Champions League final ref links to far right group

cyberman

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As long as there aren’t Jews and gays in each team then everything should be ok
 

Baxquux

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Sadly they feature these slimeballs on Polish TV political panel shows, and not just in a 'Nick Griffin 2009 Question Time collective weigh-in' way either.

This is potentially pretty bad from a UEFA point of view -if the links are more strongly proven, it'd be like having a BNP (as opposed to, say, UKIP or your standard 'normal' reactionary Tory) councillor refereeing games....
 

Andersonson

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Mentzen is a dangerous and a racist scumbag, but its not against any law to support his party. Isnt UEFA and FIFA so hard on their non political stance?
 

Abizzz

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So who would a far right nutter be more likely to favor? A club built around being international or a club... well whatever man city is today?
 

FrankFoot

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So who would a far right nutter be more likely to favor? A club built around being international or a club... well whatever man city is today?
Maybe City cause it's Abu Dhabi, and they most likely don't like jews there and believe women belong to the kitchen.
 

Bebestation

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Looks like he may support city for their ethics.
 

Dansk

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As bad as it is to be linked to the far-right, I don't think it indicates that he'll favor one team or the other. It's a bit silly to see people jumping to the conclusion that his questionable political worldview (or just the possibility of such a thing, since we don't even know what was really going on) must somehow also make him a biased ref. It's like presuming that a vegan ref would favor a team that plays in a green kit.
 

Sarni

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I think it needs a bit of context. He's not linked to a far right group, he has not supported them, has not shared their beliefs and is not attached to them as a political party at all.

What happened is he received an invitation to be a speaker at a business conference, and one of its organizers happened to be a leader of far right political group. However that particular conference had nothing to do with politics, it was basically just a bunch of entrepreneurs sharing their stories and listening to some high-profile speakers, Marciniak being one of them.

I don't think he should be accepting an invitation from a group associated in any way with that party but at the same time this had zero to do with politics and does not indicate his views at all. There's nothing leading me to believe that he's in any way supporter of far right.
 

Sarni

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Mentzen is a dangerous and a racist scumbag, but its not against any law to support his party. Isnt UEFA and FIFA so hard on their non political stance?
He doesn't even seem to support his party. If there was any indication that he does, I'd be all in favor of banning him completely.
 

IhabX7

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Maybe City cause it's Abu Dhabi, and they most likely don't like jews there and believe women belong to the kitchen.
You’re an idiot. You reply in this thread seemingly against the prejudice towards the mentioned groups, yet show your own towards another?
 

11101

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If mass media picks up on this they will have to replace him. They can't have a controversy hanging over his head before the game. That said, i wonder which team has leaked this.
 

Sarni

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If mass media picks up on this they will have to replace him. They can't have a controversy hanging over his head before the game. That said, i wonder which team has leaked this.
It was reported to UEFA by a far left organization from Poland. Became quite a big story almost instantly and then it was caught up by foreign media.

As it has been largely misreported as him being involved with far right political party, rather than what it really was, he'll almost certainly have CL final taken away from him.
 

Mb194dc

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Referees political views should be totally irrelevant. Unless he's done something illegal nothing to see here. Same goes for any job, can't be banning people from things just because their politics don't agree with yours. That is called fascism...
 

LawCharltonBest

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Referees political views should be totally irrelevant. Unless he's done something illegal nothing to see here. Same goes for any job, can't be banning people from things just because their politics don't agree with yours. That is called fascism...
Did you read the OP?
 

Neil_Buchanan

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So he shouldn’t be allowed to work? He hasn’t broken the law. Or do you think that refereeing the cl final is a reward only to be given to the well behaved?
 

Oranges038

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I find this all a bit pathetic, the man went to an event as a speaker. It has nothing to do with his ability to referee a game of football fairly.

He's released a statement denouncing any alignment with the views he was accused of supporting. So just let him referee the game and get over it.


 

Sarni

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Did you read the OP?
Again, he did not attend a political event. He attended, as a speaker, an entrepreneurs convention where one of the organizers was associated with far right group. There's no direct connection between the political party and Marciniak who does not seem to share any of their views anyway (there's been zero indication that he does anyway).

It's a very loose interpretation of this situation to associate Marciniak with far right but because of how foreign media has misreported this and have spread it across continent UEFA will probably decide to ban him.

I don't really get how UEFA would be so outraged about this quite distant link between Marciniak and far right, but would be completely OK with Russia and Qatar anyway.
 

11101

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On BBC now. Its over for him surely. Terrible to lose the biggest game of his career when he has seemingly done nothing wrong other than offend some special interest group.
 

Utd heap

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You can't even hang out with racists and homophobes these days. Bloody woke UEFA.
 

Oranges038

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On BBC now. Its over for him surely. Terrible to lose the biggest game of his career when he has seemingly done nothing wrong other than offend some special interest group.
He did just ref the world cup final.
 

giorno

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I don't think he should be accepting an invitation from a group associated in any way with that party but at the same time this had zero to do with politics and does not indicate his views at all. There's nothing leading me to believe that he's in any way supporter of far right.
Key issue would be whether he knew this far right wing pos was one of the organizers or not. If not, nothing to see here, but if he did? Well...at the very least it's something to question
Referees political views should be totally irrelevant. Unless he's done something illegal nothing to see here. Same goes for any job, can't be banning people from things just because their politics don't agree with yours. That is called fascism...
UEFA runs anti-racism, anti-homophobia campaigns. Like it or not they are political. You can't look the other way in front of fascism/racism/homophobia

And yes, if you willingly associate your name with a far right racist homophobe, then you are one too.

This all is a real pity too because he's probably the best ref in Europe too
 

TheRedDevil'sAdvocate

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On BBC now. Its over for him surely. Terrible to lose the biggest game of his career when he has seemingly done nothing wrong other than offend some special interest group.
He officiated the World Cup final a few months ago. It's clear that UEFA believe in his abilities and want to promote him. I think UEFA will stand their ground on this one. It seems to be a grey area, not an organised far-right event, and they risk opening a can of worms, if they bow down to the angry shouts coming from one particular side of the spectrum.
 
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Sunny Jim

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I think it needs a bit of context. He's not linked to a far right group, he has not supported them, has not shared their beliefs and is not attached to them as a political party at all.

What happened is he received an invitation to be a speaker at a business conference, and one of its organizers happened to be a leader of far right political group. However that particular conference had nothing to do with politics, it was basically just a bunch of entrepreneurs sharing their stories and listening to some high-profile speakers, Marciniak being one of them.

I don't think he should be accepting an invitation from a group associated in any way with that party but at the same time this had zero to do with politics and does not indicate his views at all. There's nothing leading me to believe that he's in any way supporter of far right.
i can can vouch this is the actual story. Nothing to see here
 

Sarni

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Key issue would be whether he knew this far right wing pos was one of the organizers or not. If not, nothing to see here, but if he did? Well...at the very least it's something to question

UEFA runs anti-racism, anti-homophobia campaigns. Like it or not they are political. You can't look the other way in front of fascism/racism/homophobia

And yes, if you willingly associate your name with a far right racist homophobe, then you are one too.

This all is a real pity too because he's probably the best ref in Europe too
He's just run an announcement saying he regrets taking part in that convention stating he was not aware this was so closely related to said political party and claiming he would have declined invitation had he known. Whether he truly knew or not I don't know but it seems very clear he wants to not associate himself with said party and he's opposing their beliefs, which has already been met with death threats and abuse from their supporters who are now convinced he's part of the NWO.

And he seems to be staying on as a referee for the final, good ending.
 

DWelbz19

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" In 2021 he [Sławomir Mentzen, leader of this party] made international headlines as the producer of a beer named White IPA Matters"

:lol: ffs
 

Sarni

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" In 2021 he [Sławomir Mentzen, leader of this party] made international headlines as the producer of a beer named White IPA Matters"

:lol: ffs
He's an absolute weapon but with plenty of support from younger people who buy into his free market, no tax nonsense. I personally know many of his supporters and have been to one of his events in Krakow last year so I could experience it in person, was exactly as bad as I expected or probably even worse. They don't really build much around racism / fascism though, they are building their constituency mainly through economy related nonsense, with the odd anti-vax / anti-Ukrainian movement when they recognize there's political capital to be gained from it.
 

Newtonius

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On BBC now. Its over for him surely. Terrible to lose the biggest game of his career when he has seemingly done nothing wrong other than offend some special interest group.
Interesting it would be on the BBC so quickly when news of the RAF racially discriminating candidates was somehow absent the last couple of days, must be all that right wing bias they have that i keep hearing about.
 

DWelbz19

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He's an absolute weapon but with plenty of support from younger people who buy into his free market, no tax nonsense. I personally know many of his supporters and have been to one of his events in Krakow last year so I could experience it in person, was exactly as bad as I expected or probably even worse. They don't really build much around racism / fascism though, they are building their constituency mainly through economy related nonsense, with the odd anti-vax / anti-Ukrainian movement when they recognize there's political capital to be gained from it.
When it's more insidious like this it's much easier to grow, I suppose.