ThePolish Football Association (Polish:Polski Związek Piłki Nożnej;PZPN) is the governing body ofassociation football inPoland. It organizes the Polish football leagues (without theEkstraklasa), the national cups, and manages themen's andwomen's national teams. It also runs the nationalfutsal andbeach soccer competitions. It is based in the Polish capital ofWarsaw.
The fully-independent federation was established on 20 December 1919 subsuming the autonomousPolish Football Union (PFU) that was part of the disintegrated Austrian Football Union. The PFU was established on 25 June 1911 inLwów,Austria-Hungary.[2]
When theWehrmacht 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.[3]
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".[4] One year earlier, the Polish sports ministry also made an attempt to address corruption within the Polish Football Association, but was threatened with suspension byFIFA, which forbids any form of government intervention.[5] 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.[6]
^Thomas Urban, "Football 'Only for Germans', in the Underground and in Auschwitz: Championships in Occupied Poland“, inEuropean Football During the Second World War. Ed. M. Herzog/F. Brändle. Oxford 2018, p. 367.
