Inverness priest sets up all-Polish football team

Polonia FC with Father Piotr Rytel back left. Picture: Facebook/Polonia FC

Father Piotr Rytel set up and plays for Polonia FC, who compete in the second division of the Inverness and District Amateur League and won their opening match 3-1.

Fr Rytel is based at St Mary’s Church on Huntly Street, and plays at right back for Polonia while maintaining his role as the team’s designated first aider and club secretary.

Polonia FC has around 23 players registered with the club, all of Polish extraction and ranging in age from 18 to 40 years old, including students and workers from across Inverness and Dingwall.

Fr Rytel told the Press and Journal that demand for a dedicated Polish club had led to the founding of Polonia FC.

He added: “There is a large Polish community already. We are a group largely made up of people working in the Inverness and Dingwall area who got together and decided to create a club.

“A lot of men play football so this is a good opportunity to get together and socialise as well as playing football.

“It’s a new thing. It hasn’t been done before here.”

The cleric admitted that while he was ‘no superstar’, he ‘knows what his skills are’.

And he added: “[The team] say they like the fact that I am there because they will have God on their side.”