You are wing - pay

You are wing - pay. Football tourists, guests of the Euro 2012 championship are forced to pay for the service of extremely dubious quality. And completely inadequate prices. Mistakes in the organization of the Polish-Ukrainian Euro have investigated The New Times

Ukraine and Poland were not ready for such a large -scale event as the European Football Championship. Ukraine to a greater extent, Poland is less.

Formally - everything is not so bad. There are almost no complaints about stadiums and airports with train stations in Donetsk, Wroclaw and Gdansk - everyone here managed, although not without overlays. There were problems with the field at the National Stadium in Warsaw, when it turned out that the lawn did not elemently withstand loads. But the field in Donetsk was in an amazing state even after a clockwork and storm, because of which Ukraine-France interrupted. Still, the brand new areas cost the organizers hundreds of millions of dollars, and the total cost surpassed $ 2 billion.

But the matter is not at all in stadiums and airports.

The main problem is, as in Russia, roads. Not everyone managed to build, so by car from Warsaw to Gdansk or Wroclaw you need to go 5-6 hours, although it was planned that this time would be half as much. The reason is simple - tenders. Contractors constantly played a decrease to get a contract, and when they won, they realized that the declared prices below the cost. So there was no longer any sense. That is how local residents explain that the roads from Warsaw to Gdansk and Wroclaw were unprepared.

They also did not have time to hand over the new metro line in Warsaw. And at the National Stadium in the Polish capital, on the opening day of Euro 2012, builders wanted to strike. They dissuaded them with difficulty, paying debts on the eve of the starting match.

When, at the first press conference of President UEFA Michel Platini, for an hour of communication with the media, there were only two or three questions about football, and everything else about the organization of the tournament, this did not surprise anyone. Platini first calmly, and then with more visible irritation he sent his colleagues to organizing committees, repeating like a mantra: everything should be fine. But the spells did not help.

Housing question

The monstrous prices for housing in Ukraine and constant household problems were amazing even melancholy Dutch. Almost the main topic of discussions of the fans is housing. No one expected that almost the entire private rental sector would be in the hands of the dealers and prices would take off an order of magnitude.

Here is an example: usually a room in Donetsk in a small private hotel in the season is about 200 hryvnias (750 rubles) per night. During the championship, the owners set it for 500 hryvnias (1900 rubles), but the resellers themselves bought housing and then posted ads on the Internet: 3000 hryvnias (11250 rubles or about $ 400) per night. For comparison: in Kyiv, in the capital, on the New Year 2011, the night in a five -star hotel cost a little more than € 500.

The British, for example, did not understand at all: why they pay such money for a regular private apartment, given that in any European country, a chic room in a decent hotel can be rented for this price for this price. But in the Ukrainian hotels, by the way, there were no rooms, and those that remained - cost several times more than apartments. Otherwise, it cannot be called madness. The cost of renting apartments for the entire period of the championship began from € 4.5 thousand in Warsaw - and to € 10 thousand in Kyiv. It is hard to imagine who can afford such costs.

The fans who went to campsites were also forced to fork out - € 30 per night; The tents flowed, people had to spend the night in cars.

Another problem that I had to face is the Internet. It seems that without it it is simply impossible to imagine modern life. But the fans could not find free wi-fi points in cities-there were simply no camps in camps, as a rule, for a fee only for a fee, and journalists did not understand why the free Wi-Fi Euro 2012 works in press centers, but does not work on the rostrum, in the press conferences and the mixed zone, where it is really needed.

Complex logistics of movements from one arena to another, long distances between them, 1-2 frames of metal detectors when inspection on the day of games, queues for 20 minutes, volunteers who do not speak English-all these are trifles, but they added negative emotions.

A separate article is security. The clashes of the police and the Polish fans on the day of the Russia-Polsha match using rubber bullets, tear gas and water bodies showed that the local law enforcement agencies did not count on similar riots.

But still, the European Championship has become a holiday, thousands of happy people, experiences, emotions, beautiful and fascinating football-all this was. In the end, the stadiums and airports will remain Poland and Ukraine, how much their content will cost - already the business of the future. And organizational little things will certainly be forgotten, only the game and the result will be remembered. The main thing for Russia is to draw conclusions from all mistakes. And properly prepare for the 2018 World Cup.