Kiev - A senior Polish official on Wednesday said attendance for the Euro 2012 football championship could be lower than in previous competitions, and called for less five-star hotels and more camping sites for fans.

Poland and Ukraine are co-hosts of the tournament.

"We understand that 2012 will be complicated as there are two important events - Euro 2012 and the 30th Olympics in London," said Katajina Soberaiska, Polish Vice Minister for Sport and Tourism.

Both competitions are scheduled close together in the Summer of 2012. The football championship takes place June 9-July 1, the Olympics follow July 27-August 12.

"Euro 2012 might not be a hit for the tourist industry," she said, in comments reported by the Interfax news agency.

The Polish and Ukrainian government should therefore exercise caution when constructing infrastructure to support Euro 2012, both in scale and type, Soberaiska said.

"We have to be very careful about building hotels. We need to understand that the customer that comes for Euro 2012 is not looking for a four- or five-star hotel, but rather (we should) place special attention on lodging for youth, in part (by building) tent villages."

An expedient used in the Polish city Gdansk in the past to handle football fan overflow - cruise ships tied up at a city wharf - was one possible solution to an expected Euro 2012 lodging crunch in the two host countries.

Preparations for Euro 2012 are going forward with delays in Poland and Ukraine, with an acute lack of sufficient hotel rooms one of the most glaring problems.

Ukrainian officials faced with the prospect of hundreds of thousands of visitors during Euro 2012 are the worse off, as the former Soviet republic's hotel industry currently can handle only a fraction of the expected guests.

Poland's lodging industry is also in difficulties, with sufficient hotel rooms thought to be concentrated in the capital Warsaw, which is one of four planned Polish host cities.

UEFA officials late last month reviewed Polish-Ukrainian preparations and said the two East European nations would not be stripped of the event, but at the same time left open the question how many games would be played in either country. (dpa)