Soccer in Poland

With almost one million association members, football is one of the most popular sports in Poland .

Association

Logo of the Polish Football Association

The Polish Football Association ( Polski Związek Piłki Nożnej , PZPN for short ) was created in 1919, shortly after the Second Polish Republic was founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles . He has been a member of FIFA since 1923 .

National team

The Polish national football team played their first international match in 1921 against Hungary and their first participation in an international tournament at the 1938 World Cup in France, but remained relatively unsuccessful for a long time afterwards.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Polish national team was one of the best teams in the world. She reached third place at both the 1974 World Cup in Germany and 1982 in Spain and the second main round at the 1978 and 1986 World Cups . At the Olympic Games in 1972 she won the gold medal and in 1976 silver. Outstanding players at this time were Grzegorz Lato , Zbigniew Boniek , Kazimierz Deyna , Robert Gadocha , Władysław Żmuda and Andrzej Szarmach .

At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Poland was able to win a silver medal again. Qualification for a World Cup was not possible until 2002 , but Poland was eliminated in the preliminary round. For the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Poland qualified as one of the best runners-up in the group, just behind England , but well ahead of Austria , without having to go into relegation . In the preliminary round, Poland met Germany , Costa Rica and Ecuador , but dropped out again in third place in the preliminary round.

In the FIFA world rankings , the national team is ranked 10th (as of July 2017).

Poland qualified for a European football championship for the first time in 2008, where they were eliminated in the preliminary round. At the EM 2016 , Poland failed in the quarter-finals against later European champions Portugal .

There are also several youth national teams, which go from U-15 to U-21 . There is also a U-23 selection, which, in contrast to the other junior teams, is relatively insignificant, because only players are used here who are already over the age of 21. In addition, there are no tournaments at the U-23 level.

European Football Championship 2012

Poland hosted the final round of the 2012 European Football Championship together with Ukraine . The Polish national team was thus automatically qualified as host and took part in a final round for the second time. The games in Poland were played in Warsaw , Gdansk , Poznan and Wroclaw . New stadiums were built in Warsaw, Wroclaw and Gdansk.

Professional football

Ekstraklasa logo

1st division logo

2nd division logo

The highest Polish football league is called Lotto Ekstraklasa . There has been a league operation since 1920, but because of the Polish-Soviet War , the first Polish championship could not be played until the following year, the first winner was MKS Cracovia Kraków . Record champions with 14 titles each are KS Górnik Zabrze and KS Ruch Chorzów . In addition, KP Legia Warszawa , TS Wisła Kraków , KKS Lech Poznań , WKS Śląsk Wrocław are the most popular club teams. The average attendance in the 2011/2012 season was around 8,847 fans per game.

The second most important football competition is the Polish Cup ( Puchar Polski ) , which has been held annually since 1962 after being held once in 1926 and six in the 1950s. The record winner is Legia Warsaw with 16 wins (as of 2013). The Polish Super Cup (Superpuchar) is played between the master of Ekstraklasa and the winner of the Polish Cup .

In 2007 the Młoda Ekstraklasa was founded, a youth football league.

In a European comparison, the Polish league is rather average (the league roughly corresponds to the strength of the 2nd Bundesliga ), in the UEFA five-year evaluation, the Polish Ekstraklasa does not even achieve a place among the best 20 football leagues in Europe (21st place, as of 2013) . Only KS Górnik Zabrze was in the final of the European Cup Winners 'Cup in 1970, KP Legia Warszawa reached the semi-finals of a European Cup twice (1970 European Cup Winners' Cup and 1991 European Cup Winners 'Cup), RTS Widzew Łódź once (1983 European Cup Winners' Cup) and 1/4 Śląsk Wrocław ( 1976/77 European Cup Winners' Cup). Furthermore, KS Polonia Bytom was able to win the less important UEFA Intertotocup in 1965 . In addition, KS Polonia Bytom and 1998 KS Ruch Chorzów both failed in the final of the UEFA Intertotocup in 1964.

In the past as well as today, many Polish national players played abroad. These include, for example, Artur Boruc ( FC Southampton , AC Florence ), Wojciech Szczęsny ( Juventus Turin ), Robert Lewandowski ( Bayern Munich ), Grzegorz Krychowiak ( Paris Saint-Germain , West Bromwich Albion ) or Łukasz Piszczek ( Borussia Dortmund ) and Jakub Błaszczykowski ( VfL Wolfsburg ).

The league system

level

league

1

Ekstraklasa

(16 clubs)

2

I league

(18 clubs)

3

II league

(18 clubs)

4th

III league

(16 clubs each in four regional relays)

5

IV league

(16 clubs each in 16 regional relays)

6th

Klasa okręgowa

(at circle level)

7th

Class A

8th

Class B

9

Class C

Fans, hooligans and corruption

Polish professional football has on the one hand to struggle with the suspicion of massive manipulation in the game (similar to the Hoyzer case in the Bundesliga ), on the other hand with a huge hooligan problem. The scene of violent, partly right-wing extremist fans in Poland is one of the largest in Europe. For the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany was expected to violent hooligans from Poland to 3000, but it was due to the crackdown by German and Polish police just on the edge of the match between Germany and Poland in Dortmund to violent riots. The hooligan problem has greatly diminished in recent years, so that only hooligan groups of individual clubs stand out. The hooligan scene is almost no longer represented in stadiums. The fan curves are very colorful and there are often elaborate choreographies to be seen.

Countless clubs in the Ekstraklasa and the 1st Polish League (i.e. the second highest division) were involved in a corruption affair in the Polish football league . Clubs like Zagłębie Lubin , Widzew Łódź , Zagłębie Sosnowiec , Arka Gdynia , Górnik Łęczna and KSZO Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski had to be relegated to the 2nd division .

Web links

Commons : Association football in Poland - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikinews: Category: Football in Poland - in the news

Individual evidence

↑ FIFA World Ranking , accessed July 1, 2017

[1] FIFA World Ranking , accessed July 1, 2017