Polish Olympic Committee president Radoslaw Piesiewicz was detained by law enforcement officers on Thursday as part of a criminal investigation into cryptocurrency exchange Zondacrypto. The action was carried out by officers from the Central Bureau for Combating Cybercrime following an order from the National Prosecutor's Office in Katowice.
Prosecutors requested the detention to question Piesiewicz regarding allegations of influence peddling and favoring select creditors to the detriment of others while facing impending insolvency. The investigation focuses on transactions and financial management connected to the Zondacrypto platform.
Former Polish Football Association president Zbigniew Boniek dismissed the political dimensions of the arrest when questioned by journalists from Polsat Sport. Boniek said he had held a firm view regarding Piesiewicz's leadership of the Olympic body from the start, but declined to comment directly on the ongoing legal proceedings or detentions.
Feud over sports management
The detention follows a history of public friction between the two prominent sports figures. Boniek had previously criticised the Olympic chief after Piesiewicz repeatedly mispronounced the surname of Polish ski jumper Lukasz Tomasiak, calling him Tomasik four times during a single broadcast interview.
Writing on the social media platform X, Boniek stated that while a simple slip of the tongue was understandable, repeating the wrong name four times was disgraceful. He pointed to broader organizational failings within Polish sports administration, noting that Polish female athletes were forced to compete using nine-year-old luges and describing the leadership as a gang of dilettantes.
Public exchange over funding responsibilities
Piesiewicz launched a sharp counter-attack online, questioning whether Boniek was targeting individual sports associations or the sports ministry rather than the Polish Olympic Committee. The Olympic president explained that the ministry of sport provides funding to individual sports governing bodies, which are themselves responsible for purchasing equipment such as luges.
Piesiewicz added that Boniek had previously misidentified Polish national team football players during his own administrative career. He advised Boniek to educate himself on sports funding before publishing misleading statements, taking a final swipe at Boniek's tenure as national team manager by comparing his knowledge of Olympism to his coaching record.
Boniek is one of Poland's most celebrated football figures, having played for Juventus and Roma before serving as head of the Polish Football Association from 2012 to 2021. The Polish Olympic Committee, known as PKOl, is the non-governmental organization responsible for coordinating Poland's Olympic teams and managing national sports delegations.
