The Polish Football Association is the governing body of association football in Poland. It organizes the Polish football leagues (without the Ekstraklasa), the national cups, and manages the men's and women's national teams. It also runs the national futsal and beach soccer competitions. It is based in the Polish capital of Warsaw.
History
The fully-independent federation was established on 20 December 1919 subsuming the autonomous Polish Football Union (PFU) that was part of the disintegrated Austrian Football Union. The PFU was established on 25 June 1911 in Lwów, Austria-Hungary.1
When the Wehrmacht invaded Poland in September 1939, all Polish institutions and associations were dissolved, including the PZPN. The German occupying forces forbade Poles to organise football matches.2
In September 2008, the leadership of the Polish Football Association was suspended by the Polish Olympic Committee for "[violating] its statutes in a continuous and flagrant fashion".3 One year earlier, the Polish sports ministry also made an attempt to address corruption within the Polish Football Association, but was threatened with suspension by FIFA, which forbids any form of government intervention.4 On 30 October 2008, Grzegorz Lato became the president of the Polish Football Association. On 26 October 2012, Zbigniew Boniek was elected president after winning 61 votes from 118 delegates.5
The football association turned 100 years with the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup during its centennial year. In 2019, Józef Klotz, who had played for the Poland national football team and was killed in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust, was honored by the Association.67 On 28 August 2021, Cezary Kulesza was elected president.8
Provincial associations
The PZPN is divided into 16 provincial associations, corresponding to the 16 voivodeships of Poland.9
| Region | Association10 |
|---|---|
| Lower Silesian Voivodeship | Dolnośląski Związek Piłki Nożnej |
| Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship | Kujawsko-Pomorski Związek Piłki Nożnej |
| Lublin Voivodeship | Lubelski Związek Piłki Nożnej |
| Lubusz Voivodeship | Lubuski Związek Piłki Nożnej |
| Łódź Voivodeship | Łódzki Związek Piłki Nożnej |
| Lesser Poland Voivodeship | Małopolski Związek Piłki Nożnej |
| Masovian Voivodeship | Mazowiecki Związek Piłki Nożnej |
| Opolskie Voivodeship | Opolski Związek Piłki Nożnej |
| Podkarpackie Voivodeship | Podkarpacki Związek Piłki Nożnej |
| Podlaskie Voivodeship | Podlaski Związek Piłki Nożnej |
| Pomeranian Voivodeship | Pomorski Związek Piłki Nożnej |
| Silesian Voivodeship | Śląski Związek Piłki Nożnej |
| Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship | Świętokrzyski Związek Piłki Nożnej |
| Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship | Warmińsko-Mazurski Związek Piłki Nożnej |
| Greater Poland Voivodeship | Wielkopolski Związek Piłki Nożnej |
| West Pomeranian Voivodeship | Zachodniopomorski Związek Piłki Nożnej |
Presidents
| N. | President | Tenure | Notes11 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Edward Cetnarowski | 20 December 1919 – 15 January 1928 | |
| 2. | Władysław Bończa-Uzdowski | 15 January 1928 – 20 February 1937 | |
| 3. | Kazimierz Glabisz | 20 February 1937 – 1 September 1939 | |
| 4. | Tadeusz Kuchar | 29 June 1945 – 16 February 1946 | |
| 5. | Władysław Bończa-Uzdowski | 16 February 1946 – 1949 | |
| 6. | Andrzej Przeworski | 1949 – 1951 | |
| 7. | Jerzy Bordziłowski | 1951 – 1953 | |
| 8. | Jan Rotkiewicz | 1953 – 1954 | |
| 9. | Roman Gajzler | 1954 – 1954 | |
| 10. | Władysław Rajkowski | 1954 – 1956 | |
| 11. | Stefan Glinka | 1956 – 1961 | |
| 12. | Wit Hanke | 1961 – 1966 | |
| 13. | Wiesław Ociepka | 1966 – 1972 | |
| 14. | Stanisław Nowosielski | 1972 – 1973 | |
| 15. | Jan Maj | 1973 – 1976 | |
| 16. | Edward Sznajder | 1976 – 1978 | |
| 17. | Marian Ryba | 1978 – 1981 | |
| 18. | Włodzimierz Reczek | 1981 – 1985 | |
| 19. | Edward Brzostowski | 1985 – 1986 | |
| 20. | Zbigniew Jabłoński | 1986 – 1989 | |
| 21. | Jerzy Domański | 1989 – 25 March 1991 | |
| 22. | Kazimierz Górski | 25 March 1991 – 3 July 1995 | |
| 23. | Marian Dziurowicz [pl] | 3 July 1995 – 28 June 1999 | |
| - | Wiesław Pakoca | 25 May 1998 – 7 August 1998 | curator |
| 24. | Michał Listkiewicz | 28 June 1999 – 30 October 2008 | |
| - | Andrzej Rusko [pl] | 19 January 2007 – 1 February 2007 | curator |
| - | Marcin Wojcieszak [pl] | 1 February 2007 – 5 March 2007 | curator |
| - | Robert Zawłocki [pl] | 29 September 2008 – 10 October 2008 | curator |
| 25. | Grzegorz Lato | 30 October 2008 – 26 October 2012 | |
| 26. | Zbigniew Boniek | 26 October 2012 – 18 August 2021 | |
| 27. | Cezary Kulesza | 18 August 2021 – present |
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Polish Football Association.References
Korzachenko, Yuri (12 January 2010). Колиска українського футболу [Cradle of Ukrainian football] (in Ukrainian). Football Federation of Ukraine. Колиска українського футболу ↩
Thomas Urban, "Football 'Only for Germans', in the Underground and in Auschwitz: Championships in Occupied Poland“, in European Football During the Second World War. Ed. M. Herzog/F. Brändle. Oxford 2018, p. 367. /wiki/Thomas_Urban ↩
"Administrator taking over scandal-hit Polish federation". Agence France-Presse. 29 September 2008. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110520174001/http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ggrPp0E2zb6X5sCZmfze_hAwFQuA ↩
Slowikowska, Karolina (30 September 2008). "Polish FA suspended over corruption issues". Reuters. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160306101825/http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-soccer-europe-poland-idUKTRE48S9C320080929 ↩
"Boniek becomes new head of Polish FA". Sports Illustrated. Minute Media. Associated Press. 26 October 2012. Archived from the original on 19 January 2013 – via CNN. https://archive.today/20130119115043/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/soccer/wires/10/26/2080.ap.soc.poland.election.2nd.ld.writethru.214/index.html ↩
"Poland honors national soccer player murdered in Holocaust". Israel Hayom. 6 November 2019. Retrieved 2 January 2025. https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/06/11/poland-honors-national-soccer-player-murdered-in-holocaust/ ↩
"Before Polish-Israeli soccer match, murdered Jewish player honored". The Jerusalem Post. 10 June 2019. https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/before-polish-israeli-soccer-match-murdered-jewish-player-honored-592087 ↩
Kopański, Emil (18 August 2021). "Cezary Kulesza nowym prezesem Polskiego Związku Piłki Nożnej". Polish Football Association (in Polish). Retrieved 2 January 2025. https://www.laczynaspilka.pl/aktualnosci/pzpn/cezary-kulesza-nowym-prezesem-polskiego-zwiazku-pilki-noznej ↩
"Wojewódzkie ZPN". Polish Football Association (in Polish). Retrieved 10 June 2023. https://pzpn.pl/federacja/wojewodzkie-zpn ↩
"Wojewódzkie ZPN". Polish Football Association (in Polish). Retrieved 10 June 2023. https://pzpn.pl/federacja/wojewodzkie-zpn ↩
"Prezesi PZPN" (in Polish). Polish Football Association. Retrieved 15 July 2015. https://www.pzpn.pl/federacja/historia/prezesi-pzpn ↩