When the surprise Ekstraklasa leaders, Wisla Plock, play Rakow Czestochowa two days later the thermometer may plummet to -12C. Attendances are soaring and its football infrastructure, whose transformation was catalysed by co-hosting Euro 2012, sets standards for much of the continent. “The idea of the Conference League has worked and Poland has benefited,” says Mioduski, who was instrumental to its creation through his role as vice-chair of European Football Clubs. “It’s a very intensive, physical league,” Mioduski says of a division that has had four title winners in the past five years. Poland’s clubs are casting off the restrictive shackles of city council ownership and discovering some spending power.