The organisers of a boxing event meant to have taken place on Friday intend to sue the police for up to €20,000 damages after the event was cancelled at the last moment over security concerns.

The Boxing Superman II contest was to pit Maltese-Scottish fighter Scott Dixon against Remo Arns of Germany, as well as featuring a number of other local and foreign pugilists. The venue was the Independence Arena, with the event getting under way at 8pm.

But according to organiser Abner Abela, he learned about the revocation of the permit about an hour before the event was due to start, leaving about 700 people clutching tickets ranging in price from €15 to €25.

Mr Abela said the organisers would now be suing the police, claiming losses of between €10,000 and €20,000.

The decision to revoke the permit was based primarily on security concerns, Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit told Times of Malta.

He said the decision was taken in the morning, contrary to what the organisers had claimed.

I learned about revocation of the permit about an hour before

He conceded, however, that a day earlier the police had given the go-ahead for the event.

Asked what led to the U-turn, Mr Zammit said he had been “deceived” by the organisers “who expected to organise such a large scale event in the space of a week”.

As soon as he learned about the scale of the event and the “lack of security measures in place” he decided it had to be cancelled.

He was also not at ease with having open-air boxing fights where children could witness this “violent sport”.

However, the organiser claimed that such an objection had only been raised at the 11th hour. Still, they had made arrangements to have the area cordoned off with netting so as to conceal the view from the outside, Mr Abela said.

“However the police were still not happy, since they claimed that the stage was visible from the area near the MCP car park.”

The police, he charged, started to make unrealistic requests including the erection of a circus-like tent and to have the seats bolted to the ground.

Such conditions, he insisted, should have been made clear in the first place.

The commissioner pointed out that he was not ready to compromise security with half-baked measures. “What if a fight broke out and the crowd started to hurl chairs?”

What if a fight broke out and the crowd started to hurl chairs?

Mr Zammit added that no adequate plans were presented on how to evacuate the area in case of an emergency. Other shortcomings included the lack of traffic arrangements.