Polish Football Association
Football is the most popular
sport in Poland
. Over
400,000 Poles play football regularly, with millions more playing
occasionally. The first professional clubs were founded in the
early 1900s, and the
Polish national football team
played its first international match in 1921.
There are hundreds of professional and amateur football teams in
Poland; which are organized into the
national 1st league and 2nd
league, 4 regional 3rd leagues, 18 regional 4th leagues, 49
regional 5th leagues and a variety of other lower level leagues.
Additionally, there are the Polish Cup and Polish Supercup
competitions.
History of PZPN Anarchy
Polish fans during the 2006 FIFA World Cup
The
history of football in Poland started in the
late 19th century with the rising popularity of the new sport. At
the time, the Polish state was
partitioned. The first decades of Polish
football are therefore connected with the history of
Football in Austria and the
Austrian Football Association,
which was founded in 1904.
The first Polish
football clubs were
Lechia Lwów (1903),
Czarni Lwów (1903),
Pogoń Lwów (1904),
Cracovia Kraków (1906) and
Wisła Kraków (1906).
The Polish national
federation, called the Polish
Football Union (Polski Związek Piłki Nożnej, PZPN), was founded
on December 20, 1919, in Warsaw
when 31
delegates elected Edward
Cetnarowski as the first president. The PZPN joined
FIFA
in 1923 and UEFA in
1955.
In a similar fashion to other European states,
football appeared in Poland in the late
19th century.
In 1888 Prof. Henryk
Jordan, a court physician of the Habsburgs and the pioneer of sports in Poland,
opened a sports park in Kraków
's
Błonia
, a
large open space surrounding the demolished city walls of that
town. The park, along with the
Sokół society founded in 1867, became the
main centres to promote sports and healthy living in Poland.
It was
Jordan who began promoting football as a healthy sport in the open
air; some sources also credit him with bringing the first football
to Poland from his travels to Brunswick
in 1890. Other sources mention Dr.
Edmund Cenar as the one to bring the first ball
and the one to translate
The
Cambridge Rules and parts of the
International Football
Association Board regulations to
Polish language.
On
July 14,
1894 during
the Second Sokół Jamboree in Lwów a short football match was played
between the Sokół members of Lwów and those from Kraków. It lasted
only six minutes and was seen as a curiosity rather than a
potentially popular sport. Nevertheless, it was the first recorded
football match in Polish history. It was won by the Lwów team after
Włodzimierz Chomicki
scored the only goal - the first known goal in Polish
history.
This match precipitated the popularity of the new sport in Poland.
Initially the rules and regulations were very simplified, with the
size of the field and the ball varying greatly. Despite being
discouraged by many educational societies and the state
authorities, the new sport gained extreme popularity among pupils
of various
gymnasium in Galicia.
The first football teams were formed and in 1903–1904, four
Lwów-based gymnasiums formed their own sport clubs: the IV
Gymnasium for Boys formed a club later renamed to
Pogoń Lwów, while the pupils of the I
and II State Schools formed the
Sława Lwów club, later
renamed to
Czarni Lwów. In the same
season the
Lechia Lwów was also
formed. It is uncertain which of the clubs was created first as
they were initially poorly organized; however, the Czarni Lwów are
usually credited as being the first Polish professional football
team.
The
following year, the popularity of the sport spread to nearby
Rzeszów
where
Resovia Rzeszów was formed,
while in the German
-held part of
Poland, the 1. FC Katowice and
Warta Poznań were formed.
On
June 6,
1906 a
representation of Lwów youth came to Kraków for a repeat match,
this time composed of two already organized teams, the Czarni and
the team of the IV Gymnasium. Kraków's representation was badly
beaten in both meetings (4:0 and 2:0 respectively). The same summer
the
Buffalo Bill Wild West Show set up
camp at Kraków's Błonia, right outside of the traditional
playground area and Jordan's garden. On
August
5,
1906 the team of the Kraków-based Jan
Sobieski Gymnasium played a match against the British and American
members of Buffalo Bill's troupe, winning 1:0. The only goal scored
by
Stanisław Szeligowski
was also the first goal scored by a Polish team in an international
meeting. The success led to the popularisation of football in
Kraków and to creation of the first Kraków-based professional
football team,
Cracovia Kraków
- initially composed primarily of students of the Jan Sobieski
Gymnasium. By the autumn of that year there were already 16 teams
in Kraków, including
Wisła
Kraków. In 1911, a Kraków-based
Union of Polish Football
for Galicia was formed and entered the
Austrian Football Federation.
The union
inspired the creation of a number of teams, including Polonia Warszawa formed later that year as
the first football club in Warsaw.
After the outbreak of
World War I, most
of the Galician football players, many of them members of either
Strzelec or
Sokół, joined
Piłsudski's Polish Legions. The unit,
fighting alongside the
Austro-Hungarian Army, fought mostly
in various parts of Russian-held Poland, which led to
popularisation of the new sport in other parts of Poland. Among the
notable clubs started during the war was
Legia, initially
a club of the Legions and after the war renamed to
Legia Warszawa. After Poland regained her
independence, on
December 21,
1919 the
Polish
Football Association (PZPN) was formed. Headed by
Edward Centrarowski, it united most of
the then-existent Polish football clubs.
The league could not
be formed due to the Polish-Bolshevik War, but in 1922 the
PZPN published the rules of football and the following year it
joined FIFA. In
1921 the league was resumed and the first
Champion of Poland was
Cracovia Kraków, followed by
Pogoń Lwów in 1922, 1923, 1925
and 1926. As Poland was then a fully independent state, in 1921 the
Polish national football
team was formed.
On December 18,
1921 it played its first international match in
Budapest
against the
Hungarian team and
was defeated 1:0. In the third international match in Stockholm
on May 28, 1922 Poland defeated Sweden 2:1, scoring its first
international victory. In XXI century the most corrupted
federation in the World.
In 1955 the PZPN became one of the founding members of
UEFA.
Corruption in Polish football
In 2005 Polish authorities began an investigation into widespread
corruption within Polish football.
In July 2006, the Polish sports minister criticized the
PZPN for failing to take
adequate steps to fight corruption, and announced an audit of the
organization. In January 2007, PZPN board member Wit Żelazko was
arrested by Wrocław police. Shortly thereafter, the entire PZPN
board was suspended by the sports ministry.
This move displeased
FIFA which announced that the principle of autonomy of
football associations was of utmost importance. The Polish
sports ministry, Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczynski, and most fans
felt that the battle against corruption was more important, but
when FIFA threatened sanctions, the sports ministry backed down and
agreed to re-instate the PZPN board.
In September 2008, the Polish Olympic Committee made a request to
the Polish Arbitration Tribunal to suspend the management of the
PZPN a second time, stating that the PZPN was guilty of
"[violating] its statutes in a continuous and flagrant fashion."
This request was granted and Robert Zawłocki as named as temporary
administrator. However, FIFA again threatened to suspend Polish
teams from international competition.
On April 15, 2009, the total number of arrests reached 200,
including referees, observers, coaches, players as well as some
high-ranking officials of the PZPN. By the end of April 2009, only
15 referees remained who were allowed to preside over top-flight
matches.
Security measures
A series of new security measures are set to come into force in
August 2009 which will require all clubs to improve their fan
identification systems. Fans who have received a stadium ban will
now be obliged to appear at a police station during matches. Those
who enter a stadium despite a ban, assault security officials or
other workers, or throw dangerous materials, will face a sentence
of up to three years in prison, rising to five years if the
individual is masked or otherwise tries to conceal their
identity.
European Competitions
UEFA Champions League
The following teams have qualified for elimination rounds in the
UEFA Champions League.
Notes and references
See also
External links
_fans_-_FIFA_World_Cup_2006_(03).jpg/260px-Polish_football_(soccer)_fans_-_FIFA_World_Cup_2006_(03).jpg)
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