Polish football faced its latest crisis Monday.
Polish football faced its latest crisis Monday. After the national federation was suspended by its court-appointed chief for allegedly failing to tackle corruption in the domestic league.
The move raised further questions about Poland’s ability to co-host the 2012 European Championship with Ukraine.
The governing board of the Polish Football Federation was suspended after a ruling by the Poland Olympic Committee’s arbitration court. The court named Robert Zawlocki as temporary chief of the federation in response to a critical motion submitted by the Ministry of Sport.
Zawlocki, a lawyer who once worked for the federation’s disciplinary committee, announced he had suspended the current board and canceled elections for Oct. 30 to choose the federation’s new leadership.
The vote will take place once “order was restored” in the organization, Zawlocki said.
Minister of Sport Miroslaw Drzewiecki said that a probe into the federation’s functioning has found “numerous violations” of the general law and of the federation regulations.
He said the probe showed that the composition of the governing body was not in accordance with the regulations, while the board has also failed to keep its own promise to hold an extraordinary electoral convention and has failed to take efficient steps to fight corruption.
All these violations “prove an inability by the board to run the federation efficiently and to carry out their duties,” Drzewiecki said.
“Taking into consideration the scope and the nature of the violations … the minister was obliged to … move for a suspension” of the governing board and to ask for a temporary manager to be appointed, Drzewiecki said.
Suspended federation president Michal Listkiewicz said he was surprised by the decision.
“I don’t know what it’s all about,” he said, adding he had assurances from Drzewiecki that the organizing team preparing Euro 2012 “will not be affected by all this hubbub.”
But Zawlocki, the temporary manager, supported the negative assessment of the board’s performance.
“Legal chaos reigns in the federation right now, and it has to be brought into order,” Zawlocki said.
In 2007, then sports minister Tomasz Lipiec suspended the board and appointed an acting chief after accusing the federation’s leadership of failing to tackle corruption. FIFA harshly criticized that action, and refused to recognize the appointment.
There was no immediate reaction from FIFA to Monday’s decision and it was not immediately clear what impact Monday’s move might have on Poland’s right to co-host Euro 2012.
Zawlocki said he sent a letter to UEFA president Michel Platini “assuring him that the organization of the 2012 European Championship will continue without interruption,” PAP news agency reported.
Zawlocki said Platini had not yet replied.
Prosecutors in Wroclaw launched an investigation in 2005 into match-fixing in Polish football, and have charged about 120 people - including federation members, coaches, referees, players and club officials - with rigging matches in the top domestic leagues. Twenty-nine clubs have been implicated.
After public and political pressure, Listkiewicz announced in April that the governing board would resign and hold new elections this fall.
Also, police arrested 27 people in the western city of Szczecin after violent clashes between supporters of two first-division football teams.
Footage broadcast on Polish state television showed supporters of Wisla Plock scaling a fence to get into a section reserved for fans of host Flota Swinoujscie.
