World Series of Boxing Indian Franchise to Call it Quits

India’s boxing franchise, TransStadia is set to discontinue it’s involvement in the World Series of Boxing (WSB) following reports of lack of funds and administration problems.

The Mumbai-based team, which bought the franchise last year, is likely to announce its decision of calling it quits after just one season in the event — a club-based part-professional league with winners in different categories getting direct qualification to the Olympics. The WSB is also sanctioned by the International Boxing Federation (IBF).

The franchise, which was to start its campaign this season against Dynamo Moscow on November 17, did not call up any of the boxers for any traiining, leading to speculation about the team’s future. “They just got fed up with the system which did not support the team one bit,” a boxer who was a part of the team, said.

“This year they did not have enough funds also. The budget had shot up and they were not prepared for that,” added another boxer.

None of the boxers who competed for the team last season have been given any official intimation as their contracts had expired for this year. The Fighters were to recruit new boxers for the upcoming season.

The federation, on its part, claimed ignorance of the pullout and no official came on record to speak on the issue. National coach GS Sandhu was also caught unawares by the development but felt if true, it was bad news for the sport.

“Participating in the WSB and the AIBA Professional Boxing is very important for the overall development of Indian boxers. We definitely need to compete in these events to excel at the world level because a lot of Olympic quota places are at stake here. If the Indian franchise is withdrawing than I would say it is a huge loss for Indian boxing,” he said.