POLAND: Polish authorities yesterday promised to rush through anti-hooligan measures after two weeks of street and stadium battles raised worries Polish fans may be a source of trouble at next month's World Cup in Germany.
Police detained more than 200 after supporters of league champions Legia Warsaw went on a rampage in the Polish capital on Saturday, injuring 54 police officers and leading to the cancellation of the title presentation yesterday.
The riots, which left bars, cafes and shops smashed across the city's historic Old Town quarter, followed fighting involving thousands of fans at games in Lodz, Krakow and the southern city of Zabrze a week earlier.
"If we want to counteract banditry, we need stiffer laws and we must enforce them," senior interior ministry official Wladyslaw Stasiak told a news conference with police yesterday.
Soccer violence has been a growing problem in Poland in recent years and police have pointed to Polish gangs, about whom relatively little is known, as a potential threat at the World Cup, where Poland play hosts Germany in the first round.
Meanwhile, a Polish priest known for his anti-leftist sermons was found dead yesterday and police said it was likely he had been murdered.
"The body of Father Henryk Kroll was found by parishioners after he failed to show up to celebrate Sunday Mass and all signs point to murder," police spokesman Jacek Krawczyk said, speaking in the village of Zalno.
Fr Kroll (62) had been known for refusing to extend the sign of peace to those who had voted for the (post-communist) Democratic Left Alliance. He had also advocated a youth curfew as a way of dealing with rowdy youths and vandals.
Fr Kroll had told reporters he had received threats in connection with his political sermons.