Taylor slams Euro 2012 organisers

David Taylor, the chief executive of UEFA Events, has criticised the high costs in Poland and Ukraine ahead of Euro 2012.

Taylor claims some hotels in Ukraine are charging too much and will put off fans from travelling to Euro 2012.

“There are issues around the high cost of hotels in Ukraine, that is causing us some concern,” Taylor said.

“Of course UEFA cannot fix that ourselves, we don’t manage the hotels.”

“However, we do think that it is not a very good image to present, to try and charge as much as possible.”

“Some of the prices you might see on the websites for hotel rooms in Ukraine are way above what we feel is right.”

“We speak to the authorities, to the hotels and we try to ensure that they understand the importance of setting prices at a reasonable level so that in future years people will come to Ukraine, enjoy it and then come back rather than being scared off by extremely high prices.”

“As we know in Ukraine there are not so many hotels, so the prices in Ukraine will generally always be a bit higher than in Poland and this is an issue.”

Taylor also has concerns over the transport systems in both countries.

“For Poland we just want to make sure the transport issues are properly dealt with,” he said.

“Most of the teams are staying in Poland, I think 13 out of 16 teams are basing there. Poland’s infrastructure is generally better developed than Ukraine’s.”

“One of the thing we want to do is make sure the ticketing and transport is appropriately arranged and that is an issue for all the cities.”