Polish Football Scandal: Teenage Players Disqualified from Championship for Alcohol Violation

The sinners, namely Oskar Tomaczyk, Filip Rózga, Jan Łabędzki and Filip Wolski, were apparently bored at the hotel a few days before the championship. And the minds of teenagers tend to be unpredictable in similar cases. Although they are all only seventeen, they decided to go to Bali to try out the local bars. Even though in Indonesia all those who have not yet celebrated their twenty-first birthday are prohibited from consuming alcohol, this did not bother restaurant operators or youth representatives in any way.

But coach Marcin Włodarski, during a routine check of the rooms, discovered that four of his charges were not where they should be after dinner. So the implementation team went to the city, where they found all the culprits in a heavily intoxicated state. According to available information, Tomczyk even caused an injury to his head while drunk. Understandably, the strong reaction did not take long.

“The players immediately left the trip due to a violation of the rules,” the Polish Football Association said. The national team of Poland will have to make do with a selection of only seventeen footballers for the championship, which will begin on November 10. The regulations of the FIFA organization no longer allow the appointment of substitutes.

The president of the Polish Football Association, Cezary Kulesza, was reluctant to understand the teenagers’ behavior. “We had no choice but to punish them. To leave similar behavior without consequences would be unfair to everyone else,” he said in an interview with Polsat Sport. “When alcohol is more important than the opportunity to represent your country, something is really wrong,” said Sebastian Staszewski, deputy director of the TVP Sport channel, on the X social network.

But some still found a shred of understanding for the quartet. “They are young guys, hopefully it won’t negatively affect their careers in the long term,” hopes Łukasz Olkowicz, a journalist of the Onet Sport portal. “But they did a completely stupid thing,” he admits.

Which the four young footballers probably suspect. After all, Rógza, one of them, spoke like a real pro a few days before the drunken escapade. “You get to play a tournament like this once in a lifetime, so I’m really lucky. And I want to show myself in the best possible light,” declared the seventeen-year-old footballer.

Well, he didn’t quite succeed. The actions of Rógza and his cronies are discussed by many, but probably in a completely different context than he hoped…

2023-11-08 13:27:41
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