Road to 2027: Poland hoping to reach the big time, whether by qualifying or hosting

Poland missed out on the opportunity to host Euro 2025, but they're two games from a first major tournament and have thrown their name back in the hat to host Euro 2029...

Oct 30, 2024

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Poland are two games from a first major tournament but have higher aspirations. Image: PZPN

On Tuesday night, Poland took another step towards finally reaching a major tournament in the women’s game with an emphatic win against Romania in the first round of play-offs for next summer’s European Championships in Switzerland.

A tricky, yet not impossible, two-legged tie against Austria in November and December awaits as the women’s game in Poland still strives and yearns in equal measures for the same benefits that come with a breakout first major tournament they have seen in many other European nations.

Had things been different, they may not have had to qualify at all, with the PZPN bidding to host the 2025 tournament, and while they lost out in the end, they have already confirmed they intend to bid again in 2029.

Combined with a first ever dedicated women’s football strategy, a new title sponsor both its first and second divisions in the domestic leagues and a whole host of players now playing in some of Europe’s top clubs, things all appear to be going smoothly, yet they still won’t be favourites to progress past now major tournament regulars in Austria.

The man tasked with much of what is going on behind the scenes right now is Grzegorz Stefanowicz, Women’s Football Director at the PZPN, the federation he’s worked for in various capacities in the women’s game since 2008.

A graduate of Warsaw University, Stefanowicz became the director in 2021 and heads up a department of five people, liaising with the likes of FIFA and UEFA, as well as launching their new strategy a year later in 2022.

“We received a lot of positive feedback during some informal conversations,” he says, of their failed bid to host the Euros.

“From our perspective, our bid was very professional. We have experience of organising big events like when we co-hosted the men’s Euros, we’ve held the Under 20 World Cup, we are certain we are an excellent applicant in terms of our commitment and taking into account women’s football is more and more popular all the time.”

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While 2029 is the aim, Poland will host the Under 19 European Championships in 2025 and the Under 20 World Cup in 2026, and Stefanowicz says it is “proof of our commitment” to women’s football.

The team’s current number one, Kinga Szemik of West Ham United, also believes the PZPN’s commitment to continue chasing the opportunity to host a major women’s football tournament shows where the nation is at right now, and how much it means as a senior national team player.

“For me personally, it means a lot because I really believe as a national team and as a country, we have a lot of potential,” says the 27-year-old, who joined the Hammers from Paris FC in the summer.

“We are not a small country, we are in central Europe. The infrastructure is there because we co-hosted the men’s tournament. We do have potential and it’s nice to see the PZPN are realising they should support women’s football more because we need that little push.

“The men’s team put on our jerseys before the final announcement with our surnames on before the warm-up for their game as a sign of support, just gestures like that mean a lot to us. It might not take a lot to do it, but it had an effect on us and showed we are taken seriously.”

For now, attention has to turn towards the general progress of the game, and they are halfway through the first women’s football strategy they launched back in 2022, with an end date of 2026.

Check out previous Road to 2027 features…