Just the examples of 2008:
Among 4 candidates for the chairman of Polish Football Association in elections held couple months ago, one was trying to buy/find the “proofs” of criminal activity of other candidates, one is a suspect in investigation of a corruption. After all the third one was elected a chairman - Grzegorz Lato - top scorer at World Cup 1974 in Germany.
Unfortunately, according to the latest press releases, there is a investigation going on focusing on a fact that 3 members of PFA who took part in voting for the chairman, had no right to do that (were not chosen legally to participate in the PFA summit). The Prosecutor’s Office wants to find out who was behind it. Is it a coincidence that they voted for Mr Lato?
The result of the last elections may be declared invalid.
But that is just a tip of the iceberg.
Since 2005 the Prosecutor’s Office investigates a corruption in polish football. Till today about 180 people (refrees, coaches, players, managers, former national team manager, members of PFA board) were arrested and accused of corruption.
And it is not over yet.
The start of the 2008/09 season was postponed for few weeks, because the legal status of few teams from Ekstraklasa (polish premiership) was unclear. Finally, 4 of 16 clubs were relegated from the division as a penalty for the corruption (a previous champion was among them).
So, if you choose to watch the game in polish Ekstraklasa, you cannot be sure if the result of the game had not been decided somewhere else, before the game even started.
But probably I’m nuts, because I can’t wait for the spring round to start…