Boniek's post on Widzew win after Kraków shooting draws fierce criticism

The attack in Kraków

On Saturday, 7 November, a 24-year-old man opened fire on passers-by at the Main Square (Rynek Główny) in Kraków, killing six people and wounding 15, according to wPolityce. The outlet also reported that he had first killed his parents and his sister. The reasons for the attack were not yet known in the reporting. Figures for the injured vary across the coverage, with one report giving 15 wounded while the Pogoń Szczecin president wrote of 16 seriously injured people fighting for their lives. wPolityce wrote that the tragedy had deeply shaken Poles.

Widzew's win and Boniek's post

On the same day, Widzew Łódź beat Pogoń Szczecin 3-0 in a PKO Ekstraklasa match, with Mateusz Stolarski in charge of Widzew. Zbigniew Boniek, a former footballer and former president of the Polish Football Association (PZPN) who has long been tied to Widzew, celebrated the result on X. In the post, published after the match, he linked the victory to the tragedy in Kraków, writing:

“On this sad and tragic day, the only ray of light came from the most beautiful stadium.”

The post put the sporting result beside the death toll, and that pairing drew sharp criticism.

Reaction on X and from Pogoń

Interia reported that the post gathered 800,000 views and more than a thousand comments within 11 hours. Users accused Boniek of lacking sensitivity, and some wrote that he should have reconsidered before publishing. Pogoń Szczecin president Alex Haditaghi responded on Sunday morning with a public message addressed to Boniek, writing:

“Six innocent people have died, 16 have been seriously injured and are fighting for their lives, and families across Poland are in despair.”

Haditaghi also told Boniek that he had lost his respect, adding:

“Some things are more important than football. You never learned that and you never will.”

Intent and what followed

Super Express noted that Boniek may have meant to highlight the joy of Widzew's first win in a long time, but many readers felt the comparison with the attack was wrong. Interia reported that Sunday's PKO Ekstraklasa matches were set to open with a minute of silence for the victims. The controversy centred on the pairing of a sporting result with a deadly attack on the same day, rather than on the match itself.