Euro 2008 - Poland relent in FIFA row

Eurosport - Fri, 10 Oct 18:09:00 2008

Poland has removed a government-appointed administrator from the country's FA as part of an agreement to hold elections on October 30, FIFA said.

FOOTBALL blatter - 0

The move was part of a roadmap agreed by Poland to avoid sanctions and the potential loss of the country's right to co-host Euro 2012 after the sports ministry suspended the Polish FA board and put administrator Robert Zawlocki in charge.

FIFA, whose statutes prohibit government intervention in football affairs, and UEFA threatened to suspended Poland from playing October's World Cup qualifiers and staging the Euro 2012 finals with neighbours Ukraine.

The Polish government, which said it had suspended the FA board over corruption issues, backed down and agreed to return to the roadmap, originally drawn up in 2007 after a similar row.

FIFA said all parties at a meeting of UEFA, FIFA and Polish government representatives at FIFA's Zurich headquarters agreed on three points.

"The elections of the [FA] will take place on October 30, as scheduled," they said said. "The electoral process will be supervised by the Independent Electoral Committee which was created in 2007.

"Following the elections, FIFA and UEFA, together with the Polish ministry in charge of sports, will continue to monitor the situation of Polish football and will support and assist the newly elected leadership of the FA in order to improve the management and development of football in Poland, to help in the fight against criminal activities in and around football in the country."

Reuters

Comment 15 - 34 of 34

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  1. FIFA getting noisy into countries' affairs. Another stupid United Nations style set upon us!!

    From Half A Brain, on Tue 7 Oct 3:52AM

  2. To all doubters: how do you know Poland and Ukraine are behind schedule in preparations? Have you been there, checked personally? Don't think so. Please stop making false accusations.

    W all know FIFA and UEFA are corrupted. Think of polish FA as 100x more corrupted FIFA and you'll have the picture. Old, greedy and evil bunch of fat lazy s**kers. It desperatelly needs to be cleared out.

    From jerzylabuda, on Mon 6 Oct 2:47PM

  3. they should let someone selse host it my top five list of countrys are

    1.italy - has built up staduims already.

    2.turkey - after hosting champions league when liverpool won really well managed.

    3.spain - also has great staduims

    4.england - could but have over sports issues eg. 2012 plyimpics

    5.holland - very friednly tight security at matches

    From MUSTAFA A, on Mon 6 Oct 11:16AM

  4. the decision of suspending pzpn has not been made by the government but the independent PKOL tribunal. so i do not understand what fifa and uefa are talking about, its not about the polish goivernment. its about the money.
    and as for the preparations for the event: we have enough ppl from asia to do the work so dont worry about it plus we have just begun to build 2 new stadiums in warsaw and gdansk (plus two are currently being renovated:poznan and cracow).

    From tom, on Sat 4 Oct 9:58AM

  5. FIFA is wright. FA is independent and they have elections. Polish government should arrest president of FA and charge him in court if they have any proof, and FA would hold elaction for another president. Thats the way to fight coruption.
    If FIFA awards points to Cechs and Slovaks, they should award it to all other countries in the group.
    Poland is in Europe, they have laws, so they should act like Europeans. African countries for doing similar things were excluded from competitions.

    From dragan_m, on Sat 4 Oct 8:59AM

  6. Public prosecutor's office makes investigations about corruption against around 100(!!!) members of PZPN (FA) and Mr Listkiewicz still can't see the problem. :(

    From sznycelek1, on Sat 4 Oct 1:59AM

  7. 1) The organisation of Euro 2012 in Poland goes very well. The construction of all stadiums begins and for sure everything will be ready on time. These stadiums would be enough to host even the World Cup. The are enormous investments in infrastructure. Many hotels are being built, The risk is much much smaller than when the decision was made and UEFA also declares it. That's true that at the beggining there were many problems, but now everything goes quickly. I am sure that Poland and Ukraine are able to organise the best Euro ever.
    2) The corruption is the problem of polish football since I can remember. None of the goverments was able to fight this because FA is an independent organisation. Is not like that that polish goverment is against democracy or something, but it tries to heal polish football. Mr Listkiewicz is a director of PZPN (FA) for many many years and he never reacted to the bad corruption signals, fixing matches by players, referees, managers and so on. It is not known if he is involved in it but for sure he does nothing to help. So it seems like the only solution is to ged rid of him and to create the polish football association structures from the beginning. Even majority of the football fans with Prime Minister Tusk say that it is better to miss one World Cup but to clean the situation. Believe me that polish goverment is not crazy to risk that much without a reason. But it seems strange that FIFA is not helping to fight corruption...

    From sznycelek1, on Sat 4 Oct 1:08AM

  8. 1000 US DOLLARS THAT POLAND WILL NOT BE HOSTING

    From kos595, on Fri 3 Oct 8:29PM

  9. forgot another small detail PORTUGAL held the euro 2004 ALONE and not together with greece !they played greece in da final !

    From kjpaulo, on Fri 3 Oct 7:39PM

  10. replay to 21 .u dont no wot ur talkin mate .PORTUGAL held the euro 2004 very professional da whole way through ,u can only dream of avin da same sucess if use gonna held one ! theres corruption/hooligans and no people to built stadiums/roads/etc + provide enough hotels/restaurant/etc for the supporters not to mention the securty of the whole event ! poland is not up for it and fifa should not wait any longe neither give so many oportunitys

    From kjpaulo, on Fri 3 Oct 7:17PM

  11. I can't believe FIFA is doing this...they should let the independent country to decide what right or wrong for them!!!

    From Przemo, on Fri 3 Oct 6:47PM

  12. If only UEFA/FIFA took as hard a line stance on racism, as they did with this, instead of being 2 faced...

    From Raaj, on Fri 3 Oct 6:45PM

  13. Who the hell do FIFA think they are. If the Polish government wants to stamp out corruption who are FIFA to stop them. But we all know how good old Sepp (backhander) Blatter was connected with certain sports firms sponsoring FIFA tournaments so I guess FIFA think that they are above the law?

    From Geordie, on Thu 2 Oct 6:33AM

  14. FIFA has a completely exaggerated sense of importance. Those who keep saying Poland and Ukraine are behind are clearly too young to remember Portugal and Greece were also behind (actually at a much later stage) but managed to pull it together.

    From Michael, on Wed 1 Oct 1:55PM

  15. It's about time that FIFA got nuked. No organisation, no mater how self important it feels itself to be has the right to dictate to a government what it should do.

    From The Dark Warrior, on Tue 30 Sep 6:04PM

  16. i am a black guy who played proffessional football in poland 8 years...so i have first hand experience what going on there...as a polish citizen am proud of that country....but the corruption is as a result of illiteracy on the part of the people supposed to be running the football in that country......they allow corruption...same way they allow racism...which for me is the biggest problem facing polish football....polish people living outside poland are one of the most hardworking and tolerant people around...but inside poland most of them dont give a damn....in that respect they are not growing football wise like they should...szkoda...gallardo

    From galax16, on Tue 30 Sep 6:02PM

  17. Anyone see the ROSS KEMP on Gangs documentary about hooliganism in Poland? It was shocking...I can't see how Poland can be allowed to host an event like this before cleaning up their act...

    From Mark, on Tue 30 Sep 5:57PM

  18. I don't think there are enough people left in Poland to do the work required is there?

    From michael c, on Tue 30 Sep 5:56PM

  19. Thank you Yahoo.

    From simmonz82, on Tue 30 Sep 5:43PM

  20. and poland are in no fit state to host this, they have not started work on any stadiums as yet and as for the roads well thats another thing....only ones in the middle of the country.....

    From JASON M, on Tue 30 Sep 5:38PM
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