Britain now has a heavyweight fighting its corner in the fight over a cornerman!

Insidethegames can reveal that Sir Craig Reedie, one of the prime architects of London's succcessful 2012 Olympics bid, and a member of the International Olympic Committee's executive board, has donned the gloves on behalf of the Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABAE) in the battle to overturn the ruling revived recently by global governing body AIBA which bars national coaches like Team GB's Robert McCracken from working with boxers during the Olympics and world amateur championships because of their association with the professional game.

Reedie has already had informal discussions with AIBA and is meeting their president, Dr C K Wu, a fellow IOC member, in Lausanne next week for further talks.

The former British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman tells me: "After talking with Richard Caborn [President of the ABAE] I made an appeal to the people I know within AIBA that whatever else they did, they should try to avoid penalising boxers in respect of London 2012 and on balance I think I was reasonably successful in that.

"I understand that Sam Ramsamy, of South Africa, who is also a friend of Richard's, has also spoken to them on the the ABAE's behalf.

"But we need to tread carefully here. I know C K Wu well as I am on AIBA' advisory board at the IOC and my impression is that he is a wise person who would not be vindictive.

"I did ask the secretary general, Ho Kim, why this rule has suddenly been rediscovered and he said that it has actually been there for some time.

"My understanding is that there are coaches associated with professional boxing working with amateur boxers in other countries as well as Britain.

"From my experience of international sports federations, the best way to deal with this situation is with reasoned argument.

"The ABAE should be saying that this rule has been dormant for years and has been applied against a perfectly innocent coach and that they are aware of comparable situations in other countries where this has not happened and perhaps the decision should be reconsidered. I think that is the approach that is probably best at this stage.

"I spoke to C K Wu at SportAccord in London [where the ban was announced at a small media gathering and reported first on insidethegames] and to Ho Kim on two or three occasions and have kept both Richard and Derek Mapp [GB Boxing chairman] in the picture.

"I would propose a quiet and logical approach. I am seeing C K next week in Lausanne and will have another word with him there and suggest that they could be running into a bit of difficulty here."

Current BOA chairman Colin Moynihan, a former boxing Blue at Oxford, who ironically was himself once suspended by the ABA for sparring with pros, is also quietly pitching in on Britain's behalf.

However the ABAE say they have yet to hear formally from AIBA about the ban and that chairman Keith Walters is still awaiting a response to his request for an urgent meeting with them to discuss the issue.

McCracken, who has achieved considerable success since taking over as Team GB's head coach and performance director, also trains WBC super-middleweight champion Carl Froch among others, and will be in the "Cobra's" corner when he defends his title against veteran American Glen Johnson in the Super Six Series in Atlantic City next month.


English-educated Taiwanese billionaire Dr Wu, who was a principal constructional figure behind the development of Milton Keynes, is a powerful leader who seems to have higher ambitions within the IOC and a sensible result of the dispute surely would be a good move for him diplomatically.

He has already had his pound of flesh over the ridiculously inept and ill-advised attempt by then ABAE chief executive Paul King to topple him, with King's own abdication.

I understand AIBA also want King banned from all involvement in international amateur boxing.

The ABAE, along with a dozen other allegedly recalcitrant national bodies, have been fined for what were considered irregularities in their dealings with AIBA. Surely that should be an end to the matter.

However amateur boxing's stormy waters have now been further muddied by the news that the world's leading professional trainer, American Freddie Roach, has been recruited to prepare the United States team for the London Games.

Roach, who has the world's supreme fighter, the magnificent Filipino Manny Pacquiao. and Britain's WBA light-welter champ Amir Khan in his stable at his renowned Wild Card gym in Hollywood, will coach American hopefuls there and at the US Olympic Training Centre in Colorado Springs.

US amateur boxing is in the doldrums and its recent Olympic record is appalling, culminating in only one medal, a bronze, in Beijing.

Yet this was a nation which, alongside Cuba, used to clean up. But the halcyon days of Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Leonard and De La Hoya running Olympic rings rounds the rest of the world are long gone. The US hasn't had an Olympic super-heavyweight champion since Tyrell Biggs in 1984.

That Roach, boxing's greatest guru since Angelo Dundee, has been hired to try and recapture those former glories is understandable. But he is a pro who works with pros, just like McCracken.

When I asked the AIBA how they felt about that situation I was told it was presumed okay, the ban only applying to them working in the corner during AIBA tournaments.

How daft is that? It is tantamount to allowing a master baker to create a cake and then bar him from putting the icing ion it.

As things stand it is boxing's equivalent of a Mourinho-like touchline ban for McCracken, who has done nothing – except his job.

And what if the US Amateur Boxing Association decide they want Roach in the corner in London? Would AIBA pick a fight with one of their most important constituent bodies, as they have the ABAE? A good question. One that would certainly be an interesting test case for the CAS (Court for Arbitration in Sport).

I find it astounding that Dr Wu who claims to be progressive, something he emphasises in his pro-friendly WBA series, with its prize money, no headguards or vests, pro-based judging and scoring approach, has seen fit to exhume such an archaic rule.

If he really does have the best interests of boxers at heart, and I am sure he has, should he not consider it wise to have the best possible expertise on hand to supervise them in what is the toughest and most dangerous Olympic sport of all?

And if that expertise happens to have been weaned in professional boxing, so what?

It is illogical. This is the 21st century, one in which the entire Olympics is virtually professional.

What AIBA should be doing is actually taking a more professional approach to make the Olympic tournament more attractive to TV audiences, as is happening with WSB.

The current Olympic scoring system, for instance, is a joke. You can have a boxer who lands one punch in the first round, runs for the rest of the bout and gets the verdict. With this system Ali and co might never have got their medals.

I happen to think that under Dr Wu, the AIBA have become one of the better - and certainly less corrupt - governing bodies in world sport

But having covered professional and amateur boxing for half-a-century I believe they are seriously out of touch on the issue by either forcing valued coaches like McCracken to abandon their professional links if they want to minister to their men, or not to be there at all when it really matters.

Let's hope they are professional enough themselves to realise this. Otherwise they are in danger of boxing themselves into a corner.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.