THE earliest reports suggested the one definite winner to emerge from this year's UEFA Cup final would be Manchester.

Playing host to 100,000 travelling Rangers fans and a few thousand supporters of Zenit St Petersburg, the city and its officials basked in the good natured atmosphere.

Laws banning drinking in public had been relaxed, police mingled with fans and after hours of concerted drinking, only a handful of arrests, for mainly minor indiscretions had been made. Even the sun was shining. However, when a big screen in the city went on the blink just before the kick-off the organisers scored a horrible last-minute
own goal.

As frustration boiled over into violence, images sadly reminiscent of the more shameful episodes from football history began to overshadow the action on the pitch.

By the time the riot police had quelled the disturbance, 15 officers and two paramedics had been injured, 42 people had been arrested and Manchester's reputation for hosting major sporting events looked as tarnished as the streets strewn with broken glass and empty beer cans.

Fans blamed the city council for a lack of organisation, the police blamed a minority of thugs and Eddie Smith, managing director of Lightmedia Display, of Bradford, which provided all the screens blamed a "technical signalling problem". John Williams, an expert in hooliganism, believes once the trouble had been sparked, like a domino effect it was almost impossible to stop.

"What happened in Manchester is an example of frustration violence," says the University of Leicester professor. "The fans hadn't travelled with the intent of causing trouble, they wanted to watch the game. However, organisers of events like this have to have a fall-back plan for if things go wrong, they have to be able to manage unhappiness and sadly in this case that didn't happen.

"The use of big screens is generally seen as a positive move. It is a way of democratising a game which is increasingly seen as an exclusive club only for those with money. However, if somewhere like Manchester says to fans, 'Come spend your money in our city', they have to be able to provide the services fans expect. If they don't, it doesn't take a genius to realise that football fans who have been drinking all day and technology that doesn't work isn't a great combination."

In the wake of the violence, Manchester City Council has announced any thoughts it had of showing the Champions League Final between Manchester Utd and Chelsea have been scrapped, and British Transport Police have warned fans travelling to tomorrow's
FA Cup Final at Wembley they will not tolerate drinking on the Tube and trains.

Hosting high profile events is a lucrative business, but when things go wrong, the cost to the organisers isn't just financial, and many will now be wondering whether the chance to have their name associated with sporting excellence is worth the risk.

"There's little doubting the economic benefits," says Prof Simon Shibli of Sheffield Hallam University's Sport Industry Research Centre. "The hospitality sector does very well out of these events and there was talk even early on in the day supporters were offering complete strangers £10 for a can of beer because three supermarkets in Manchester had run out.

"However, what price do you put on the 15 police officers who were injured and the negative publicity which the city is now attracting? A private company may have provided the screens, but it is the city council whose reputation has suffered and that's not something which can be restored overnight.

"Whether it will dissuade other authorities from hosting an event on this scale remains to be seen, but at the very least it will act as a cautionary tale."

Big screens took off in Portugal during Euro 2004 and thousands of English fans travelled to Germany for the World Cup two years ago safe in the knowledge that if they couldn't secure tickets, they could get a seat at the next best thing.

Budget airlines have made foreign travel increasingly accessible and, despite what happened in Manchester, football, like any other business will always be run by the laws of supply and demand.

"We do have to put things in perspective," says Prof Williams. "In other countries the riot police would have been sent in much earlier and things would have got much uglier. There is no point calling for a ban on alcohol as the idea of an open air screening where fans couldn't drink just wouldn't work in this county.

"However, authorities do need to consider flexible policies where if things do start to go wrong, they have the powers in place to order shops and pubs to stop selling beer, and it is perhaps better to have the screens away from city centres, which makes problems with crowd control easier to manage.

"When you're dealing with 100,000 fans it only takes a small percentage to turn for things to get out of control, but it is important to remember that trouble was caused by a minority and not to tar the whole event with the same brush."