THE UKRAINE IS CLEANING OF THE AREA BEFORE EURO 2012

The UEFA Executive Committee decided in 2007 to allow Poland and the Ukraine to co-host this year’s European Football tournament, because they never have before, so maybe they’d try to impress. Sixteen teams will compete at Euro 12 from June 8 through July 1 at the Donbass Arena Stadium in Donetsk, Ukraine, and so far it seems that everything will be fine, so long as the players and fans don’t mind stepping over thousands of stray dogs.

German Princess Maja von Hohenzollern has joined forces with animal groups and shelters in the Ukraine to raise awareness to the country’s terrible stray pet population, so they can start rounding some of these pooches up at shelters instead of sending a kill squad to start putting them all down. And while some stray dogs and cats aren’t nearly as bad as soiled mattresses, streets overrun with garbage and wild, diseased monkeys attacking people, it is still upsetting to know that people don’t care about giving pooches like these guys or this fella some help.

In other Euro 2012 news – so I can get my soccer post quota covered in one fell swoop – team officials from all over Europe are blasting Ukraine’s hotels for spiking prices to ridiculous levels, even for people with longstanding reservations. Obviously they’ve never tried to book a Spring Break in Daytona.


In response, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister pledged to take action.

Speaking alongside Mr Platini, Borys Kolesnikov said he would take appropriate measures within the next 30 days to solve the problem.

“It’s annoying to have made a lot of investment and then say to people that they can’t come because there are bandits and crooks who want to make a lot of money during this Euro,” Mr Platini said.

“You can’t change (the price of a room) from 40 euros (£33; $52) to 100 and then up to 500 just like that, from one day to the other, this just is not done,” he said.

(Via BBC News)

Maybe in Europe, but I tip my capitalist hat to the Ukraine’s hotels for playing hardball. Go ahead and change all the plugs, too.