Fights broke out at London's Victoria Station one day last week while a large crowd stood by and watched. But it was quite legit. Young boxers scrapped in a ring on the concourse to publicise a joint initiative by Network Rail and Sport England, who have invested £35,000 ($54,000/€40,000) to assist London Amateur Boxing Association with the training of coaches and teachers in clubs and schools.

Among the 30 from four London clubs enthusiastically swapping punches were kids aged from ten upwards, a healthy indication of how boxing is enjoying a genuine legacy from the Olympics.

How ironic, then, that this week England's best schoolboy boxers, and their coaches, have been prevented from competing in the European Championships in Dublin by a blanket ban imposed on the Amatuer Boxing Association of England (ABAE) by world governing body AIBA over an alleged technical breach of regulations.

It seems a spiteful move which surely harms only those whose interests AIBA is supposed to nourish-the boxers. And one which its President, Dr C K Wu, who aspires to head the International Olympic Committee, should be embarrassed, indeed, even ashamed.

Did anyone in AIBA's hierarchy give a second's thought to the disappointment of those youngsters who had trained hard for months, their parents who had saved up to pay for the trip and the coaches and trainers who had put so much into preparing the kids for a tournament that might have been the highlight of their sporting lives. I doubt it.


A call from angry lady named Saphire Lee, secretary of England's Eastern Counties Amateur Boxing Association, who had a number of schoolboys in the contingent, sums it up. "Please tell this Dr Wu that these kids are devastated, distraught," she says. "Some have been in tears. They had been looking forward so these Championships so much and they don't understand why someone should be playing play petty politics with their lives!" Nor me.

Message delivered.

I understand the ABAE had even tried to get permission for the team to participate under the banner of the British Olympic Association, but this was declined.

If AIBA were intent on punitive action why didn't they simply suspend those individuals they maintain had breached their rules instead of clamping down with this unnecessarily vindictive ban which hits only the boxers themselves.

The Patron of the Schools ABA is the Labour Peer Lord Tom Pendry, himself a former Services boxing champ, who assures me he won't let the matter rest. Nor, I suspect, will Britain's Sports Minister Hugh Robertson.

It is a pity AIBA did not have a presence at Victoria Station where they would have witnessed just how much boxing means to so many youngsters, and what a force for good it is in our society.

For instance, Network Rail is teaming up with the London ABA to educate youngsters across the capital about railway safety. The partnership will combine sport, recreation and fitness with information about staying safe on the tracks and the importance of never taking chances on the railway.

Over the next 12 months more than 800 young people will take part in Network Rail and London amateur boxing events in schools across the city.

Every youngster taking part in the scheme will be given a workbook - written by boxing coach Q Shillingford - was recently named Amateur Boxing Community Coach of the Year - which includes boxing information as well as vital safety messages which will help them stay safe on the railway.

Such initiative is to be applauded but what a travesty that this stupid ban should put a dampener on it.


At the same time, across the city, Anthony Joshua, whose Finchley Amateur Boxing Club coach Shaun Murphy was among those encouraging boxing's "railway children" was formalising his decision to turn pro with Eddie Hearn's Matchroom organisation.

The defection of Joshua, currently British boxing's biggest asset, to the professionals will be as much a body blow to Wu as to Team GB. He must feel aggrieved that London's Olympic super-heavyweight champion has elected to take the orthodox route into the professional game, rejecting overtures to join his fledgling APB (AIBA Pro Boxing) which launches shortly.

Wu had ardently wooed Joshua, hoping he would become a flagship fighter in a revolutionary tournament which offers substantial prize money and is an integral part of his grand design as head of AIBA (now known as the International Boxing Association), which controls what used to be amateur boxing, ultimately to open up the Olympic Games to all professionals as long as they compete under their jurisdiction.

It has not been a good week for Wu, for an even bigger setback is the shock move by arguably the world's finest amateur, the Ukrainian Vasyl Lomachenko, also to reject APB and team up alongside Manny Pacquiao in the American promoter Bob Arum's Top Rank organisation.

The double Olympic and world champion was the stellar attraction in last season's World Boxing Series (WSB) and AIBA were planning a massive marketing campaign around him for his APB debut.


Some consolation is that Fred Evans, the 2012 welterweight silver medallist, has joined fellow Welshman Andrew Selby, the European flyweight champion, in APB, whose formation has disaffected African, American, British and many western European boxing federations as, with WSB, it appears to be offering a fast-track to the Olympics to the detriment of countries whose boxers do not compete.

Presumably had Selby and Evans been English they would be subject to the AIBA ban and, if still in place, would be barred from appearing in in APB. Crazy or what?

But Joshua, echoing the sentiments of Luke Campbell, the bantamweight gold medallist and now his Matchroom stablemate, says of APB: "It's new, it's not solid yet. There's no TV exposure, and if I'm going to be fighting as a professional I might as well do the real thing."

Such sentiments will not please the autocratic Wu who earlier this year arbitrarily removed the word "amateur" from boxing's lexicon. All national associations have been requested to remove the A-word, including the Amateur Boxing Association of England which so far has not done so.

And last week it once again felt the wrath of Wu, already displeased by Team GB's withdrawal from WSB where AIBA are understood to have subsided the franchise by some £1.8 million ($2.7 million/€2.1 million), AIBA suspended the organisation for what it termed "a serious breach" of their regulations as a result of Sport England's intervention in the development of ABAE's new Constitution.

Until this is resolved English boxers are effectively banned from competing in all international events, including the World Championships and Commonwealth Games. .

ABAE chair Richard Caborn has now formally submitted a 60-page rebuttal of AIBA's allegations to their Disciplinary Committee. He tells insidethegmes he hopes the issue can be resolved next week before more young British boxers are deprived of the opportunity of international competition.

Three years ago AIBA took similar action after Paul King, then ABAE's chief executive, unsuccessfully challenged Wu for the AIBA Presidency.

Intriguingly, King is now back in the thick of things. He helped orchestrate last week's event, and has has raised some £300,000 ($460,000/€345,000) for the London ABA, again working in tandem with ABAE President Keith Walters, who received an OBE this year for his lifelong contribution to the sport.


And Wu now finds himself squaring up to to boxing's other King. "I am shocked and appalled," roars the 82-year-old Don of the fight game from his Florida eyrie, his famous electric -shock hair standing even more on end at the thought of it Wu's intention to take over world boxing in all its forms and professionalise the Olympics.

"This proposal is not only implausible but harmful, immoral and highly dangerous. While in team sports such as basketball professionals and amateurs competing against each other at worst can result in an embarrassment in boxing a professional fighting an amateur in the Olympics could result in a injury, even death."

But Wu remains unfazed, declaring: "It has always been AIBA's mission to govern the sport of boxing worldwide in all its forms."

Actually there is much to admire in Wu. One respects his courage, drive and determination even if his ultimate cause is misguided.

Of course he is right in believing that ideally boxing should have one umbrella body instead of the WBC, WBA, IBF,WBO, WBU, IBO and his own AIBA (aka IBA) etc juggling together like pieces of minestrone in an unpalatable alphabet soup. But disparate commercial interests dictate this can never happen.

In many aspects he has been a power for good, ridding the sport of corruption, notably in the notorious judging system, bringing Cuba into WSB and getting women's boxing Olympic status.

And I am all for letting them punch-for-pay. But instead of fighting this inevitably a losing battle with the pros he should be working with them..

Wu wants to "positively impact society" by seeking sport's top job as the next President of the IOC, "I am ready to step up. The thought and concept to develop the IOC and Olympic movement is the core principle of my candidature."

Wu says that if his he is successful, he will promote education as a way to combat the scourges of doping, gambling, match-fixing and violence in sports.

Well, good, luck with that.

The 66-year-old Taiwanese tycoon, who professes to be an Anglophile, has a big fight on his hands if he is to be crowned king of the rings, as well as the ring, and playing pugilistic politics with kids' dreams won't help his cause among the IOC sceptics.

Alan Hubbard is a 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 Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire