An incident during an amateur football league match in Wrocław is receiving widespread commentary on Polish and Ukrainian social media. The incident involving a 20-year-old Ukrainian player and a 15-year-old Polish player who suffered a broken arm during the match sparked widespread discussion.
The incident occurred on May 12th during an amateur PRO League match between FC Legionnaires and ZF Group. According to media reports, a 20-year-old Ukrainian citizen was injured during a fight for the ball in the penalty area. Matviy Balashov was supposed to cause a young player from the opposing team to fall. 15-year-old Jakub Podleżański suffered a broken arm.
The player received a red card and the match was temporarily suspended.
Lifetime ban
The day after the match, the PRO League organizers released an official announcement, in which they announced the player’s lifetime ban from the competition.
The statement stressed that the FC Legionnaires player had committed “gross violation of fair play rules”, acting “intentionally to the detriment of another participant’s health”.
– PRO League remains in direct contact with the injured party’s family and assures that it will make every effort to ensure that the consequences drawn become a clear signal to all participants that there is no place for banditry in our competitions – the league said in a statement.
The organizers also announced that all relevant materials had been secured and the league declared its readiness to cooperate with the relevant services.
Additionally, the team FC Legionnaires received an official warning. League officials announced that any further similar incidents could result in the entire team being removed from the competition.
The club talks about hate and threats
The FC Legionnaires club, which mainly features players from Ukraine, published its own position on the matter.
Team representatives expressed sympathy for the injured teenager and said they had tried to contact his family to offer help.
At the same time, the club announced that after the case was publicized online, a wave of hate, threats and offensive comments was directed at the players and their families.
Due to the events that occurred during the PRO LIGA match, our club deems it necessary to issue an official statement. First and foremost, we sincerely sympathize with the opposing player for his injury and wish him a speedy recovery. Immediately following the incident, our team representatives attempted to contact the injured player’s family to express their support and offer assistance. Unfortunately, we have not been able to establish contact to date. The very next day, FC LEGIONNAIRES decided to withdraw from further participation in the PRO LIGA competition. This decision was made not only due to the extensive publicity surrounding the incident, but also due to the threats, offensive messages, and outpouring of hate directed at our players and their families. While we understand the emotional reactions associated with the entire situation, we believe that crossing the boundaries of sport and mutual respect is unacceptable. It is particularly distressing to witness attempts to frame this situation along national or political lines. FC LEGIONNAIRES firmly opposes all forms of aggression, xenophobia, and hate speech. We ask the public to remain objective, respect each other, and wait for a full explanation of the circumstances surrounding the incident. We once again wish the injured player a speedy recovery. – source
Due to the situation, FC Legionnaires announced its withdrawal from further PRO League competitions.
The case caused great emotion
The incident generated widespread commentary on both Polish and Ukrainian social media. Discussions focused not only on the athlete’s behavior but also on violence in sport, the responsibility of the organizers, and the social tensions surrounding the case.
At the same time, FC Legionnaires appealed not to exploit the entire situation for national conflicts and to wait for a full explanation of all the circumstances.
At this time, there is no official information that the case is being treated by the services as a crime based on nationality.
Source: Sport.pl / PRO Liga Wroclaw
Journalist and Editor-in-Chief of Nowiny Wschodnie, a news platform followed by more than 140,000 people on social media. A graduate in Journalism and Social Communication, he has been co-creating and developing Nowiny Wschodnie since 2017. He gained professional experience working with local and international media.
He specializes in fact-checking, countering disinformation and propaganda, and information security. His work focuses on Poland, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and Polish-Ukrainian relations. He is also the founder of a non-profit organization working in the fields of integration and intercultural dialogue.
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