Frank Collinson, general secretary of the Schools Amateur Boxing Association (SABA), who has been working to establish a form of contact boxing in schools in Plymouth and Manchester, told insidethegames that they had reached "an impasse".

After a meeting here with representatives of the DCMS and Sport England, as well as Mark Abberley, chief executive of the Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABAE), Collinson – a former amateur boxer with great experience of youth coaching – said: "We have an impasse.

"We have learned today that the DCMS and Sport England have written an edict forbidding contact boxing in schools.

"We have had a constructive discussion with the ABAE's chief executive, Mark Abberley, and now it is a case of us pursuing a dialogue with the DCMS through our National Governing Body.

"But at this present time, we have to accept the ruling.

"We can't continue with contact boxing at the moment."

Over the last three years SABA has worked with head teachers and physical education teachers to set up contact boxing under strict controls, and where children are involved in the judging and scoring process.

But their vision of boxing in schools is opposed by the "non-contact boxing clubs" currently set up in more than 1,000 British schools where the emphasis is on punching bags and doing other exercises such as skipping.

"We have been trying to transform schools boxing," said Collinson, who is a qualified PE teacher.

"We want to undo a lot of the damage that was done for 20 or 30 years when people said schools boxing was a dangerous sport, which is nonsense."

Luigi Leo, the SABA project manager on governance – who was also accompanied by SABA marketing manager Martin Campen – had spoken beforehand of his hopes that this meeting would be "the culmination of three years' campaigning", adding that having boxing without contact was like "swimming without water".

But for now, SABA's campaign appears to struggling against the tide.

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