By Jaroslaw Adamowski
August 10 – Zbigniew Boniek (pictured), the president of the Polish Football Association (PZPN) and former Polish international with spells at Roma and Juventus, has spurred controversy with a string of negative tweets criticising Never Again (Nigdy Wiecej), a Polish anti-racist association which cooperates with the anti-discrimination group FARE.
The incident came shortly after Polish side Lech Poznan was fined by UEFA following a Champions League qualifier match against FK Sarajevo and the display of a banner denounced as racist by UEFA.
On his twitter account, which has close to 300,000 followers, Boniek pasted links to articles on Never Again and one of its members, Jacek Purski. One of the articles called Purski a “red nit and a Communist agent.”
UEFA had sanctioned the Polish club following a banner reading ‘The Piła Legion – the blood of our race’ was displayed at the qualifier. A UEFA statement said: “The UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body has ordered KKS Lech Poznań to play its next (1) UEFA competition match as host club behind closed doors. The Polish club has also been fined €50,000.”
The PZPN has protested against the fine, and released its own statement saying that “it fully accepts the zero tolerance policy regarding racism and nazism,” but that it should be “emphasised that, according to [Lech Poznan], its supporters and observers, the banner did not display racist contents”.
Moreover, “in the past, the banner had been displayed at other European cup matches played by Lech Poznan,” the PZPN said.
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