Polish Sports Minister Quits after Stadium Wash-out
Poland's Sports Minister Joanna Mucha has tendered her resignation, government spokesman Pawel Gras said Tuesday, amid a row over the Polish football team's rain-postponed World Cup qualifier against England.
"Madame Minister Mucha placed herself at the disposal of Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Monday," Gras said on his Twitter feed, after growing speculation she would step down.
Gras underlined that the decision came ahead of Wednesday's widely-awaited report on an official inspection of operations at Poland's National Sports Center, a division of the ministry.
The center runs the Kazimierz Gorski Stadium, a state-of-the-art arena in the heart of the capital Warsaw.
On Tuesday last week, it was meant to host one of the highest-profile matches in Poland's drive to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
But the game was called off when the referee ruled that torrential rain had made the pitch unplayable, and shifted to the following day, when Poland and England drew 1-1.
The 58,000-capacity stadium was purpose-built for the 2012 European football championships, which Poland hosted in June along with neighboring Ukraine.
Fans, pundits and the government have questioned why the stadium's landmark retractable roof was not closed before the match.
The Polish football association and stadium authorities have been trading blame, while critics also claim match observers from world football's governing body FIFA failed to do their job.
The Warsaw pitch has also come in for criticism, having to be re-laid several times.
Former academic economist Mucha, now 36, was brought from the back benches of parliament to the cabinet after political centrist Tusk's coalition won an unprecedented second term in the 2011 general election.
She was seen as a new broom in the male-dominated world of Polish sport.
While that ruffled traditionalists' feathers, she also became known for a series of faux pas, and the widely-praised hosting of the European championships only provided temporary respite.
Ardent football fan Tusk has seen his opinion poll ratings slump, a slide driven in part by criticism of individual ministers.
Source: Agence France Presse
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