Lechia – Polonia Gdansk (Poland)
I’ve always
imagined football in Poland to be something different to the rest of the world.
In South America for example you have fanatical fanbases that literally would
die for their football clubs that they support. In England, you have a sense of
tribalism that even non-league football clubs can boast to have. In Italy,
football Ultra groups amaze us with pyro dynamics and displays that would make
modern art proud. But in Poland, football just seems to be an entity of its
own. The Polish fans just seem to take it to the next level with their support
and therefore I found it hard to believe that their would-be football clubs
from that country that would have dissolved or be allowed to dissolve while it
had fans. Nonetheless there have been and this next club is one of a short but
eventful history. In fact, it only lasted a mere three years in existence. In
this book, it is one of the shortest stories I will write, but it is one that I
couldn’t leave out. It just caught my imagination, with it being about two
clubs, trying to become one super club and it just not working out. But it
maybe what happened after the merger failed that might fascinate you most, with
one club becoming even more successful than before the merger, whilst the other
club has struggled to climb the leagues once again, finding themselves down in
the lower league, and having to rename themselves once again. It is the second
club I have covered from Poland of course, with the last one having a bit of a
religious/political vibe to it. This club has no such vibe. In fact, it didn’t
have to time to create a vibe as it was gone as quickly as it was formed,
making little or no impression on the world of football. But we love those type
of clubs. The Forgotten Clubs, and this one truly lives up to that name. This
is the story of Polish football club Lechia-Polonia. It’s a short and sweet as
it gets.
The merger of
two former Polish clubs, Lechia Gdansk, and Polonia Gdansk lead to the founding
of Lechia-Polonia Gdansk in 1998. Lechia had originally been founded in 1945
and played most of their football in the lower leagues of Polish football. They
did have a successful 1953 season in which they finished 3rd in the
top tier but this success was short lived, and they found themselves meandering
between the top and second division. Their only noted success of silverware was
the Polish cup win in 1983 and the Polish Super cup win in the same season. The
had a run of seasons in the topflight for a couple of seasons after that but
again found themselves drop back into the second tier. In 1993 the club first
merged with another club in Olympia Poznan to form Olympia-Lechia Gdansk, but
this merger only lasted a season before the two clubs split. Three seasons
later, in 1998, the club merged with Polonia Gdansk to form Lechia-Polonia
Gdansk.
Polonia Gdansk
had a more moderate history than that of Lechia. Founded in 1945 as NS Nt
Gdansk and undergoing various name changes whilst playing in the lower
divisions. (They were also known as Stal Gdansk and RKS Stoczniowiec Gdansk)
they finally landed on the name Polonia Gdansk. Yo-yoing up and down the
leagues, mainly from the third tier to the second tier, the club never really
threatened to break into the top tier of Polish football. Only once did they
come close, when they finished third in the second division, just narrowly
missing out on promotion. Other than that it was always either promotion or
runner up spots in the third tier, and when they did manage to get promoted to
the second division they would either find themselves fighting against
relegation or being relegated. The most stable era in the cubs history came in
the 1970’s when they stayed in the second division for nine consecutive
seasons, only to be relegated in 1983. As previously stated, in 1998, the club
finally decided to merge with Lechia Gdansk, and In 1998 the new club of
Lechia-Polonia Gdansk was formed. But Polonia fans were not happy with this
merger. This was not going to be a straightforward process.
The newly
formed club, Lechia-Polonia Gdansk took its place in the II League, West
division. They finished 7th out of the 14 clubs competing and made
it to the round of 16 in the Polish cup. It was seen as a successful first
season, with the newly formed club still trying to fix issues on and off the
field. The following season, 1999-00 proved to be a bit more turbulent,
especially off the field. Polonia had decided to pull out of the merger and go
back to their original form, however, Lechia-Polonia Gdansk remained the same
name. Fans of Polonia Gdansk refused to recognise the merged club as anything
to do with their original club, and Polonia Gdansk went and started again in
the Sixth tier of the Polish football league. Lechia-Polonia finished 14th
in their second season, which was a bit of a disappointment for the club, who
thought they would be competing at the top end of the table. However, things
were about to get even worse for the new merger, as in their third season,
2000-01, they found themselves being relegated after finishing 19th
of twenty clubs, and dropping down to the III League.
What had
started out as a great idea, of two clubs coming together and creating one
super club in the region, was starting to become a disaster, and it got even
worse when Lechia decided to create a separate club, forming back to their old
entity and starting in the sixth tier just like Polonia did the season before.
Lechia-Polonia were still around for one more season, in the third tier, where
they finished 15th of 19. But that was to be it from the club after
just three seasons. They cited that they were experiencing financial
difficulties and could not continue to operate and so ceased to exist.
Lechia Gdansk,
since their reformation in 2001, have since climbed the Polish footballing
pyramid to finally reaching the Ekstraklasa in 2019 and in the 2021-22 campaign
they finished 4th. They have also won the Polish cup back in
2018-19, beating Jagiellonia Bialystok, 1-0. They also reached the final in
2019-20 but were beaten by Cracovia 3-2 after extra time. Lechia have proven
that on their own, they were better of and probably look back at the merger and
wonder what they were thinking.
In contrast to
Lechia, Polonia Gdansk have not had the best of times since reforming back into
their original entity. Now known as SKS Stoczniowiec Gdansk, they play their
football in the lower, regional divisions. The highest position they have
achieved since their reformation was two seasons in the third division, were
they finished 14th and 16th from 2012 until 2014. They
then suffered back-to-back relegations, meaning they were playing in the fifth
tier.
So, there we
have it. A project that just went completely wrong and ended up being wound up
as quickly as it was thought up. Of course, Lechia will look at it as lessons
learned and it seems as though they have benefited from the mistakes they made.
They clearly took stock of what they did wrong, and what they needed to do to
ensure their club would not only have a future in Polish football but have a
successful one at that. Polonia have obviously for whatever reason, not learned
from their mistakes, or they have simply not pushed on from the whole fiasco.
They are still there so it could all turn around for them if their fortunes on
the pitch start to come good. I wonder if the clubs ever meet, will there be a
friendly atmosphere, or will it be a hostile one? Will it be like two exes
meeting at a bar after an ugly break-up or two old housemates meeting up after
years of not seeing each other? Only time will tell, and I’m guessing it will
be a long time before we find out.