Advice for frugal Euro 2012 fans

Sleeping on benches or by the river is advice football fans who can’t afford pricey hotels in Poland are hearing ahead of the Euro 2012 football championships, which kick off June 8 in Warsaw. The campaign sprung up on social-networking site Facebook with the “Kibice spiom gdzie chcom” or “Fans sleep where they want” page, which has garnered over 12,500 “likes” since May 25. Tips there on the best open-air crash pads include beaches and railway stations or benches under magnolia trees. So far, city and public transport authorities are fans of the idea, but it has gotten a thumbs down from the Warsaw metro and Euro 2012 organizers. “We wanted to appeal to city authorities and local residents to be open and understanding toward the fans,” campaign co-organizer Katarzyna Tyska told AFP. They hope Poland’s four host cities will let sleeping fans lie as many Poles can ill afford hiked-up hotel prices during Euro. Co-hosting the 16-nation, quadrennial football showcase this June with Ukraine, Poland has matches in capital Warsaw, the Baltic port of Gdansk, Wroclaw in the southwest and Poznan in the west. While the “sleep rough” campaign is for everyone, it applies most to out-of-town Poles who plan to spend just a night or two in the host cities. “We assume foreign fans will be staying longer, so the option of spending several nights under the open sky would be tiring for them,” Tyska said.