– Is he more of a politician or a sports activist? – fans could wonder for years, watching the career of Ryszard Czarnecki. His political and sporting paths are linked by several elements: playing in many positions, not being tied to any colours, money which has always stuck with him, or… the kilometres travelled.
The prosecutor's office in Zamość brought charges against him for embezzling allowances and reimbursement of travel expenses to the European Parliament. The CBA arrested him in the Collegium Humanum case. It concerns accepting financial benefits from the university's rector and “personal benefits”, i.e. obtaining a postgraduate diploma for his wife. And how did Czarnecki cope in the world sports?
He was supposed to perform his duties on a voluntary basis, but his colleagues asked him to take a salary.
– I feel more like a volleyball person than a politician – he told Sport.pl in an interview from 2021, when he ran for president of the Polish Volleyball Federation. – I feel like an ambassador of volleyball in the world of politics. And I am glad that this mission is effective – he added. Czernecki always did good PR around himself. He spread the vision that where he was, there was or will be money and sponsors. For many activists, this was an important argument, guaranteeing his support. This is one of the reasons why in 2018 Czarnecki became vice-president of the Polish Volleyball Federation.
– My success is that after the 2018 World Championships, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki decided to award the Polish Volleyball Federation (PZPS) a special prize of PLN 15 million – he listed his merits in an interview with Sport.pl. This bonus was to go to the volleyball players and to train the youth. – I am glad that I could contribute to concluding a four-year contract for the title sponsor Leagues women's and men's strategic league – he added.
Although few people want to use their real names today, the volleyball community admits in anonymous conversations: yes, Ryszard Czarnecki had political connections and was able to get things done. But alongside the real benefits, there was just as much creation and a specific aura around him.
“I would like to inform you that yesterday, right after I was elected vice-president of the Polish Volleyball Federation, I informed the president of the association that I would be performing my function on a voluntary basis, without receiving a salary. To the attention of haters and people who look at me through their own prism,” he proudly informed on X. However, life quickly verified this declaration. As Czarnecki later explained to TVN24, mainly due to requests from colleagues from the association. “It was decided that I should not stand out from other vice-presidents of the association and I started receiving a salary,” he reported.
Mileage allowances for volleyball matches. 250 thousand in 3 years
The total salary was PLN 177,000. This is almost PLN 15,000 per month (data from the financial statement). In addition, he was entitled to a company car, and Czarnecki also racked up huge mileage allowances. As reported by Łukasz Jachimiak from Sport.pl, after adding up the kilometers from the volleyball delegations, it turned out that that the politician traveled about 250 thousand kilometers in three years!
The activist was of course often seen in volleyball halls, sometimes he was even seen in two cities on one day, but covering such a number of kilometers in trips, for example between Jastrzębie Zdrój and Zawiercie or Bełchatów, brought a smile to the face.
Perhaps this case should have been looked at more closely. Just as the European Anti-Fraud Office and then the prosecutor's office in Zamość eventually looked at Czarnecki's kilometers. Czarnecki collected about PLN 900,000 for the declared trips. From the data he presented – as “Gazeta Wyborcza” described it – it turned out that in theory he circled the Earth five times, entering 18 vehicles: 14 cars, two mopeds, a motorcycle and a tractor-trailer unit.
The push for the position of president and the stain on the image
Czarnecki's presence at volleyball matches was also documented by… whistles. When the announcer read out his name, fans often let us know what they thought of the politician in the stands, especially when matches staff. However, it was similar during the European Games or speedway competitions.
– Some fans clap, others whistle, but what is important is what I have done for volleyball, what I am doing and what I will do – he did not care about this in a pre-election interview with Sport.pl. His ambitions reached the position of the association's president.
Czarnecki was close to achieving his goal in 2021. His methods worked. He promised the Provincial Volleyball Associations to increase the budget from around PLN 100,000 to PLN 200,000. New sponsors were also supposed to join the association. Various clubs also received several promises. For a long time, it seemed that Czarnecki would win the elections. His rivals withdrew, but a strong competitor appeared who united the opposition – Sebastian Świderski. He is a legend of Polish volleyball, who made himself known as the efficient president of ZAKS Kędzierzyn-Koźle. It was also a time when Czarnecki was widely talked about in the media – first the scandal with European mileage allowances broke out, then the politician became ingloriously famous for publicly comparing his political rival Róża Thun to blackmailers. When asked about the flaws in his image, Czarnecki replied as follows:
– About choosing me [na prezesa związku siatkarskiego] the delegates will decide. They have been evaluating my effectiveness and hard work for the past few years. I think they will verify my activity – he said.
And so it happened. When Czarnecki knew on the day of the election, after counting the sabers, that he had no chance of winning against Świderski, he did what he usually did in similar situations. He withdrew from the election. Officially “for the good of Polish volleyball”, to show his unity with the community. However, he did not completely abandon volleyball. He quickly became the president of the Polish Volleyball Foundation.
He was supposed to help volleyball players in need. He took home 160 thousand zlotys
It is a foundation supporting people associated with this discipline, who “for various reasons found themselves in a difficult life or professional situation”. Czarnecki worked there for four months. He earned 162 thousand zlotys. He was offered the presidency, believing that he would bring state sponsors to the foundation. Nothing of the sort happened, so the contract was terminated, and the high salary was not repaid.
After his volleyball adventure, Czarnecki was referred to as a “fox that broke into the henhouse”. Many people had already noted how often he changed the associations and disciplines he dealt with, usually taking an interest in directorial positions.
– Loyalty is not Ryszard's trait. He jumps from party to party. In sports too. Speedway, basketball, volleyball. He ran for the Polish Football Association, the Polish Olympic Committee. And promising money from state-owned companies is really a lot of nerve – Jacek Kasprzyk, the president of the Polish Football Association during Czarnecki's vice-presidency, told us. By the end of his term, both gentlemen did not like each other very much. And during their meetings, there were heated exchanges of words. Besides, Czarnecki was also supposed to have a bone to pick with, among others, Radosław Piesiewicz, who was the vice-president of the Polish Football Association until 2017. Then, Piesiewicz was replaced in the position by Czarnecki, as the one who would bring the federation greater profits. The ambitions and ideas for the career of both gentlemen quickly turned out to be similar.
A trip to Tokyo and a craving for the Polish Olympic Committee
Czarnecki wanted to be the president of the Polish Olympic Committee a few years ago, which is now Piesiewicz. His candidacy was put forward by the Polish Volleyball Association. The politician and activist withdrew from the candidacy in the final stretch, when he realized that he had no chance of success. However, he did not give up his desire to be an activist of the Polish Olympic Committee. He became a member of the Polish Olympic Committee presidium. That is why – as he explained – he appeared in the stands of the Tokyo Olympics during the pandemic. There could be no fans in the stands, the number of activists was limited, the conditions of functioning in Japan for athletes and coaching staffs also turned out to be quite strict, but Czarnecki applauded athletes directly from the sports arenas. The Polish Olympic Committee and he himself did not explain what role he played at this event.
Earlier, Czarnecki wanted to become the president of the Polish Football Association twice. Perhaps because he had been the vice-president of the Foreign Department of the Polish Football Association since 2005 and considered it a good foundation for later activities. He first ran for the president in 2008, but withdrew his candidacy a month before the congress. Four years later, he announced that he would not run for the position. However, he quickly changed his mind and announced his participation again. As one of the points of his program, he announced that he would give up his salary of PLN 50,000 per month and donate it to training. However, before the elections, he withdrew from the fight for the presidency. In a conversation with football activist Zdzisław Kręcina, he later said that running for the president of the football association was good and free advertising when running for the position of MEP and that he would seriously return to football someday.
But it wasn't football or volleyball that was Czarnecki's first sporting love. He started his sports career in speedway. In the late 90s, he became vice-president and then president of Sparta Wrocław. During one of the speedway matches, a dangerous situation occurred when Czarnecki, wearing a Sparta scarf, went to the Unia Leszno stand and after the match, waving the scarf, rejoiced at his club's victory. Bottles were thrown at him. He himself was hit in the back of the head, he had a slight concussion. He had previously told his colleagues that during the election campaign it would be better if he appeared among the fans, not in the VIP stand.
On the car
Czarnecki had just as many functions and ideas for life not only in sports, but also in politics. He was the deputy minister of culture, chairman of the Christian National Union (Zjednoczenie Chrześcijańsko-Narodowe – ZChN) party, and then an MP for AWS, Samoobrona, and PiS. For two decades, he has successfully entered the European Parliament, running from various constituencies. In 2014, he even became one of the vice-presidents of the European Parliament. It was only this year that he failed to obtain the required number of votes and his European career slowed down. In the past, he also ran for mayor of Wrocław, was president of the Institute of Law and European Studies in Warsaw, and founded his own foundation.
After he withdrew from the program at the beginning of 2023 Supervisory Board of Skra Bełchatów Volleyballdisappeared from the world of sports. Shortly after his arrest by the CBA related to the Collegium Humanum case, he was also suspended from the party membership by the presidium of the PiS Political Committee. Czarnecki does not admit to the acts he is accused of. Probably for the first time in his political and sports career, it can be said that he is on in the car. And this time it has nothing to do with motoring.