KYIV: UEFA president Michel Platini has joined the increasing tense squabble over logistics at Euro 2012 by accusing  “bandits and swindlers” of ramping up accommodation prices to exorbitant levels.

Reports within Ukraine have claimed that hotels  in match host cities Kyiv, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Lviv have hiked prices up to 10 times the standard rates.

Platini, on a visit to Lviv, warned that  “bandits and swindlers who want to earn a lot of money” could intimidate fans into staying away. He added: “You cannot raise prices from €40 to €100 to €500 from one day to the next. That is just not done.”

Earlier this Ukraine’s state President Viktor Yanukovych ordered government ministers to investigate price hikes and ensure hotel rates are at an “economically reasonable” level during the championship.

The cheapest Lviv hotel listed on UEFA’s championship website as available for the Germany-Portugal match on June 9 charges €195 per night.

Platini has also urged both Polish and Ukraine co-hosts not to relax their guard over stadium security.

Speaking in Poland, he  said: “The world isn’t as nice as I’d like it to be so of course we need security, people to protect the stadiums, to look out for the hooligans who’ll come, and that’s why the Polish government has a security system in place. If there’s one thing that always worries me, it’s security.”

Poland’s interior ministry has said that more than 9,000 officers would be deployed specifically to ensure security, and not just in the four host cities. Besides Warsaw, matches will also take place in the Baltic port of Gdansk, Poznan in the west and Wroclaw in the southwest. Many fans are also expected in Krakow where England, Holland and Italy will set up training camps.

Poland has been cracking down on domestic hooliganism after long being  criticised for too law an attitude. Violence at last year’s domestic cup final prompted a temporary ban on away fans and wider imposition of electronic tags and stadium bans on hooligans.

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