.
“The Sports Company should step in and make sure that accountability and transparency is restored to the administration of amateur boxing and stop the gravy train in its tracks,” said the respected coach.
He said funds should have gone into building fully equipped gyms; setting up of programmes in schools which are properly run; and for the provision of attractive incentives to attract and keep boxers in the sport.
“Nothing like this has been done over the years. Gyms have been closing down left, right and centre. The Boxing Board has been clamping down on promoters who create jobs in the sport. And the Amateur Boxing Association are a law unto themselves encouraged by the Government,” said the aggrieved coach. He said over the years local coaches who are among the best in the region has been sidelined in favour of Vicente Martinez, a Cuban who came here on a short exchange programme but has remained in Trinidadf for the past ten years.
“He has an abysmal record with the national team and continues to be given a prominent place to further push us down the road to oblivion. Martinez has produced absolutely no results for us yet the authorities are blind to his failure,” said the coach.
The coach appealed to Darren Millien to immediately take the bull by the horns and clean up the mess that the Amateur Boxing Association has created with regard to the future of the sport locally.
He made reference to the recent Annual General Meeting of the organisation which ended in chaos and confusion at the Police Mess Hall in St James when clubs were denied voting rights and club representatives were intimidated and bullied.
There were also serious discrepancies in the procedure followed by the officials in charge of the elections after concerns were raised about the “show of hands” method of voting.
“A lot of the coaches are uncomfortable with the show of hands. They feel they cannot exercise their choice without fear and really would like secret ballot. But the Amateur Boxing Association president Cecil Forde insists he wants to see who is voting for and against him,” the coach stated.
