Champions League final: Hotels Price Hike Scares Away Madrid Fans

Zidane celebrates with the trophy after winning the UEFA Champions League in Milan.

1,000 tickets for Saturday’s Champions League final against Liverpool bought by Real Madrid fan have been returned as spiralling accommodation and travel costs prevent supporters from travelling to Kiev.

Aleksander Ceferin, UEFA President disclosed that the tickets would instead be put on sale for local fans in the Ukrainian capital the tickets could not be resold to Liverpool fans for security reasons.

With some hotels charging up to 100 times their standard rates — Liverpool said they had complained to the “highest levels” of European football’s governing body.

Grigoriy Surkis, Ukrainian UEFA vice-president lambasted criticised the altitude of hotel owners looking to make a quick money from the clash between the two European giants, who have won the competition 17 times between them.

“I am not disappointed, I am furious… I think it is a disgrace for the capital, where individual hotel owners did not give everyone a chance to come here by raising the prices not ten-fold, the way it happens in other cities, but nearly a hundredfold.” he told Nigeria News.

About 1,000 Liverpool fans also face the prospect of being stranded in England after a number of charter flights were cancelled due to a disagreement between a travel company and aviation authorities in Kiev over the size of the aircraft.

However, Moore criticized the infrastructure in Kiev, which hosted the Euro 2012 final, as not fit for purpose.

“They just don’t have the airport infrastructure and the hotel capacity to cope with an event of this size and there isn’t another major city within real hitting distance of it,” he told the Liverpool Echo newspaper.

“It’s not only affected Liverpool fans but Real Madrid fans too. There will be lessons learned from this. Rest assured, I’ve raised this at the highest levels of UEFA.”

Istanbul’s 76,000-capacity Ataturk Olympic Stadium was named as the host for the 2020 final on Thursday, while next season’s final will take place at Atletico Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano.