Boxing: Khan offered funding to remain an amateur

The amateur Boxing Association's development officer last night revealed details of the offer they will make to the Olympic Games silver medallist Amir Khan today.

The amateur Boxing Association's development officer last night revealed details of the offer they will make to the Olympic Games silver medallist Amir Khan today.

The 17-year-old's father Shah and agent Asif Vali had claimed they are only receiving second-hand information from the ABA and that, although Khan has wants to stay amateur until after the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, they have been given no choice but to listen to professional promoters.

But the ABA's Paul King said last night that with the aid of Sport England they are set to table an offer of £70,000 a year tax-free for the Bolton fighter to preserve his amateur status.

"It's a good offer - but it's the first we've known about it," Asif said. "We've not seen it ourselves and we've not received anything in writing."

Vali continued: "Amir's wish is to stay amateur - but there is pressure on us to speak to the promoters as well, we'll speak to anybody. Amir wants to go to the Commonwealth Games and to Beijing and we have to take that on board, because we will do everything we can to adhere to his wishes. But the ABA should come to us first with the offer so we can consider it - then we can go public on it together.."

Vali denied that the Khan camp are solely concerned with money. "We don't want Amir to be earning millions," he said,- we just want the ABA to firm up the offer in writing and we'll come back to them."

Elsewhere, Howard Eastman's tortuous career took another twist yesterday when it was revealed that his scheduled opponent in tonight's European middleweight title fight, the Spaniard Jorge Sendra, cannot fight because has shrapnel from a bullet wound in his neck and is unable to have a full medical.

The show in Nottingham will go ahead with the main attraction, the vacant British super-middleweight title fight between local boxer Carl Froch and Derby's Damon Hague.