LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will review police powers to stop violent public drunkenness, fearing clashes surrounding Wednesday's UEFA Cup final in Manchester may hinder bids to host major soccer events, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.
The decision announced on Thursday followed fighting between Scottish fans and riot police in the centre of the northern English city after Zenit St Petersburg's 2-0 win over Rangers, resulting in 42 arrests with 15 police being injured.
A Russian fan was stabbed in the back at the stadium before the match although the wound was not life threatening.
"We do have laws that enable us to control drinking in public places where there is a risk of disorder and we will have to look at these laws for the future," Brown told his monthly news conference.
"I want to do everything to avoid us being put in a position where we might be at risk of an application, for example, for the 2018 World Cup not being acceptable because of this."
The fighting erupted when a giant screen showing the match to thousands of ticketless fans, many of whom had been drinking all day, broke down.
Fans were told where to find other screens around the city centre but a hard core remained and began pelting the broken screen with bottles before turning their attention to police when they arrived.
With England among the countries to have expressed interest in hosting the 2018 World Cup, the images of crowd violence and streets littered with broken bottles will do little to endear the country to world soccer chiefs.
"I think we've got to make sure we deal with these problems of football violence. We will be looking at this as a matter of urgency," Brown added.
