Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has promised the Polish national football team a bonus of around €6 million for making to the knockout round at the football World Cup in Qatar, angering politicians and commentators alike.
The World Cup in Qatar will be remembered by Polish football fans – not only thanks to the great play of goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny, but mainly because the Poles got out of the group stage at the World Cup for the first time since 1986, though the team crashed out of the tournament on Sunday after a 1-3 defeat to France.
Following the defeat, however, the team was visited by Morawiecki, who promised them a bonus of PLN 30 million (€6 million) for their performance.
The prime minister’s decision proved to be controversial, with politicians and commentators criticising Morawiecki for flaunting the money, with comments also often referring to the lucrative land deals involving the prime minister and his close family.
“Thirty million! That must be a joke! That’s how much the prime minister can get out of one plot of land,” commented one of the opposition leaders, Donald Tusk, on Twitter.
“If the Prime Minister wants to give footballers 30 million for getting out of the group phase without consulting anyone then he should do it with his own, rather than public money? I guess plots of land from the church would be enough,” wrote New Left MP Maciej Gdula.
Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller addressed the situation.
“Prime Minister Morawiecki has been in regular contact with both Polish Football Association (PZPN) president Cezary Kulesza and national team coach Czesław Michniewicz for many months. They have talked about more support for Polish football, but at the same time the prime minister has indicated that the condition for this additional support is promotion from the group phase (during the World Cup in Qatar – ed.),” he said.
“We want to support Polish football in such a way that a special fund will be created to deal with: training, children’s development, building infrastructure, new technologies in sport or issues of development of the Polish national team. The money will be used for these purposes,” he added.
The president of PZPN, Cezary Kulesza, has already publicly expressed his gratitude to the Prime Minister.
(Bartosz Sieniawski | EURACTIV.pl)
Source: euractiv.com
