Your article on the resurgence of boxing highlights an irrational, immoral and dangerous funding strategy that encourages people to risk their health (Off the ropes, and back into the ring – boxing makes unlikely comeback in schools and clubs, 16 November).
You quote Rebecca Gibson of the Amateur Boxing Association saying that "the sport had benefited from the success of fighters such as Amir Khan and a jump in funding from £50,000 in 2005 to £4.7m this year". The government funding, via Sport England, is a huge amount of money; but the figure becomes positively offensive when you consider how much financial support is provided for charities working to help people rebuild their lives after brain injury.
Headway is one of those charities: through our network of 110 groups and branches across the UK, we provide support and rehabilitation programmes. This year, our total public funding was less than £300,000 – a pittance in comparison to the millions spent on promoting a dangerous and reckless sport.
The article's subhead states: "A decade ago there were calls for the sport to be banned on safety grounds. Now even its harshest critics have been won over." This is a gross misrepresentation: its critics are as determined as ever to see this dangerous sport banned.
The report also quotes Tessa Jowell, the Olympics minister, saying: "Twelve years ago I considered boxing almost too dangerous to be considered as a mainstream sport. I was public health minister and the British Medical Association quite regularly at that time called for boxing to be banned." Jowell needs to know that the BMA, like the World Medical Association, still believes boxing should be banned, due to the cumulative effects of repeated blows to the head.
Brain injury can be devastating. It can mean losing the life you once led and the person you once were, and victims often have to relearn the most basic of life skills – such as walking, talking, thinking and feeling.
Jowell said that boxing "gives [young people] self-esteem, it gets rid of aggression, yet at the same time is a highly disciplined sport. We know it can be a way of disengaging kids from gangs, carrying knives, from low-level crime and high-level antisocial behaviour." But the notion that boxing is the only sport that instils a sense of discipline is short-sighted, to say the least. If you are to succeed in any sport you need discipline.
And there is a long list of boxers – both amateur and professional – who have fallen foul of the law in the past year. Most have been arrested for, or accused of, violent crimes or assaults. So much for discipline.
You also state, "Boxing is now available in 34% of secondary schools in England", and that "5% of primary and 26% of secondary schools have a formal link with an accredited amateur boxing club". This is disturbing. The increasing number of people taking up boxing will lead to a greater demand for the services of charities like ours. I can only hope that, when the time comes, this increased demand will be met with increased funding.