League Cup in Polish Football

The Cup of the Rally of Young Leaders was the first League Cup in Poland. The tournament was created by the then president of the Polish Football Association with all 12 teams of the I liga being involved. Due to the league being delayed until after the 1952 Summer Olympics the tournament provided the players a chance to show off their skills with a chance of being called up into the Olympic squad. The tournament structure was 2 groups of 6 who played each other twice. The top team in each group played in the final of the tournament, while the teams that finished 2nd and 3rd in the group played for the third place and fifth placed playoffs. The tournament took its name from the youth rally that was taking place in the city from 20–22 July 1952.[1][2]

The League Cup was introduced as a cup competition due to the rising popularity of football in Poland as a result of the success of the national team and of Polish clubs in European competitions. Journalists from the Polish magazine, "Sport" promoted the idea to the Polish Football Association.[7] The format of the competition was to include all 16 teams in the I liga with 4 groups of 4. The winners of each group would then play in a knockout phase to decide the winner. While the winner of the competition won qualification to the UEFA Europa League.

The League Cup was seen in part as a failure due to the little interest from fans and dwindling attendances. For the second edition the Polish Football Association did not promote the competition, meaning it had to be held independently, and that all the teams in the top division didn't have to take part. In the second edition 5 of the 16 I liga teams refused to take part, leading to the invitation of 4 Hungarian teams and Górnik Zabrze in the II liga.

1977 Final

18 June 1977

14:00 BST

Odra Opole	3–1	Widzew Łódź
Andrzej Grębosz  1' (OG) Wojciech Tyc  33', 75'		Zdzisław Rozborski  90'

Miejski Stadion, Częstochowa

Attendance: 12,000

Referee: Alojzy Jarguz

Odra Opole won the 1977 League Cup.[8]

1978 Final

31 May 1978

14:00 BST

Górnik Zabrze	2–0	Zagłębie Sosnowiec
Janusz Marcinkowski  15' Józef Kurzeja  27'

Zabrze Stadion, Zabrze

Referee: Dobrosław Stec

Górnik Zabrze won the 1978 League Cup.[9][10]

The Polish League Cup was created due to Zbigniew Boniek and Richard Raczkowski pushing the idea to the Polish Football Association. To try and make the tournament more successful than the previous edition large financial bonuses were used for reaching each round of the competition, with the winners receiving 1.3million PLN in total. The format of the first competition was a knockout tournament with each tie being over two legs, until the final which was a one-off for the cup win. The second edition included teams playing in the II liga, and kept its two-legged knockout rounds, including a two-legged final, this was also the same format used in the third edition. After the third edition the Polish Football Association announced that it would not be organising the tournament for the following season and the competition never returned to the footballing calendar.

2000 Final

25 April 2000

19:00 BST

Legia Warsaw	1–2	Polonia Warsaw
Sylwester Czereszewski  38'		Igor Gołaszewski  34' Przemysław Boldt  90'

Polish Army Stadium, Warsaw

Referee: Andrzej Czyżniewski

Polonia Warsaw won the 1999–2000 Polish League Cup.[11]

First-leg

26 May 2001

17:00 BST

Zagłębie Lubin	0–3	Wisła Kraków
		Łukasz Sosin  32' Olgierd Moskalewicz  33' Ryszard Czerwiec  73'

Stadion Zagłębia Lubin, Lubin

Attendance: 1000

Referee: Grzegorz Gilewski

Second-leg

3 June 2001

15:30 BST

Wisła Kraków	1–2	Zagłębie Lubin
Tomasz Frankowski  47'		Aleksandr Osipovich  39' Jarosław Krzyżanowski  53'

Stadion Miejski, Kraków

Attendance: 5000

Referee: Jacek Granat

Wisła Kraków won the 2000–2001 Polish League Cup winning 4–2 on aggregate.[12][13]

First-leg

22 May 2002

19:00 BST

Legia Warsaw	3–0	Wisła Kraków
Tomasz Sokołowski  17' Radosław Wróblewski  67' Stanko Svitlica  82'

Polish Army Stadium, Warsaw

Attendance: 8000

Referee: Piotr Święs

Second-leg

26 May 2002

19:30 BST

Wisła Kraków	2–1	Legia Warsaw
Tomasz Frankowski  31' Kamil Kosowski  52'		Moussa Yahaya  76'

Stadion Miejski, Kraków

Attendance: 7000

Referee: Ryszard Wójcik

Legia Warsaw won the 2001–2002 Polish League Cup winning 4–2 on aggregate.[14]

The Ekstraklasa Cup, organised by Ekstraklasa SA and not the Polish Football association was introduced in 2006. The format was similar to that of the Champions League, with four groups of four and the top two in the groups progressing to a knockout phase. The competition was cancelled in 2009 due to lack of sponsorship and no channel wanting to buy the television rights to games. It was later announced that the teams in the Ekstraklasa voted for the cup competition not to return making it impossible for the Ekstraklasa Cup in its format to return in the future.

2007 Final

10 June 2007

12:45 BST

GKS Bełchatów	0–1	Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski
Błażej Telichowski  43'

Stadion GKS, Bełchatów

Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski won the 2006–2007 Ekstraklasa Cup.[15]

2008 Final

17 May 2008

12:45 BST

Legia Warsaw	1–4	Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski
Aleksandar Vuković  90'		Piotr Rocki  3' Jarosław Lato  13' Adrian Sikora  30', 65'

Dyskobolia Stadium, Grodzisk Wielkopolski

Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski won the 2007–2008 Ekstraklasa Cup.[16]

2009 Final

13 May 2009

19:00 BST

Odra Wodzisław	0–1	Śląsk Wrocław
		Krzysztof Ulatowski  31'

MOSiR Stadium, Wodzisław Śląski

Śląsk Wrocław won the 2008–2009 Ekstraklasa Cup.[17]

The future of a League Cup competition in Polish football again looks bleak for now. In 2013 the Ekstraklasa introduced championship and relegation groups to conclude the season, leading to 7 additional games for each team in the league. In 2019 the I liga and leagues lower down on the pyramid introduced promotion playoffs, lengthening the season for the teams in the playoffs by at least weeks. Due to the increasing number of fixtures it is unlikely a League Cup will be introduced while the leagues are in their current format.