Fans from the East are the big spenders

euro-spy

Eastern European fans were, perhaps surprisingly, the biggest spenders in the first two weeks of Euro 96, swopping millions of US dollars for British pounds at foreign exchange bureaux.

"Russians and Czechs were joined by Croats, Romanians and Bulgarians at the top of the generosity league, cashing an estimated pounds 1.5m," according to the travel agents, Thomas Cook. They explained that eastern Europeans tended to travel with dollars, and dollar-to-pound business had jumped sharply since the fans had arrived in England. Bulgarians and Romanians had spent twice that of French and Spanish fans in Leeds.