After a two-month break, Radosław Piesiewicz appeared in public again. The time after the Olympic Games in Paris was not easy for him, to put it mildly. After the sudden withdrawal of State Treasury companies, there is a huge hole in the budget of the Polish Olympic Committee headed by him, and there have also been accusations against him. He repelled the attacks that caused him to lose his position in September. Now he has started filling this hole – on Friday, the first sponsor after the above-mentioned confusion was presented. And Piesiewicz announces that there will be others and boasts about talks with tycoons.
The Merry Lady supported the Polish Olympic Committee. “We all witnessed political harassment”
Wesoła Pani – it was the delicatessen chain with this name that was the first to enter into a sponsorship agreement with POC after the massive withdrawal from SSP cooperation.
– This is the first sponsor. I think we will be announcing more soon. Please believe me, we are constantly working on acquiring sponsors. I hope that we will be able to announce the next one on November 15, Piesiewicz announced in a conversation with a group of journalists.
And the Olympic Gala is scheduled for November 15, the date of which has already been postponed once. The medalists of the Games in Paris have not yet received financial awards from the Polish Olympic Committee, but the president assures that there will be plenty of money for them.
Piesiewicz does not answer directly when I ask whether he started talks with Diana Teliha and Władysław Azowski, the owners of Wesoła Pani, before or after losing money from contracts with SSP.
– I am constantly looking for new sponsors, and I will continue to do so to have as many of them as possible. What happened – we all witnessed a political campaign. Today we are trying to rebuild the POC budget, because we are already preparing for the 2026 winter games – he notes.
Azovsky, who comes from Ukraine, reveals that several weeks passed from the start of the talks to the signing of the contract.
– The contract is valid for one year, but I think we will continue this cooperation – the entrepreneur tells Sport.pl.
When I ask if he had any doubts about the atmosphere surrounding the Polish Olympic Committee and its president in recent months, he answers in the negative.
– Our cooperation has no connection with this situation. We focus on sport – we want to support it and be its sponsor – he emphasizes.
Piesiewicz on opponents from the POC management board: we will encourage them to do so
And did Piesiewicz, who is now urgently looking for new sponsors, feel any negative effects? – So much false information that was directed against the Polish Olympic Committee and me certainly it was not conducive or helpful. But once again we prove that we are able to attract sponsors because we deny everything that has been thrown into the public space – he emphasizes.
Since he became the head of the Polish Olympic Committee in April 2023, he has always boasted about arranging money for Polish sports associations. Now, however, he must focus on rebuilding the budget of his own organization and confirmed that the proceeds from the contract with the Merry Lady will go entirely to the Polish Olympic Committee. He did not answer how much money the Polish Olympic Committee lost due to the recent withdrawal of SSP companies.
– We are unable to answer today. We will see how the budget will be settled and how much money will be received by the end of the year. There will be consequences for contracts terminated contrary to the regulations, warns Piesiewicz.
On September 30, a meeting with journalists was held at the POC headquarters, during which a report on the Games in Paris was presented. The president did not participate in this meeting – it was said that he was busy acquiring new sponsors.
– It's a very intense time. Lots of meetings, lots of them runningconversations. We are also talking to very large tycoons – assures the activist.
In mid-September, Piesiewicz's opponents tried to remove him from power during a management meeting, but to no avail. Now he seems calm about the rest of his term.
– For me, the most important thing is that I can finally tell lies [pojawiające się informacje – red.]first of all. Secondly, the most important thing for me is the POC management board – on September 17, the management board stood behind me. Because we presented true information. They may not be as popular and successful, but at the end of the day, the truth will always prevail. Even though it's not popular, I wasn't worried about it, he emphasizes.
He also explains his two-month withdrawal from public appearances with the desire to work through it calmly and discuss everything with the POC management board. In his conversation with journalists, he also does not forget about his opponents.
– Those who talk so passionately or record management boards or talk about various irregularities and do not agree with the actions of the Polish Olympic Committee, I suggest that they resign. We will encourage them to do so, because they should not be in the Polish Olympic Committee. I am convinced that if a given union president were to obtain information from his management board, the board members would not look at him favorably. Personally, I don't understand such people, he says seriously.
When he mentions the NIK and KAS audits, he assures that he is not afraid of any of them. He even claims that he is glad that the Polish Olympic Committee's spending of public funds will be checked from 2021.
– We will see the transparency of our predecessors and ours – he emphasizes.
He is equally confident in topic three defamation lawsuits that he was supposed to send to the minister sports Sławomir Nitras, Marcin Gortat and one of the editorial offices (I don't want to say which one). When one of the journalists asked if he was sure of winning, he replied briefly: – Yes – and smiled meaningfully.