Former football star Boniek charged over alleged crimes while heading Polish FA

Former Polish football star and current UEFA vice-president Zbigniew Boniek has been charged by prosecutors in Poland over alleged crimes relating to the signing of sponsorship agreements while he was head of the Polish Football Association (PZPN).

Boniek, who has waived his right to anonymity in the case, could face up to ten years in prison if found guilty. However, he has called the accusations against him “imaginary, absurd and invented”.

On Thursday, prosecutors announced that they had brought charges against Boniek on suspicion “of causing significant financial damage to the PZPN”, which he led from 2012 to 2021. The amount of financial damage caused was “in excess of 1 million zloty (€234,000)”.

They said that he had abused his powers and failed to fulfil his obligations in relation to negotiations over a sponsorship agreement.

The prosecutors noted that Boniek had already been questioned as a suspect and had denied the the acts he was accused of committing. They added that a total of six people have been charged in relation to the case.

Polish media report that officers from the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA), at the request of prosecutors, entered the PZPN’s headquarters in March 2021 to secure documents and digital files relating to the investigation.

In November 2022, the CBA detained a then member of the PZPN’s board, Jakub Tabisz, and the former secretary general of the association, Maciej Sawicki. They have both denied any involvement in corruption.

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In a video published on social media on Friday morning, Boniek accused the prosecutors’ spokesman of falsely claiming he was facing “charges”. In fact, there is only “one charge of mismanagement”, said Boniek.

“This accusation is completely imaginary, absurd, invented for the needs of the prosecutor’s office in Szczecin, which has no right and should not deal with this case at all, because it is not in its competence,” he continued. In a separate post made on X, Boniek wrote “there are no charges, just a made-up political accusation”.

Boniek is one of Poland’s greatest ever football players, part of the golden generation that finished third at the 1982 World Cup. After starring at that tournament, where he scored four goals, he was signed by Italian giants Juventus before later also playing for Roma.

Since 2021, Boniek has been a vice-president of UEFA, European football’s governing body.

Main image credit: Marcin Wawrzyniak/Flickr (under CC BY-SA 2.0)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.