Smuda will tolerate bunga bunga, not booze
Reuters - Friday 08 June 2012, 10:09
Poland coach Franciszek Smuda
would rather turn a blind eye to his players enjoying "bunga
bunga" than accept his players drinking alcohol, he said on
Friday.
Smuda, whose side open Euro 2012 against Greece in the
Polish capital later on Friday, has a strict no-alcohol policy
and in April dropped Slawomir Peszko from the squad after the
midfielder ended up in police custody following a night of
drinking.
"It's better to have bunga bunga than to abuse alcohol,"
Smuda was quoted as saying by Polish daily Dziennik Gazeta
Prawna. "Alcohol just blows my fuse."
"Bunga bunga" refers to the name that former Italian Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi bestowed on the wild parties he
allegedly held with bevies of young starlets and prostitutes at
his villas.
Commenting on the Peszko episode, Smuda said: "I will say it
straight: you have to be a moron to do something like that."
Fiorentina keeper Artur Boruc and Legia Warsaw defender
Michal Zewlakow have also been punished by Smuda's anti-alcohol
crusade.
"If I gave players the impression that I'm a pushover, jelly
or pudding, we would be done for. You can't show that," Smuda
said.
Smuda was born in a village in Poland's southern Silesia
region with strong historic links to Germany and has spent a
large part of his life abroad, which helps explain why he can
often appear at odds with the Polish language.
Smuda, who took the post in 2009 after Poland's failure to
qualify for the World Cup in South Africa, sets the Borussia
Dortmund's Polish trio - Lukasz Piszczek, Kuba Blaszczykowski
and Robert Lewandowski - as the example to follow.
"In my opinion, in a moment they will be gone from
Borussia," Smuda said. "'Lewy' is going to Manchester United,
Kuba also somewhere in England, Piszczek to Real [Madrid]."
"They have a goal and they want to grow. I base the squad on
them."