“BANDITS AND swindlers” are undermining Ukraine’s Euro 2012 preparations by pushing accommodation prices up to exorbitant levels, Uefa president Michel Platini has said.
Hotels in Kiev, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Lviv, the four Ukrainian host cities, have hiked prices in some cases more than 10-fold.
During a visit to Lviv yesterday, Platini said “bandits and swindlers who want to earn a lot of money” could keep fans away from Ukraine.
“You cannot raise prices from €40 to €100 to €500 from one day to the next,” said the president of European soccer’s ruling body.
“That is just not done.”
Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovich this month ordered his government to investigate price increases and ensure hotel rates are “economically reasonable” during the championship.
“We will be preparing to the last night and will welcome the way it should be done,” he said.
The cheapest Lviv hotel listed on Uefa’s championship website as available for the Germany-Portugal match on June 9th charges €195 per night. For the Ukraine-Sweden match on June 11th in Kiev, offers start at €104.
A tent camp set up 35km away from Kiev plans to charge €30 per night.
