Thousands of Euro 2012 tickets unsold in Ukraine

WARSAW (AFP) –

A picture of Terminal D of the Boryspil International airport in Kiev. Some 10,000 tickets for Euro 2012 remain unsold for matches in Ukraine, UEFA says, with figures showing there are still seats for traditional crunch fixtures such as England’s opener against France on June 11.

Some 10,000 tickets for Euro 2012 remain unsold for matches in Ukraine, UEFA says, with figures showing there are still seats for traditional crunch fixtures such as England’s opener against France on June 11.

“There are still a few thousand tickets left,” UEFA spokesman Thomas Giordano told AFP. “It’s more or less 10,000.”

High accommodation prices and transport headaches have been blamed for a fall in the number of usually ardent England fans.

“It is hard to get flights to Kiev, with prices at a premium, while the distances between venues is huge and there is the cost involved in travelling those distances. The hotel prices have also been hugely inflated,” England’s Football Supporters Federation spokesman Kevin Miles told the BBC.

But Giordano warned against overplaying the issue.

“Overall we must be at around 99 percent now of all tickets sold. Because we had 1.4 million on sale. One percent left is not that bad, I think,” he underlined.

“In 2008, when we had finalised the sales of tickets to participating nations, we had more tickets left than this time around,” he said.

“So it’s no question that all the tickets will go this time. It’s clear”.

England’s Football Association was allocated some 7,500 tickets for the France match in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk and the same number for their June 19 game there against Ukraine.

For their June 15 match against Sweden in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, meanwhile, the allocation was 9,000.

But only 3,000 tickets were sold for each game through England’s official fan club system.

“When this happens, we offer the remaining tickets to the opponent, so they can take more. And then if there are still some available — obviously not in the same sector — which is the case, we put them on sale to the general public,” said Giordano.

Among the other matches which had yet to sell out on Monday were France’s June 15 game against Ukraine in Donetsk and les Bleus’ June 19 Sweden fixture in Kiev.

There were still tickets available for Holland’s June 9 match with Denmark and June 17 game with Portugal, both in the eastern city of Kharkiv.

In Ukraine’s fourth venue, the western city of Lviv, there were tickets for Portugal’s matches with Germany and Denmark, on June 9 and 13 respectively, and for Denmark versus Germany on June 17.

“At every single tournament, you always have several national associations who do not take their full allocation,” said Giordano.

“Maybe it’s being seen as a big, big story because it’s happening with England and it wasn’t the case before. But it changes from one year or another.”

Euro 2012 kicks off on June 8 in Warsaw — capital of Poland, where tickets are all but sold out — and ends with the final on July 1 in Kiev.