Polish League Cup (1977–1978)

The League Cup (Polish: Puchar Ligi) was a short lived cup competition in Poland spanning two editions in 1977 and 1978.

Polish League Cup
FoundedSpring 1977
AbolishedSummer 1978
Region Poland
Number of teams16
Last championsGórnik Zabrze (1st title)
Most successful club(s)Odra Opole (1 title)
Górnik Zabrze (1 title)

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. The idea of the cup competition was created by journalists from the Polish sports magazine, "Sport", and persuaded the Polish Football Association to introduce it into the calendar so that it would be an official club competition.[1] 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.

1977 League Cup

The cup started on 27 May 1977 with the final taking place on 18 June 1977. The final took place in Miejski Stadium in Częstochowa. Odra Opole won the cup and qualified for the UEFA Europa League.

Despite the efforts of the league and organisers to promote the cup tournament it proved to be unpopular, mostly due to the fact that the tournament started three days after the league ended and managers opted to mainly play reserve players. The attendances proved to be lower than expected and the players were unhappy their holidays had been shortened by three weeks.

Group 1

Pos. Club Played Pts W D L GF GA
1Lech Poznań3521050
2Pogoń Szczecin3420133
3Arka Gdynia3311111
4Śląsk Wrocław3000316

Matches

Group 2

Pos. Club Played Pts W D L GF GA
1Odra Opole3521075
2Szombierki Bytom3420154
3Ruch Chorzów3202134
4GKS Tychy3101213

Matches

Group 3

Pos. Club Played Pts W D L GF GA
1Wisła Kraków36300154
2Zagłębie Sosnowiec3311137
3ROW Rybnik3202138
4Górnik Zabrze3101257

Matches

Group 4

Pos. Club Played Pts W D L GF GA
1Widzew Łódź3521031
2ŁKS Łódź3412041
3Stal Mielec3202112
4Legia Warsaw3101215

Matches

Semifinal

Final

Odra Opole3–1Widzew 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.[2]

1978 League Cup

Due to the 1977 competition being seen as a minor failure the Polish Football Association decided not to support the competition, not making this edition of the tournament official in the eyes of the football association. For this edition the 16 I liga teams were again invited, however only 11 agreed to take part in the tournament, leading to the introduction of Diósgyőri VTK, Tatabánya, Szeged LC, and Kaposvári Rákóczi from the Hungarian leagues, as well as Górnik Zabrze from II liga. Due to the tournament not being official included into the football leagues structure in the it is difficult to find other information other than the final.

Final

Górnik Zabrze2–0Zagłębie Sosnowiec
Janusz Marcinkowski  15'
Józef Kurzeja  27'
Referee: Dobrosław Stec

Górnik Zabrze won the 1978 League Cup.[3][4]

Winners and finalists

Team Winners Runners-up Winning years
Odra Opole1-1977
Górnik Zabrze1-1978
Widzew Łódź-1-
Zagłębie Sosnowiec-1-

Aftermath

Due to the low attendances and low interest from fans the League Cup was disbanded after its second season. Since the League Cup two more League Cup competitions have been contested in Poland, the Polish League Cup (1999–2002) and the Ekstraklasa Cup (2006–2009) both being taken off the calendar for similar reasons as the League Cup.

References

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