"Everything is being dragged through now. It's ugly. Someone should try and step in and resolve this because if they don't, you could almost see a breakaway association forming. There's a lot of unhappiness out there."
Those are the comments of The Irish Sun boxing correspondent Kevin Byrne on Off The Ball in the midst of his explainer of the current impasse involving the IABA, which administers Irish amateur boxing.
The current situation revolves around issues of team selection for the European Boxing Championships in the Ukraine next month, but also follows a period of upheaval in the months leading up to the Rio 2016 Olympics and since the Games.
In the full interview, Byrne spoke to Joe Molloy and Andy Lee about the issues at play and also discussed the effect of what is going on will have on the Irish boxers who will have an eye on upcoming championships and ultimately the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
"It is damaging to the boxers' chances of winning medals," he said.
"And at the European Championships they have to qualify for the quarter finals to reach the World Championships and this is disastrous preparation. If you don't get a few boxers through to the quarter finals, you're bringing a small team to the World Championships."
Lee said the situation "doesn't look good" overall for Irish boxing.
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