Inside Lines: Sky falls in on Maloney even though heavy Price is right

After ditching Ricky Hatton, whose illustrious Hitman fight career helped build their reputation as the prime boxing channel, Sky have KO'd fellow promoter Frank Maloney, who learned last week that after 22 years they are not renewing his contract.

It seems an odd decision, as Maloney has one of the hottest properties – the unbeaten British heavyweight champion David Price, a big-hitting Klitschko-sized Liverpudlian rated as Britain's best hope for a world title. He is next due to fight in the United States. However, Maloney has been told Sky still want to screen his future Price fights – but only under the promotion of Eddie Hearn, son of the ubiquitous Barry, whose Matchroom organisation seems to be headed for UK exclusivity on the channel. Before the 28-year-old Price won the British title with a stunning KO of Sam Sexton last month, Maloney revealed he was in contract negotiations with cost-cutting Sky. "But I don't kid myself," he said. "If Price gets hit on the chin I probably won't get a call." He did – but to his amazement it was one telling him there was no new deal. Last night a Sky spokesman would say only: "We wish David Price well in his next fight and hope to show him again on Sky Sports in the future." A more likely scenario is that Maloney will link up with the BoxNation channel, whose subscriptions have rocketed with their promotion of the "outlawed" Haye-Chisora scrap next month.

Playing board games

As we forecast here last week, there was a verbal punch-up at Wednesday's British Boxing Board of Control AGM, resulting in 150 licence-holders signing a petition demanding the resignation of the president-chairman, Charles Giles, and some senior stewards. They have called for an extraordinary general meeting to discuss a reconstitution of the board and for Lord Coe "or someone of that stature" to replace the former Midlands meat trader Giles. One of the leading "rebels", promoter Frank Warren, said: "I am not looking to bring down the BBBC but we need a board with strong leadership, transparency and a better understanding of the sport. I am sick of the way boxing has been administered for the past few years by a small clique who are out touch with the sport and the TV landscape. It operates as a closed shop with antiquated rules and regulations. The board needs a respected figurehead with vision and Lord Coe would be ideal." I understand Coe, a former board steward, would be seriously interested after fulfilling his Olympic duties.

Going forth for fourth

The British Olympic Association chairman, Colin Moynihan, has done his utmost to ensure that Britain's Olympians go to the Games in style and comfort. Team GB House in Stratford, where they can escape for a spot of R&R, is quite stunning. But whether they will come fourth in the gold medal table is, he says, "a big ask". Moynihan reckons: "It is going to be very tough. We may have set our expectations too high." Not for the first time, this brings him into conflict with the man who set those expectations, Peter Keen. The architect of UK Sport's "no compromise" policy, Keen, recently awarded a CBE, has suggested GB might even finish third, thanks to the Lottery funding which they administer. He blogs that Olympic athletes who succeed without central funding are "the exception rather than the rule". Presumably this wasn't a veiled dig at taekwondo's go-it-alone Aaron Cook, who seems to be paying a heavy price for opting out of their funding system.

Hair we go

After his hair-raising goal against Ukraine, Wayne Rooney is rumoured to have tested positive for a performance-enhancing rug.

insidelines@independent.co.uk