The state of Polish football
As we slowly approach the Euro 2012 championships, which should be the best thing ever to happen to Polish football, the Polish football industry is busy getting an extremely bad name for itself. Even worse, as the interest builds the bad name is not confined to inside the Polish borders.
Mihir Bose is a respected journalist and the BBC’s sports editor. He writes a kind of blog on their website and is usually a good read. He was obviously invited to come to Poland, or just took it upon himself to pay us a visit. This should be great publicity for the sport in Poland but, unfortunately for Polish football, Mihir was born in India and so his article entitled “Polish football’s racism problem” is not exactly complimentary.
Add to this the recent hardening of attitudes against corruption in the game, fuelled by the admission of Dariusz Wdowczyk, former trainer of, among others, Kolporter Kielce, Legia Warszawa and Polonia Warszawa that he had bought matches in which Korona Kolporter Kielce were involved. The fall out of withdrawn sponsorship, including Orange the main sponsor of the entire league, might be hard to recover from.
The game is, without doubt, getting what it deserves, it is just a pity that all this dirty washing was not dealt with years ago. Is there time to clean it all out before 2012 or is this just going to give Platini even more ammunition to move 2012 somewhere else?
The companies should stop their sponsorship for the next 5 yrs or so and all the young talents sould do it like africans and “grow” in western football clubs.
Polish football is a joke. Even in 3rd world countries there are better conditions to play and watch football than in Poland.
guest
Tuesday, 8 April, 2008 at 8:30 pm
ps: not a joke .A shame.
guest
Tuesday, 8 April, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Scatts the article on the BBC is very interesting, thanks for the link. My wife is half African, half Polish and has suffered terrible racial abuse, particularly as a youngster growing up. She was repeatedly beaten by racist thugs and learnt where and when to travel with great caution – mothers of children at school would tell their children not to talk to her because she was black!
A few weeks ago in Warsaw we were handing out some of the Never Again friendship bracelets (sponsored by Nike) to youngsters and one 8 year old told my wife that he could not touch a black person because his father had told him he would catch Aids from them – absolutely shocking.
However in fairness attitudes are changing and this is one of the reasons we decided to move to Warsaw, when we could have lived anywhere, sure my wife still gets strange looks, particularly from older people, but I tell her that’s because she looks like a mix between Halle Berry and Angeline Jollie and they recognize beauty!!!!!
Of course we avoid any chance of being near a football ground on match day, the sheer fear in my wife when she hears football chants brings tears to my eyes…..this is certainly a problem that needs the highest attention and equal press support to the noise given to stadia, roads and railroads, the Never Again publication is not a good medium, real concern needs to start at the Government level, the Polish FA, within the football clubs, TV stations and mass media – there is a lot of work to do – but scant attention given to this sad part of the Polish mindset.
Datblog
Wednesday, 9 April, 2008 at 5:41 am
[...] East writes about the sorry state of Polish football: problems include racism and corruption. Posted by [...]
Global Voices Online » Poland: Football Racism and Corruption
Wednesday, 9 April, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Sitting in a sport news business and knowing the BBC-style approach to journalism I must say I was shocked to hear comments in the country’s largest sport newsroom that Mr Bose’s report was unprofessional, biased and manipulated. The story did not catch any attention except for these comments, neither was it followed up by the polish media. I think it’s part of the problem: polish media see the world differently and they’re not by any standards in line with what the West deems crucial. Racism is everyday life in football, also in Poland and perhaps more so in Poland and elsewhere in Europe. And literally nothing is being done to cope that, as there are problems that threaten the whole business, like corruption. I’m looking forward to other European media taking on racism and making it number one story on the social side in the run-up to Euro 2012.
Spike
Tuesday, 15 April, 2008 at 10:20 am
[...] 9 May, 2008 · No Comments Further to my earlier post about the state of football in Poland. The Polish equivalent of the Football Association have [...]
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Friday, 9 May, 2008 at 8:21 am
[...] The state of Polish football [...]
Euro 2012 update « 20 east
Saturday, 12 July, 2008 at 8:44 am
RE:state of Polish football…The atmosphere in other countries never gets a mention, yet you all get so emotional (and disturbing) for what!! This is an emerging economic powerhouse and a stable place to host a tournament.Poland is doing its thing for the football world (or just you in England) People like us have a good time watching the football being belted by gerries …next time gerries,next time!!.This world lacks lovers that make a difference’ Lets not be poorlacks by dissing cities,towns, the country that never started a war or made moral rot so profitable!Now,back to the smartly organised gerries…JUST KIDDING!
Krzysztof Czekanska
Tuesday, 10 February, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Well, these are interesting thoughts. I think they are true. However, everything is
relative and ambiguous to my mind.
AlexSorent
Wednesday, 8 April, 2009 at 2:24 pm