The National Stadium in Warsaw – built a decade ago when Poland co-hosted the European football championships – has been forced to close after a defect was found in its roof. As a result, the Polish men’s national team’s match against Chile this Wednesday has been moved.
“During standard annual technical inspection of the steel structure of the roof, a defect was discovered in one of the elements of the steel wire structure,” announced the operator of the stadium, PGE Narodowy, on Friday.
After consulting with the two firms responsible for installing that part of the structure – Stuttgart-based SBP and Italian firm Cimolai – a decision was made to temporarily suspend all activity in the stadium, said PGE Narodowy. Further tests will be carried out to assess how the defect can be corrected.
The interior of the stadium and its roof (Mariusz Cieszewski/MFA, under CC BY-ND 2.0)
The stadium – which, with a capacity of around 58,000, is the largest in Poland – was due to host a friendly match between Poland and Chile on Wednesday, before the Polish team flies off to compete in the World Cup in Qatar.
That game has now been moved to Legia Warsaw’s 31,800-seat stadium, the Polish football association announced. Those with tickets for the National Stadium will be refunded and new tickets for the match will go on sale.
Sports minister Kamil Bortniczuk also commented on the problem, describing the discovered defect as “serious”, reports RMF. He noted that he had ordered an additional check of the stadium’s roof this year because its 10-year guarantee was expiring. The review carried out in March showed no problems.
Some media and commentators supportive of the Law and Justice (PiS) government blamed the problem on the previous Civic Platform (PO) administration – headed by Donald Tusk, now leader of the opposition – which oversaw the stadium’s construction.
“The National Stadium is a symbol of the failure of Tusk’s government,” headlined state broadcaster TVP, which is a mouthpiece for the PiS government.
The stadium opened in January 2012, with construction costing 1.91 billion zloty (around €0.43 billion). It was the venue of five matches at Euro 2012 – which Poland co-hosted with Ukraine – and has remained the home of the national football team since then, as well as regularly hosting other cultural and sporting events.
In October 2012, the Polish authorities were left red-faced when a World Cup qualification match against England had to be postponed because the stadium was left waterlogged after a decision was made not to close the retractable roof despite heavy rain.
Wygląda na to, ze jak jest awaria, przebudowanej w czasie LK Czajki – to wina rządzącego dziś Trzaskowskiego, ale kiedy, w czasie rządów PiS, psuje się Stadion to wina Tuska (choć TVP info mówi ze i Trzaskowskiego tez) pic.twitter.com/JTjFb4sR5W
— Konrad_Piasecki (@KonradPiasecki) November 11, 2022
Main image credit: Artur Malinowski/Flickr (under CC BY 2.0)
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.
