Poland: PLFA Suspends Wroclaw Panthers
 |
| Photo: Rafał Skuła |
Yesterday, Wroclaw Panthers issued a statement where they explained why their players will not be participating in National Team activities - to be more precise, in a scheduled friendly coming up this Saturday against Switzerland.
In short, after a long season playing in domestic Topliga (where Panthers won the championship) and internationally in CEFL - Central European Football League (where they lost to SWARCO Raiders, who advanced to the finals), 23 of the Panthers players were scheduled to be on the National Team roster for this friendly.
In between, Polish National Team participated in the World Games 3 weeks ago, where Panthers had 17 players on the roster.
Therefore, Panthers organization has decided that their players will be absent from the upcoming friendly, and one of their players got suspended by the organization - due to his decision to play for Team Poland in this upcoming game (more info in Panthers statement below).
We're posting a 'Google translated' version of the Wroclaw Panthers statement (Original statement: http://www.panthers.topliga.pl/aktualnosci/2844/):
On behalf of the board of Panthers Wrocław sp. Z oo, we inform that in the match played on September 16, the Polish national team in Lublin will not play the players Panthers Wroclaw.
September 16 is planned to be a friendly match between Poland - Switzerland, where 23 Panthers Wroclaw players are on the roster. The decision of the club management will not occur in this match. The decision was made for the safety of players and preparation for the 2018 season.
To date, Panthers Wroclaw players have played in all Polish National Team matches. In 2016 due to the matches that were the official preparations for The World Games 2017, preparations for the season had to be postponed by nearly 2 months. - The training cycle implemented by the coaching staff of our club assumes the start of preparations in October. Unfortunately, in 2016 this was not possible because nearly half of our Polish team had to be given the opportunity to rest after a difficult period of preparation of the staff. We can not afford this season, because in 2018 we plan another very important check and event - explains Jakub Głogowski, general manager Panthers Wroclaw.
After the current season, the athletes are tired. As soon as they finished a very intense season they went to two groups that exceeded all the club training standards (3 workouts per day) and then played two very difficult matches at The World Games 2017. This resulted in several injuries to key players who are currently at various stages of rehabilitation. - The health of our players is our priority. Physiotherapy and rehabilitation are the keys to such a heavy discipline. There are still no clear rules for treatment of injuries suffered at the matches and preparations of the Polish National Team - says Jakub Głogowski.
Appointments for Polish National Team matches are a great honor both for the player and for the club because they emphasize the work they do, but they can not be disturbed by the timing of the preparations for the game. Dates of matches and preparations Personnel should be consulted with the club staff, but unfortunately contact in this matter has never occurred, and the vocations of the players themselves the club authorities learned from the Facebook and closed groups, because they were never officially sent by the official, which is the norm in every discipline of sport.
Consequently, at the moment when it comes to a sparring match that is not tied to the official preparations for an important international event, the Board decided to take on this difficult, but many good reasons for the decision. We expect that in 2018 the aforementioned and other standards will be improved, and the preparation is better thought out and the largest number of Panthers Wroclaw players will be proud of the white and red colors at the next important events.
Patryk Matkowski decided to play for the Polish national team, which resulted in the suspension of Panthers Wrocław in the 2018 season. This is not the first disciplinary problem associated with this player, so the club's decision is unequivocal.
This morning, PLFA has issued a statement with the decision of suspending Wroclaw Panthers.
Original statement can be found here: http://plfa.pl/news/2847/, while we're bringing you the 'Google Translate' version:
In connection with the message of Panthers Wroclaw Sp. On September 11, 2017, which was published on the official website of the club, the management of the Polish American Football Association (PUP) with immediate effect suspends cooperation with Panthers Wroclaw.
Club Panthers Wroclaw officially forbade their players to play in the Poland-Switzerland match, which will take place on 16 September in Lublin. What's more, the club suspended the player who, despite the ban, decided to accept a call to play with an eagle on his chest.
In the context of advanced work on establishing the Polish Sports Association in our football community there can be no place for a person and persons who do not respect the national anthem and colors.
We reached out to Kuba Glogowski, Wroclaw Panthers president, who said: Unfortunately we cannot post any comments until lawyers analyze the whole situation and we will be able to inform about the next steps.
*We used the "Google Translate" version as we didn't want to switch up the statements ourselves, due to possible errors.
COMMENTS