Sunday, May 04, 2008

Football clubs will not be punished for corruption

The Polish Football Association (PZPN) once again surprised the public announcing that there will be no more relegation of football clubs basing on corruption charges.

The officials of the Ekstraklasa league and the management of PZPN had prepared a joint project of relegating punished clubs, however, now PZPN plans to grant an amnesty for the corrupted teams. Such a decision sounds beneficial for football players and fans of clubs which were charged with corruption, but not yet punished, such as Zaglebie Lublin and Korona Kielce. Tthe project is also supported by Canal+, the main sponsor of the league. According to Dziennik, sponsors have agreed to support it as the league is to be a product which can be sold, therefore it has to include the strongest domestic clubs, among which several are threatened by of relegation.

Match fixing not discouraging investors

In a related story,

Match fixing, corruption and stadium hooliganism in Polish football is still not discouraging investors, Rzeczpospolita writes. According to one estimate, by 2015 the value of Polish football could 5 billion zlotys a year. However, investors admit that they treat football as a promotion of their brands, rather than an investment, writes Rzeczpospolita.
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