Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Pig’s head scores point

The crisis in Polish football took an unexpected turn last Wednesday when MP Janusz Palikot brandished a pig's head on a late night television show saying “this is for the PZPN (Polish Football Federation) mafia”. The previous week the government had suspended the board of the PZPN and appointed its own director in Prime Minister Donald Tusk's crusade against corruption in the domestic league. The suspension jeopardised Poland's participation in the 2010 World Cup and its hosting of the 2012 European Championship when FIFA and UEFA demanded the board to be reinstated. However, football's world and European governing bodies subsequently relented after receiving letters from both the ministry and the federation that, FIFA said, showed a “positive evolution” of the situation between government and the PZPN. A telephone poll conducted the day after Palikot's grotesque stunt revealed that while 51% of respondents thought the politician had “gone too far”, 48% thought he was right to do what he did.
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