Press release
Lechia Gdańsk has appealed against the ruling of the Court of Arbitration for Sport at the Polish Olympic Committee, upholding the “control measure” imposed on the Club in the form of 5 penalty points.
In the Club’s opinion, the sanction imposed on it undermines the integrity of the 2025/2026 season. Without the disputed 5 penalty points, our Club would currently be in 9th place in the table with 25 points, just 5 points behind the current league leader. Instead, we are in 13th place, one point away from the relegation zone.
The regulations of the Polish Football Association (PZPN), on the basis of which the Club was deducted points, disproportionately restrict the freedom of action of football clubs on the Polish and European market. In particular, they allow sanctions to be imposed on clubs in an arbitrary and discretionary manner, without applying objective, transparent, precise and non- discriminatory criteria and without adequate procedural guarantees, such as those in force in analogous UEFA regulations. The case of Lechia Gdańsk is a striking example of this.
The sanction of deducting 5 points from the Club in the 2025/2026 season was imposed on the Club in connection with the financial difficulties the Club faced in the previous season. It was imposed in a decision to grant the Club a licence – without prior notice or presenting to the Club any charges, and without allowing the Club to take a position on the legitimacy and proportionality of the sanction imposed upon it.
According to the case law of the Polish and European courts, regulations and decisions issued by sports federations and associations and other entities occupying a dominant position on the market may restrict the freedom of action of market participants only for a legitimate purpose and in a proportionate and rational manner. This means, among other things, that the sanctions provided for therein must be based on transparent, objective, precise and non-discriminatory criteria and must be applied within the framework of procedures guaranteeing the proportionate and non-discriminatory imposition of such sanctions.
These standards were not met in the case of Lechia Gdańsk.
The penalty imposed on the Club was unfounded and grossly unfair. To our knowledge, such severe penalties have been imposed on other Polish clubs in the past for actual and gross disciplinary offences, such as match-fixing, corruption, or systematic use of pharmacological doping. It is clear that the circumstances of this case are fundamentally different and that Lechia Gdańsk did not deserve such a penalty.
In the case of Lechia Gdańsk, the Polish Football Association claimed that the decision to deduct 5 points from the Club was not a punishment for a disciplinary offence. However, the Court of Arbitration for Sport at the Polish Olympic Committee ruled otherwise. It stated that deducting 5 points from the Club was a disciplinary punishment. Nevertheless, it upheld the decision even though there was no allegation of a disciplinary offence by the Club at the arbitration stage. Therefore, in the club’s opinion, the ruling grossly violates the law and is grossly unfair. On this basis, the Club appealed to the Supreme Court in accordance with the Sports Act. The Club also filed a motion to apply to the Supreme Court for interim measures and reserves the right to take other legal steps if the matter cannot be settled amicably.