Gideon Quartey, Vice Chairman of the Greater Accra Amateur Boxing Association (GAABA) has appealed to government to give amateur boxing the needed support to develop in line with the support given to football.

He said a form of support and recognition will help produce great boxers to step in the shoes of past heroes like Roy Ankrah, Floyd Robertson, the late Eddie Blay, D.K. Poison, Prof. Azumah Nelson, Nana Yaw Konadu and Ike Quartey among others.

Mr Quartey said this at a media briefing on Friday to discuss the problems facing the Association and advice received from the National Sports Council (NSC) to replace non – functioning executive members of the association to make the body more effective.

It came to light that only five of the 10-member Executive Committee of the Association are actively involved in its affairs, an issue the Vice Chairman attributed to frustration and other in-house factors militating against them.

The Vice Chairman also outlined lack of infrastructure and finance as some of the major problems affecting the progress of the Association.

Mr. Quartey said the absentee members will be replaced after the last quarterly championship scheduled for Friday, December 22 following the approval of the NSC in their quest to drive the association to its desired destination.

Despite the difficulties, the Association, he said had chalk modest feats such as the creation of a website, ww.gaaba.org, , accreditation cards for all boxers and coaches, desktop computer for efficient data keeping as well as trophies for all the eleven weight classes for the quarterly championships.

Mr Quartey also tasked the media to investigate the criteria of selecting boxers into the national boxing team, the Black Bombers as well as the contributions for National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for boxers during fights adding that the press should give boxing the same level of reportage as the other sports to help them develop.

The bell rang three times in memory of the late Eddie Blay, former Chairman of the Association.

Source: GNA