Goalkeeper Tomaszewski was 'communist secret service consultant'?
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
31.10.2011 07:31
Polish goalkeeping legend, Jan Tomaszewski, has denied claims made in a weekly magazine that he worked as a “consultant” for the communist secret services during the 1980s.
Jan Tomaszewski; photo - PAP/Andrzej Hrechorowisz
“I never dealt with the communist secret services. I was just a normal citizen,” Tomaszewski told TVP television following a report in Newsweek Polska that in 1986 he was registered in the files of the SB secret services as a consultant.
Under Tomaszewski's name, the file reads, “Category: consultant (voluntary), date of acquisition 28 07 1986”.
Tomaszewski is best known internationally for his remarkable performance at Wembley Stadium in 1973 when Poland drew with England 1 – 1, putting their hosts out of the World Cup finals in West Germany the following year in which Poland went on to take third place.
After working as a football TV pundit for many years Tomaszewski was recently elected in the 9 October parliamentary elections as an MP for the opposition, and strongly anti-communist, Law and Justice (PiS) party in the Lodz constituency.
Tomaszewski now claims that the allegations that he consulted with the communist secret services in the late 1980s is connected with his aim to expose the “multi-billion [zloty] corruption involved in the building of stadiums and highways” for the Euro 2012 football championships next year, which will be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine. (pg)