For the Polish national team, the last campaign in the World Cup was its best in 36 years, but in the last few days the country is dealing with a big storm, with coach Czeslaw Michniewicz and captain Robert Lewandowski in the spotlight. The affair was called the “bonus scandal” by the local media, when it was claimed that the government had promised the players of the national team a handsome salary at the expense of public funds.
It all started with a meal that Prime Minister Mateusz Moraviecki had with the team members before they left for Qatar, in which he promised them grants ranging from 6.4 to 9.2 million euros if they qualified for the round of 16. Initially, the players demanded that the bonuses be distributed according to the distribution of minutes, so that senior players would receive more, but Robert Lewandowski, who led the talks, demanded a more equal distribution.
Be that as it may, as soon as the team qualified for the round of 16, great anger arose among the citizens, arguing that the amounts were too high. The Prime Minister who stuck to the idea throughout the last period decided to withdraw it and today (Monday) announced that the money will be invested in the development of football in the country. “Lack of financial resources is thwarting the development of Polish football, we must compensate for that,” he wrote Moravitzky.
However, regardless of whether the money will finally be transferred or not, the move has already caused an uproar, the consequences of which are not yet clear. The talks about the grants were conducted between the government and the national team, with the heads of the association, including president Cesari Kolesha, left out, which aroused their anger. It has already been reported in Poland that the move may lead to the dismissal of coach Michniewicz despite the achievement he led the team to.
And if all this is not enough, another report in the Polish media claimed that Lewandowski led a “rebellion” against the coach before the match against France. According to the publication, the captain was angry at the retreating style of play in the three group stage games and “tired” of Michniewicz’s defensive tactics. When the coach decided to “play at 0:0” against the world champion in the round of 16, Lewandowski already decided that was more than enough.
In Poland it was announced that the Barcelona striker talked hours before the game with the senior players in the national team and they decided to issue an ultimatum and demand to play more offensively. The report even claimed that the players planned among themselves to take responsibility and play that way in any case, the result was a not bad first half for the Poles, which unfortunately ended behind when Olivier Giroud gave France 0:1 on the verge of the break.
“When we play with the ball they don’t know what to do,” he said Lewandowski In the dressing room at halftime. “No matter how aggressively they play, let’s play with the ball like we tried several times, they don’t manage against it. Of course, that didn’t help either, because in the second half Kylian Mbappe woke up with a big brace and sent Poland home after a 3:1 loss.
At the end of the game, Lewandowski said things that were perceived as direct criticism of the coach: “Will I play in the next World Cup? I need joy in life in the game, this is something that will not happen if we play defensively”. also Piotr Zielinski He addressed the situation and said: “We should take advantage of the abilities of Lewandowski, Milik and myself, we have nothing to fear.” Jacob Kaminsky Biker said: “We did not play football in the three group stage games.”