Polish football official fired for ticket-touting in Dublin

A prominent Polish Football Association (PZPN) board member has been sacked after gardaí caught him ticket-touting at the Aviva Stadium.

Following a court prosecution in Dublin in connection with his March 29th arrest at Lansdowne Road, the PZPN conducted an inquiry and their disciplinary committee has this week found that Kazimierz Gren broke ethical principles.

Mr Gren – a well-known figure in Poland – was on the board of the PZPN and was also head of the Podkarpacki ZPN, a regional football association.

The PZPN has confirmed that on June 2nd their disciplinary committee gave their decision and banned him from holding a position in Polish football for the next 10 years.

The senior official had travelled to Dublin for his national team’s March 29th match against Ireland, which ended in a 1-1 draw. The 52-year-old and a Polish woman were arrested and found in possession of 12 match tickets on the day of the match.

He ended up spending a night in a cell and the pair were charged under Section 3 of the Casual Trading Act for failing to produce a licence allowing them to sell the tickets in public places.

Mr Gren, who is from Popieluszki, Rzeszow, in south-eastern Poland, and the woman, were brought to appear before Judge Walsh at Dublin District Court the following day.

Guilty

During the hearing, Mr Gren’s solicitor confirmed that his clients were pleading guilty.

The tickets had been sourced in Poland and Mr Gren had been trying to accommodate some Polish people residing in Dublin, the judge was told.

Judge Walsh noted the pair had spent a night in custody. He had said he was marking the case as facts proved but in view of the extenuating circumstances he was striking it out, leaving Mr Gren and the woman without criminal convictions.

After reports of his court case were published in the Irish news media, the story went viral in Poland resulting in a scandal dubbed “Grengate”.

On his return to Poland, he held a press conference disputing that a guilty plea was entered but he later blocked attempts by Polish football association when they formally asked Judge Walsh to order the release of a copy of the court’s digital recording from the hearing.

The judge had adjourned making ruling on whether he would let the Polish FA have the recording until July.

PZPN media officer Jakub Kwiatkowski said of the ban: "The decision of the disciplinary committee was based on the content of collected documents, written and oral testimony of witnesses and the explanations of Mr Gren."

He said some evidence from the Dublin District Court trial could not be obtained, adding that this was “ due to the attitude of the accused, who through his attorney on May 20th, 2015, before the Irish courts, objected to the disclosure of the documents in the case”.