Platini raps "swindlers" over Euro hotel prices
Reuters - Thursday 12 April 2012, 12:46
"Bandits and swindlers"
are undermining Ukraine's Euro 2012 preparations by pushing
accommodation prices up to exorbitant levels, UEFA president
Michel Platini said on Thursday.
Hotels in Kiev, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Lviv, the four
Ukrainian host cities, have hiked prices in some cases more than
10-fold.
Talking to reporters during a visit to Lviv, 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 euros to 100 euros
to 500 euros from one day to the next," added the president of
European football's ruling body. "That is just not done."
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich this month ordered his
government to investigate price hikes and ensure hotel rates are
at an "economically reasonable" level during the championships.
"We will be preparing to the last night and will welcome [guests and participants] the way it should be done," Yanukovich
said in a statement on Thursday.
The cheapest Lviv hotel listed on UEFA's championship
website as available for the Germany-Portugal match on June 9
charges 195 euros per night. For the Ukraine-Sweden match on
June 11 in Kiev, offers start at 104 euros.
A tent camp set up 35-km away from Kiev plans to charge 30
euros per night.
Ukraine, tournament co-hosts along with Poland, has invested
billions of dollars in Euro preparations and hopes to gain a
return in the form of increased tourist traffic.