Del Piero, Owen & Marciniak appear in highly suspicious legends match in Poland
On November 18th, a private match took place at the Tychy Stadium, which was attended by some of the greats of world football, albeit retired.
Alessandro Del Piero, Michael Owen, Luis Garcia and Marco Materazzi were the former footballers who agreed to take part. During the preparations, the organiser ensured that others would also take part, such as Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos and Fernando Morientes.
The footballers played a game against representatives of the Polish business world and trained with young male and female players. The teams included influencers and representatives of the Polish business world. The latter were expected to pay up to 50,000 zlotys (11,000 euros) to take part in the 90-minute experience.
But hardly anyone turned up and there was only one person in the stands. One of the reasons may have been the tickets priced at 200 zlotys (46 euros), but more important was the insignificant promotion of the event.
Only a hastily created website with a free template and social media profiles with a small reach reported on the match. Although the major Polish media should have been among the sponsors in the offers sent to potential customers, the only sponsorship three days before the event was given by the regional TVP3.
A noble cause?
The match was to be financed entirely by Safe Server Solutions (SSS), a company registered in a flat in Warsaw, without the tenants' knowledge, which sells servers that will later be used, among other things, for cryptocurrency mining.
The company promises investors a very high rate of return, but experts interviewed by WP.pl have considerable doubts about the reality of the promises. Following editor Szymon Jadczak's question about the company, the Office of the Financial Supervisory Authority announced a verification and analysis of information about SSS.
The proceeds from the event were intended to support a worthy cause. As the website states: "The game is a project of the Safe Server Solutions Foundation, which focuses on supporting young athletes who play sports with little funding in Poland."
It was this 'noble' cause that led Szymon Marciniak to referee the game for free. The problem is that this foundation is not a public benefit organisation and there is no public information available about the effects of its activities.
This isn't surprising because, according to the information on its official profile, its activities began in October with registration at the end of September.
According to WP.pl, "the effective beneficiary and member of the Foundation's board of directors is Łukasz Krasiński." In other words, the owner of the company registered in the flat.
Before the match, the organisers announced a competition for football clubs and schools, the rules of which seemed ambiguous. Participants were promised support of 30 zlotys (6 euros) if they bought tickets for the match for 100-200 PLN (46 euros).
Among the participants, two clubs would win sports internships for 20 of their pupils - one in Spain and the other in Poland. Third place would be supported with PLN 5,000 (one thousand euros).
The competition was supposed to end before the match - entry to the pitch and ball-boy responsibilities would be the prizes for fourth and fifth places. However, as of the time of publication, there is no information on the results of the competition or the winners.