KIEV: Price hikes and cancelled flights are ruining the Champions League final for some fans two days before Real Madrid and Liverpool even kick off.

Some owners of hotels and hostels in Kiev have raised prices by more than 10 times for Saturday’s game, while the city’s two airports have been unable to accommodate a rush of extra charter flights.

That led to British travel operator World Choice Sports canceling three flights Thursday, leaving hundreds of Liverpool fans stranded.

“We have had Liverpool football club, police, UEFA and everyone at the highest levels of authority trying to resolve this,” the company said in a statement. “We have exhausted all avenues to try and get landing slots.”

Fans who arrived early were happy with Ukraine’s cheap food and drinks a beer can be bought in the center of the city for 50 hryvnyas ($1.90) but some were frustrated by travel and accommodation.

Davy Ryan and Mikey O’Leary, Liverpool fans from Ireland relaxing in town, said they spent 800 euros ($940) and 1,100 euros ($1,290), respectively, on travel. They booked a hotel in Kiev but it was cancelled and the owner hiked the price, they said.

“They had a stupid excuse, like they had no electricity for the weekend,” Ryan said. “Once they cancelled it, we went back online and the price was up to, like, 6,000 euros ($7,000).”

It worked out for Ryan and O’Leary, however, because they found another place to stay for 240 euros ($280) for four nights.

Liverpool head of club and supporter liaison Tony Barrett said he sympathised with fans over their plight.

“For those of you who get to Kiev, I hope it’s worth every penny and every ounce of effort that you have put in,” he tweeted. “For those who don’t — and there are already far too many in this position — I apologise for not being able to help you. Football without fans is nothing.”

There were signs that some Kiev hotels and apartment owners were dropping prices closer to the game, indicating that astronomical prices in earlier weeks hadn’t found takers.

Some Kiev hotels advertised three-star rooms online for as much as $2,000 a night as of Thursday evening and UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said that Real had returned 1,000 tickets after failing to sell them, adding the organisation had cancelled tickets sold on the black market.

The remaining tickets for the final in Kiev would be sold to locals and Ceferin ruled out selling them to Liverpool supporters on security grounds.

Real said 24,268 club members applied for their 17,000 tickets for Zinedine Zidane’s side’s third consecutive Champions League final and they were distributed after a ballot of club members.

But a number of supporters returned their tickets given the cost and the challenge of getting to the Ukrainian capital.

“Unfortunately security reasons prevent us from selling these tickets to Liverpool, it would be too much of a risk,” Ceferin told reporters after an executive committee meeting on Thursday in Kiev.

“We have a good and fair distribution system, 17,000 each to fans of Liverpool and Real Madrid. We distribute more than 70 percent of tickets to football fans and on the black market we have a system in place [to stop tickets being sold].

“It’s a big problem that we know about. We cancelled tickets that were on the black market....we are trying to do as much as possible. There are still people selling tickets and we are looking to correct that.”

The decision to award the final to Kiev was made before Ceferin’s election as president in 2016 and the Slovenian has already reintroduced a tender process with evaluation reports on cities bidding for finals.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2018