Marcin Bogdan: To fight Polish!

Is it possible, then, that fans, especially football fans, can unite over these divisions? About what would they unite? The answer seems trivially simple, of course around the Polish national team. After all, players from different clubs play in the national team, they play for all fans, they play for Poland. So obvious, but not easy to implement. Fans in their clubs frequently feel co-hosted. They have a grandstand designed for them, they prepare club flags, banners and full luminaires of the competitions played. They are a consolidated group, they are 1 sports family. However, this was not the case at the football games of the team. Here all fan came to the game individually. Being at a squad game became something akin for any participants to being at the beginning or biennial, which are frequently treated as social and not artistic events. Events to be on.

The social aspect frequently prevailed over the sporting event. People, after singing the anthem, ate popcorn, it was hard to get organized cheering. During the break, social conversations with beer were so absorbing that any people returned to the stands long after the second half of the match had begun, not full aware of what was going on on on the field. There was clearly a deficiency of atmosphere that the most bitter fans can produce at club games. To remedy this, a group of fans founded in January this year the association “To Us Poles”. The association has set itself the goal of uniting fans of various club teams around the Polish squad and organizing specified doping as we are dealing with at club matches. The association has undertaken cooperation with the Polish Football Association, so that the rules of participation of the fans at the games of the squad are clearly defined and fans, like in clubs, feel co-hosts of the competitions. The first results we could see in the spring erstwhile the Polish representation played at home with Lithuania (1:0) and Malta (2:0). The fans were actually the 12th player of our team.

The fans announced their full readiness to cheer over the divisions on November 14th, for a match against Holland at the National Stadium in Warsaw. They announced sharing not only over club divisions, but over all divisions. Fans, contrary to popular opinion, have different political views, different worldviews, and they do not disagree in this respect from society as a whole. But they rose above these divisions, united around Poland's representation. Poland proved to be the most crucial for them. It was for this game, for the match of the national squad against the dangerous Netherlands that they prepared a large setting, the alleged sector with the slogan “To fight Poland”. What is simply a sector? It is simply a polyester or cotton fabric of large sizes, in this case it was 70 m x 35 m, with graphics painted on it. Its preparation requires the design, acquisition of fabric, paints, appropriate space (large hall) to put graphics on the fabric. The costs of making a large sector are respective 1000 zlotys. specified a large sector, specified as fans prepared for the match with the Netherlands, weighs about 350 – 400 kg. Her transport, bringing her to the stadium and then developing over the full fan sector is rather an art.

Everything was prepared, agreed with the Polish Football Union, there was a large sporting holiday, above divisions. And here at the last minute, the fans were banned from bringing the sector to the stadium. The fans encountered armed police preventive troops. It even occurred, as fans later reported, to humiliating individual searches. It is said that the decision not to let the sector into the stadium and not to let it to be organised beyond the doping divisions came from the Ministry of Home Affairs. individual was afraid of the slogan “To fight Poland”?

The fans showed that around national affairs can be united over divisions, and sports and political or worldview. We saw that the dividing line went elsewhere. It runs between Polish and anti-Polish. Between those who are prepared to rise the slogan “To the fight of Poland” and those who anticipate passiveness from Poles and surrender from Poland. The actual line of division is between those who are inspired by the Association “To Us Poles” and those for whom Polishness is abnormality, who despise Poland and hatred Poland.

From a journalist's work to add that about 60 minutes of gathering were thrown from the stands to the field of burning race. That he was not just a hooligan, but a motion of despair of desperate fans, is evidenced by the eloquent cry: “She's expected to be a luminaire, now she's on fire.It’s okay. ” The match was interrupted for a fewer minutes and the Disciplinary Commission of FIFA imposed a punishment of 40,5 1000 Swiss francs, or about PLN 184 thousand. Will the Minister of the Interior refund the expenses of this penalty, preferably from his own private money?

Go to Poland !!

Mr Bogdan