Police intervene as Polish football fans gather outside stadiums despite Covid restrictions

Football fans around Poland have been organising gatherings outside their teams’ stadiums during matches in recent weeks in contravention of pandemic regulations.

Police on Sunday took the details of hundreds of Wisła Kraków fans and detained several more who had come together to support their team during a match in the Ekstraklasa, Poland’s top-flight football league.

A large number of supporters arrived for the planned congregation outside the stadium for the match against Stal Mielec, reports Gazeta Krakowska. The club had previously appealed to its supporters to obey coronavirus rules, which were tightened on Saturday.

Police took the details of 270 participants who were breaking regulations by failing to observe social distancing requirements or not wearing masks properly. Decisions on whether to proceed with prosecutions will be taken in due course, Barbara Szczerba of the regional police headquarters told Gazeta Krakowska.

Officers used megaphones to inform those in attendance that “we are in a state of pandemic”, that gatherings are illegal under the current restrictions, and to order them to wear masks, Szczerba said. The police also detained several people who were found to be on law enforcement wanted lists.

Some fans were handcuffed, according to eyewitnesses quoted by Gazeta Krakowska. “The fans were just singing – there weren’t any flares set off,” one told the newspaper.

Last weekend, Legia Warsaw fans crowded together to chant and set off pyrotechnics outside the club’s stadium during a match. Dozens of banners had previously been put up around the city advertising the event, reports TVP.

“Let the players hear us, let Warsaw hear us. The meeting only makes sense if we turn up in numbers worthy of our club,” a supporters’ group had written in advance.

In another message, the group urged fans to wear masks, keep their distance from others, and listen to police instructions. Photographs and video taken during the match, however, show that these warnings were ignored.

The police took the details of almost 500 fans, issued 11 fines for failure to wear a mask, being drunk and disorderly and scuffling with officers, and also detained two participants on the wanted list, reports Wprost.

“Let’s be responsible. We have a ban on assemblies, and these people are exposing [others] to the danger of spreading coronavirus, which they probably didn’t even think of,” said Rafał Retmaniak of Warsaw police.

Fans of other clubs including Pogoń Szczecin and Górnik Zabrze have also organised get-togethers during their teams’ matches in recent weeks. Pogoń fans confronted police after gathering on the pretext of evaluating progress on their club’s new stadium, reports Gol.24, a sports news website.

Many of the supporters have been unhappy about the closure of stadiums, which had previously been allowed to reopen with limited capacities earlier this season. Participants at the gathering in Szczecin unfurled a banner reading “Freedom begins where fear ends”.

Under Poland’s current restrictions, public gatherings are limited to five people, who must wear a mask and stay at least 1.5 metres apart. There must also be at least 100 metres between gatherings.

Tighter restrictions came into force in Poland on Saturday in an effort to curb the spiralling infection rate. The country on Monday reached an average of 22,000 new daily cases in the last week, nearing the peak figure of 25,500 from the second wave in November.

The number of patients hospitalised is also now close to that peak and there are more patients on ventilators than at any time during the pandemic.

Main image credit: Jakub Włodek / Agencja Gazeta

Ben Koschalka

Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.