The then-incumbent President Andrzej Kraśnicki, 74, unexpectedly resigned from running for the office one month before the election.

Piesiewicz’s success comes as no surprise. Who could say no to his plans of increasing the POC budget from the current PLN30 million (£5.8 million/$7.2 million/€6.5 million) to PLN300 million (£58 million/$72 million/€65 million), paying significant bonuses to Olympic medallists, awarding Olympic champions with apartments, and doubling the number of medals for Poland at Olympic Games.

Sounds impressive? And how about the POC having its own television?

Piesiewicz’s offer was one you couldn’t refuse. Furthermore, delegates at the General Assembly didn’t have to take his word for it. Piesiewicz has a good story to tell: he gets results. 

From 2018, he has been the President of the Polish Basketball Association, and until April 24 2023, he was also the President of the Polish Basketball League. According to Polityka Weekly, the budget of the Polish Basketball League grew from PLN9.5 million (£1.8 million/$2.28 million/€2.05 million) in the 2018-2019 season to PLN22 million (£4.2 million/$2.2 million/$5.2 million/€4.7 million) in the 2021-2022 season. 

The Polish Basketball Association recorded the growth from PLN29 million (£5.6 million/$6.9 million/€6.2 million) to PLN45 million (£8.5 million/$10.8 million/€9.7 million) respectively. These significant growths happened mainly because of generous donors being state-controlled, sitting on money giants: PKN Orlen S.A., Energa S.A., Bank Pekao S.A., Totalizator Sportowy Sp. z o.o., Krajowa Grupa Spożywcza S.A. 

Sponsorship amounts received from these companies are not publicly known due to "trade secret" as explains Piesiewicz to Polityka. State-owned companies are controlled by the Minister of State Assets. 

Since November 2019, this office has been held by Jacek Sasin, 54, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, and whom Piesiewicz has known well for over 10 years. This relation has been publicly known from way back, and we may assume, with a very small margin of error, that for many, if not for all, delegates who supported Piesiewicz this was one of his strongest assets.

The composition of the new Presidium of the POC Board may be helpful in getting the work done. Tomasz Poręba, 50, the vice-president of the Polish Badminton Association, a member of the European Parliament and a prominent figure in the governing PiS (Law and Justice) party was re-elected vice-president of the Board. 

Poręba was chief of staff for PiS campaigns in 2018 and 2019. In autumn 2023, Poles will elect Members of Parliament of the next term. All political parties describe the coming election as the most important after 1989, and polls do not indicate a sure winner yet.

Poręba will lead the PiS campaign. It would be a smart move if, within the next months, state-controlled sponsors enter into (preliminary) sponsorship agreements with the POC. Millions of sports fans will get a clear message how the incumbent Government truly cares about sport. 

Access to state sponsors is not Piesiewicz's only idea how to multiply the budget. As he said in an interview with Rzeczpospolita Daily: "The POC should be a redistributor of funds. Raise money and even centralise the marketing rights of those federations that will want it.

"It would be a leap into a completely different world. I am convinced that if we then donated such money to sports federations, we would have the effects in the medals won."

Centralising the marketing rights looks like an attractive proposal that could bring more private sponsors to the POC.

Another member of the Presidium of the Board may also be key in making Piesiewicz’s plan come true. Marian Kmita, 61, is a new vice-president of the Board and a man who should be at least asked for advice on the POC television project. 

Kmita was a sports director at state-owned Polish Television TVP1 in the nineties. Since 1999, he has been working as a sports director for Polsat, a private media company and TV broadcaster, controlled by Zygmunt Solorz-Żak, one of the wealthiest Polish billionaires.

In 2000, Kmita brought to life the Polsat Sport channel. To make the picture complete: since 2013, Polsat has been continuously broadcasting the Polish Basketball League matches, and at the end of March this year, a month before election to the POC, a new seven-year agreement was signed.

Any risk for the POC when travelling through hyperspace? In a Yoda syntax: two see I. One is connected with centralising the marketing rights. Without knowing details it is hard to say anything specific, but without doubt this will be a challenging and, on many levels, complex project. 

The second is politics interfering with sports. In May 2020, Przegląd Sportowy revealed that the Polish Basketball Association had subjected the bonus payment for players for taking eighth place in the 2019 World Championship to signing an agreement which provided for prohibition of promoting attitudes and ideologies contrary to Article 18 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, which states "that marriage as a union of a woman and a man, family, motherhood and parenthood are under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland." 

The Polish Basketball Association’s demand was widely criticised (except for the state controlled media) as a restriction on freedom and an anti-LGBT attitude. With the ruling Government designs to use subordinate institutions to promote conservative views, similar situations may be repeated. And with the centralised marketing rights federations and, ultimately, athletes may be put in a weak position.

Anyway, now, people at the POC should go strap themselves in, they’re going to make the jump to light speed. But they should remember: always in the motion the future is.