Honestly do you really think that stopping the sale of alcohol will result in the stop of this idiotic behavior? It may reduce it somewhat, however, these same people will end up drinking mass quantities of alcohol prior to the game in bars nearby. Also, I believe some of these same idiots would behave in a similar fashion even without the alcohol. I suggest booting these fans as soon as they begin acting rowdy. I also agree that the professional players are at fault too. They are the professional athletes, and should act accordingly. Leave the security to take care of the rowdy fans.
It's not "underdevelopment" what causes fan rioting, as superjuly says, but passion, as Craven says. I would add another thing: tradition. Some sports are traditionally brawly; others are not... figure skating vs. ice hockey.
In Mexico, The very same person who can get drunk at the baseball games and be funny, can get drunk at the soccer games and be anything but funny.
Our hooliganism problem is not really very strong, because the Football Federation has managed to tackle any problem before they get bigger.
How is the matter resolved? Not by banning beer (in "classic" soccer games here, beer is restricted and not sold after minute 15 of the second half), but by punishing the team.
A brawl, an object thrown to the referee or a rival player, an invasion of the field... all those are punished here with home vetoes. The next game or two you play as local, either you go to a neutral stadium at least 300 kilometers away or you play in an empty stadium. For tougher problems, the team may also lose the game on the board.
This way, irresponsible fans -drunk or not- know that there is limit, beyond which they harm their team, responsible fans -who are a majority- turn potential wrongdoers to authorities and team owners pay more attention to security... a home game in an empty stadium or renting a faraway stadium means a big loss of money.
The reason why I used South America and other "underdeveloped" countries as an example was because what I had in mind was the fact that these places in fact do have a very large rate of sport related riots. That could have some relation to the level of education and authority power in their country. Culturally-wise these places don't have as much respect for governamental rules as compared to the U.S., for instance.
I hope you understand where I'm going with this... Somehow I don't seem to be able to organize my thoughts in a way that is well understood (majority of times) and I usually get my mind going so fast that I leave some main point of thoughts out and end up sounding a bit vague.
ehhh On a second thought; I couldn't care less about whether they'd ban alcohol from the sporting events or not.
