NCS Won’t Fund Ali’s Drive For Record Fight –Minister

The National Sports Commission (NSC) threw out Nigerian boxer, Bash Ali’s, request for funds to actualise his World Boxing Championship fight.

Ali is pushing to have his name and Nigeria enter the “Guinness Book of World Records’’ if he can actualise his dream.

Ali had appealed for President Goodluck Jonathan’s intervention in helping him actualise his quest to make history.

He had also planned to establish five boxing academies and a sports equipment manufacturing factory in the country that would provide employment for the youths.

The boxer had planned to fight Britain’s John Keenton, on April 25, in Warri for a Cruiser weight title in his bid to actualise the objective.

He also made efforts to secure a venue in Nigeria for his World Boxing Championship fight against Gunn Bobby of the U.S. without any success, saying funding was his major challenge.

The Minister of Sports, Malam Bolaji Abdulahi, told newsmen in Abuja at the presentation of mid-term report for sports that “sporting funds’’ were made for amateur boxers and not professional boxers.

Abdullahi, who doubles as Chairman of the NSC, said government resources could only be deployed within established rules.

“We definitely want to help anybody who is our own and Bash Ali, especially is one of the greatest men that this country has produced, but there are rules that must guide everything.

“Government resource can only be deployed within the established regulations; if we get money for sporting activities; such money is for amateur boxing and not for professional boxing,’’ he said.

The NSC Chairman added that professional sports were normally private-driven and not government sponsored.