Media Narratives Surrounding the Matches of the Polish National Football Team in the Anniversary Context

Abstract

This article outlines a theoretical framework for studying attitudes toward the past. The analysis focuses on narratives present in Polish sports media, using landmark matches of the Polish national football team as a point of departure. Based on these events, the author identifies the emergence of a community shaped by shared emotions, identity, and cultural memory.

The author delineates two distinct narrative groups: narratives of success, which construct national prestige, patriotism, and a sense of national pride rooted in tradition and trust in the system; and narratives of shame, characterized by irony, mockery, sarcasm, and the denigration of the state, nation, or institutions as incapable of producing functional outcomes. Narratives of success revolve around victorious matches played by the Polish national team (e.g., against England, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany), whereas narratives of shame/defeat pertain to matches marked by loss, unethical conduct, or poor organization.
The author observes that protagonists from both narrative types have been commemorated in the discourse of sports, which contributes to shaping a poetics of memory.