Abstract
The chapter is structured into four subchapters. The first part examines the difficult beginnings of the game in underdeveloped and partitioned Poland. The second part tackles the main rivalries between football clubs in Poland. Numerous historical, political, ethnic and regional factors which contribute to long-lasting animosities are presented and explained. The third section analyses the development of Polish football during the post-Communist transition from authoritarianism and centrally planned economy to a democratic and capitalist state. Finally, the fourth section draws upon data on the most recent sociopolitical processes and events surrounding the world of football in Poland. These include difficult relationships between PZPN (Polish Football Association) and subsequent governments; the case of UEFA Euro 2012 European Championships, the first sport mega event held in Poland which contributed to the modernisation of the infrastructure of in Poland and the ongoing investigation, which revealed a massive scale of corruption in Polish football with more than 500 hundred referees, coaches and players already convicted for match-fixing.
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Woźniak, W. (2018). Poland. In: De Waele, JM., Gibril, S., Gloriozova, E., Spaaij, R. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Football and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78777-0_12
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