Sweden to keep pro boxing ban

STOCKHOLM - Sweden's minister for sport says the country plans to keep its decades-old ban on professional boxing as it seeks to regulate more tightly all forms of contact sport.

Sweden is one of the few countries, along with Cuba and Norway, to ban pro-boxing on health grounds.

A new law is being proposed by the Justice Ministry which introduces a system of permits for sports which involve hitting someone's head.

"We have had a ban on professional boxing for 30 years and we will retain it," said Sports Minister Bosse Ringholm.

"This is rather a question of an expanded ban which will include other contact sports where the participant risks his health," he added in a statement about the proposed new law.

The bill would involve contact sports having to meet health rules on protective equipment, having clear rules and for a "knock out" to mean the sportsman not be allowed to continue the fight or take part in other competitions for a certain period.

Ringholm said well-organised contact sports which had tight safety rules could continue. Anyone found arranging a fight without permission could get six months in prison, with fines for participants, the draft law said.

Written before many martial arts gained popularity in the West, Sweden's anti-boxing law did not stop other events such as K1 fighting galas, where kung-fu masters fight sumo wrestlers.

Ringholm was quoted by local news agency TT as saying the new law would in practice stop K1 events and mean that professional boxing would still not be allowed. However, the law does not provide a list of which sports would get a permit.

The head of the Swedish Boxing Federation was hopeful that pro-boxing fights could be arranged.

"Before, it was completely excluded, but now it is a question of applying the law and of how the sport can adapt itself," Federation head Bettan Andersson was quoted as saying by TT.

- REUTERS