By Jaroslaw Adamowski
December 2 – Poland’s Ekstraklasa is planning to host the country’s next Super Cup match abroad. The top tier of Poland’s professional football league wants to move its showpiece match to a location in Western Europe, primarily to increase its advertising revenues from the high-profile event.
“I am confirming that we are currently holding talks related to hosting the Super Cup match abroad, obviously in a country with a large Polish population,” Boguslaw Biszof, chief executive of Ekstraklasa, told local daily Przeglad Sportowy.
The Polish Super Cup is played between the winner of the Ekstraklasa and the winner of the Cup of Poland. Since 1980, the Super Cup match has been hosted irregularly, with 26 matches organised to date. In 2013, the Ekstraklasa decided not to host the Super Cup.
Now the Ekstraklasa seems to have its sights set on the sponsorship it believes it can generate from gambling operators by hosting outside the country. Poland’s strict gambling regulations prevent foreign-based online betting operators from advertising at local sports events.
However, with the Super Cup match organised in a country in which these regulations do not apply, the Ekstraklasa could allow the operators to purchase advertisements and significantly increase its earnings from the match.
According to Przeglad Sportowy, potential locations for Poland’s next Super Cup include the UK and Ireland, both of which are popular destinations for Polish workers. Neighbouring Germany also has a significant Polish community and the Polish effect has been positively felt within the increased support for Borussia Dortmund.
20,000 Polish fans attended the recent England vs Poland World Cup qualification match at London’s Wembley Stadium.
The last Super Cup match took place on August 12, 2012 and pitted Slask Wroclaw, the winner of the Ekstraklasa title that year, against Legia Warsaw, the winner of the 2012 Cup of Poland. The match, won by Slask, took place at Legia’s stadium in Poland’s capital city Warsaw.
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