FIFA, UEFA don´t recognise new head of Polish FA

Football’s top governing bodies, FIFA and UEFA, said Tuesday they do not recognise a new administrator appointed by the Polish Olympic Committee to head the country’s scandal-mired PZPN football federation.

The decision by the tribunal of the Polish Olympic Committee, which oversees sports in Poland, to dismiss PZPN head Michal Listkiewicz was made at the request of Sports Minister Miroslaw Drzewiecki.

Drzewiecki said Monday he had acted because of “a lack of effectiveness in the fight against corruption”.

But in a joint statement, UEFA and FIFA said that they “do not recognise either the decision by the arbitration court of the Polish National Olympic Committee, or the appointment of an ‘administrator’ of the PZPN”.

“FIFA and UEFA continue to recognise the current leadership of the PZPN chaired by Michal Listkiewicz as the only legitimate authority to run football in Poland and to represent it internationally,” the statement added.

The two bodies said they would immediately start joint consultations on measures to be taken surrounding football in Poland, which will be proposed at the next FIFA Executive Committee meeting in Zurich on October 23-24.

Polish football has been marred for over three years by repeated match-fixing scandals, with 120 individuals already prosecuted or facing trial, and a handful of clubs from various divisions have been relegated as punishment for graft.

The country will be joint hosts with Ukraine of the next European football championships in 2012.