Polish FA deny racism allegations during England draw
By Tom Gott
The Polish Football Association have strongly denied allegations of racism from centre-back Kamil Glik during Wednesday's 1-1 draw with England.
Glik clashed with Kyle Walker on the stroke of half-time and sparked a full scuffle between all the players on the pitch, and it later emerged that the English FA believed a racist comment from the Poland defender was the spark of it all.
FIFA are investigating the issue after the racism allegations were reported to the fourth official at half-time, but the Polish FA have gone public with their dismissal of the claims.
"I have spoken to our players and they totally deny that there was any racism," Polish FA spokesman Jakub Kwiatkowski told Sky Sports News.
"It was a normal football incident. Passions were running very high. There was some pushing between Glik and Walker at a free-kick. There was a lot of tension and some pushing but no racism.
"We had some discussions with the fourth official about this at half-time and I spoke to the players and they told me there was no racism."
Glik himself has already done his best to cool the tension surrounding the incident, telling TVP (via The Independent): “It was an ordinary field jostling. It all started with a free-kick for us.
“There was a fight for position, a scuffle. I tried to shake Walker’s hand, but he wouldn’t take it. It was a verbal scuffle nothing else happened.”
Former Poland international and current UEFA vice-president Zbigniew Boniek also involved himself in the situation, joining Glik in blaming Walker's refusal to shake his hand for sparking the entire skirmish.
"First they kneel and then Walker looks at [Glik] with contempt and doesn't want to shake Kamil's hand," Boniek wrote on Twitter. "Total hypocrisy, that's where it all started."