JWSport Jacek Waszak – Sport journalist
Never before has a Pole held such an important position in Europe’s most important football federation.
Boniek’s election came at a difficult time due to the turmoil caused by the announcement of the Super League, which UEFA had opposed from the start.
The following have been elected or re-elected to UEFA for a four-year term are : Zbigniew Boniek , Alexander Dyukov, David Gill , Gabriele Gravina , Rainer Koch, Karl-Erik Nilsson , Just Spee , Servet Yardımcı
This year Zbigniew Boniek completes his term as president of the Polish Football Association. Boniek has been the head of the Football Association since 2012. Boniek has been on the governing body of the European federation UEFA since 2017. During a vote at the 45th UEFA Congress, he was re-elected as a Member of the Executive Committee for a four-year term and then as UEFA Vice-President!
The Executive Committee is the highest executive body of UEFA, consisting of: UEFA President, 16 other members elected by the UEFA Congress and two nominated by the European Club Association and one by the European Leagues.
The first Pole to be a legendary PZPN activist was Leszek Rylski, who worked for Polish football for 78 years. He was joked that he had always been active in the PZPN because he was born a month before the federation was founded and was still active in it when he was in his nineties. He died in April 2015, at the age of 95, and only a few months earlier he was addressing activists when president Boniek presented him with a jersey bearing the number “95”.
Rylski, a long-time secretary general of the Polish Football Association, was one of the founders of UEFA in 1954. His signature was on the document that established the European federation. He sat on UEFA’s Executive Committee from 1956-64 to 1966-68. Fluent in several languages, he was a highly respected figure within UEFA to the end, being awarded the Ruby Order of Merit – UEFA’s highest honour.
A few hours later, Polish Football Association secretary Maciej Sawicki announced that the Pole had also been elected as a UEFA vice-president, or deputy to Aleksander Ceferin. “This is a great individual recognition of his work to date as a member of the UEFA Executive Committee and as President of the Polish Football Association,” – Sawicki wrote on Twitter.
Boniek’s selection came at a difficult time due to the turmoil created by the announcement of a Super League, which UEFA had opposed from the start.
Among the teams that have decided to take this step are the biggest giants of European and world football. From England they are Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool FC, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea London and Arsenal London. They will be joined by Spanish and Italian clubs Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus Turin.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
