EURO 2021

The FIFA Football World Cup will kick off on 14 June.‎ The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has participated in several events preceding the big event. Co-founder of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association Rafal Pankowski was invited by the prestigious Cambridge Union debating society to speak at a debate on the forthcoming World Cup in Russia, including the challenges of racism and xenophobia‎, on 10 May. – ‘Should we boycott the World Cup in Russia?’ – asked the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ representative during the Cambridge debate. – ‘It would be a better idea to […]

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association brought together creme de la creme of Polish sports journalists as well as Members of Parliament, former sports champions and representatives of key institutions to participate in an awards ceremony and an informed discussion on sports and discrimination on the eve of the UN Anti-Racism Day. The ‘Stop racism in sports’ competition for professional print, radio and television journalists covering issues of racism and discrimination was held under the auspices of Elzbieta Radziszewska MP, Deputy Speaker of the Polish Parliament (Sejm) and former Minister of Equality. […]

An anti-discrimination football exhibition prepared by the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has been opened in the main hall of the Polish Parliament on 19 February 2014. The opening ceremony was hosted by Deputy Speaker Wanda Nowicka, Poland’s leading campaigner against discrimination and for women’s rights. The exhibition was brought to the Parliament on the initiative of Robert Biedron MP, the founder of Campaign Against Homophobia and a longtime ally of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association. Since autumn 2013, Robert Biedron is the General Rapporteur on LGBT rights in the Parliamentary Assembly of […]

The anti-racism ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has teamed up with the Football is Beautiful Foundation and numerous other partners for a joint ‘Friends of Football Day’ series of events taking place on 8 June to celebrate the power of football to unite across differences and promote social inclusion. More than 300 football matches, community festivals and other grass-roots events were organized across Poland on the ‘Friends of Football Day’, marking the anniversary of the kick-off of the historic European Football Championships which took place in Poland and Ukraine in 2012. A […]

Like it was recently at Euro 2012, during the Olympics almost every Pole will become a coach again. We will follow the efforts of our athletes who will be striving to be successful at Olympics London 2012 and win medals. And if we talk about the medals, let’s consider our odds. What will it be like? How many medals will the Poles win? In which sports do we have the best chances to win gold, silver and bronze disks? We should start with our volleyball team. The volleyball should have […]

„My most severe deliberations concerned defenders and strikers,” said the Polish national team selector, who after 30 months of attempts and tests presented his choices. 26 players fighting for 23 places in the national team line-up have been nominated (the final decision will be taken after the preparatory camp in Austria taking place from 16th to 28th of May); the roster includes also 7 substitute players who have to be ready to replace the injured or indisposed players from the starting line-up. Franciszek Smuda indicated that football fans shouldn’t count […]

A coach should have a detailed plan for every group match. Franciszek Smuda, 63, has been leading the national team for 25 months. – In the clubs he used to be adamant. He worked hard for a great respect and recognition, because he focused on the work with the team and he wasn’t interested in nothing else – says Marek Koźmiński, 46-time representative, a silver Olympic medalist from Barcelona from 1992, who played over 100 matches in Series A and appeared at the World Cup in Korea. – In the […]

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association co-organized the high-profile ‘Poland for All’ event together with the Polish Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Sports and Tourism, the City of Warsaw and the Polish Association of Former Players. It took place at the Warsaw Agrykola stadium on 14 October. The event formed a part of the Football Against Racism in Europe Action Weeks. One of the event’s attractions was a match involving players of Warsaw’s multicultural Ethnoleague and Polish football stars, including legends such as the former internationals Dariusz Dziekanowski, Radoslaw Majdan and Roman […]

With the Polish venues on track in their preparations for co-hosting Euro 2012, the lingering concern for the country’s football fans is whether they will have a national team capable of putting up a respectable performance. Coach Franciszek Smuda has seen his side fall as far as 73rd in FIFA’s admittedly farcical ranking system, with the dearth of playing talent a regular topic for the country’s footballing media. Many wonder what happened to the squad that won the European Under-18 Championship in Finland in 2001. That team included Tomasz Kuszczak, […]

On 18 August 2011, at the invitation of the Polish Parliament’s National and Ethnic Minorities Committee, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association presented its activities against racism and xenophobia in football stadiums in the lead up to EURO 2012. – ‘Polish football is often quite multi-cultural, which is emblematic of broader demographic changes across Europe, but the situation in many stadiums still gives reasons for concern’ – said Dr Rafal Pankowski, the coordinator of the East Europe Monitoring Centre set up by ‘NEVER AGAIN’ in cooperation with the FARE Network and UEFA. […]