UKRAINE: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - UEFA President Michel Platini berates Ukrainian "swindlers" over Euro hotel prices on a visit to the former Soviet republic ahead of Euro 2012

Record ID: 860561

  • Title: UKRAINE: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - UEFA President Michel Platini berates Ukrainian "swindlers" over Euro hotel prices on a visit to the former Soviet republic ahead of Euro 2012
  • Date: 13th April 2012
  • Summary: SLATE INFORMATION
  • Embargoed: 28th April 2012 13:00
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  • Location: Ukraine
  • City:
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA4LBM0Q41YLY4TQZ81T743UPPZ
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  • Story Text: "Bandits and swindlers" are undermining Ukraine's preparations for the European football championship by pushing accommodation prices up to exorbitant levels, UEFA President Michel Platini said on a visit to the former Soviet republic on Thursday (April 12).
    Hotels in Kiev, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Lviv, the four Ukrainian cities hosting matches, have hiked prices in anticipation of an influx of fans, in some cases more than tenfold.
    Talking to reporters at Lviv's central football arena, Platini said "bandits and swindlers who want to earn a lot of money from this Euro" could keep fans away from Ukraine, which will host the championship in June together with Poland.
    "You cannot raise prices from 40 euros to 100 euros to 500 euros from one day to next," Platini said.
    "That is just not done. In any great country, and to me Ukraine is a great country, you can't just let people do what they want. You have to respect contracts and I hope that Ukraine will respect contracts which hoteliers have made, because otherwise people are not going to come. It's annoying to have made a lot of investment and then say to people that they can't come because there are bandits and swindlers who want to make a lot of money during this Euro. But that is for the Ukrainian authorities to explain, not UEFA, I have no power over that."
    Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich this month ordered his government to investigate the price hikes and ensure that hotel rates are at an "economically reasonable" level during the championship.
    Borys Kolesnikov, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the Euro championship, said on Thursday (April 12) the government would take appropriate measures within a month but provided no details.
    The cheapest Lviv hotel listed on UEFA's official 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 kilometres (21 miles) away from Kiev plans to charge 30 euros per night.
    Ukraine has invested billions of dollars in Euro preparations in the hope of getting returns in the form of increased tourist traffic.
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