Polish Ekstraklasa

What started out in 1927 as “Polska Liga Piłki Nożnej” (Polish Football League), has evolved to today's “Ekstraklasa”, Poland's top category, where the country's best teams have been competing for almost a century now. The competition has had its fair share of controversy since day one, in its long history there have been moments, incidents, scandals, that everyone in Poland who loves football would prefer to forget, but no matter what, football has been and remains a national passion in the country, and its top Championship is where its football heart has been beating for decades now.

History

The Polish Championship's first year in 1927 was full of drama, first because it was boycotted by Cracovia, one of that era's best teams in the country, and then because it was decided between another Cracow club, Wisła Kraków, and 1. FC Kattowitz, a team supported by the German minority living in and around Katowice (which is the Polish name of the city, while Kattowitz is the German version of it).

Football in Poland remained ethnically and politically charged for decades. Once World War II was over and the country's borders had been redrawn, it was communism that played a major role in how the clubs and the Championship itself were run. Since the nineties, far-right extremism in the stands of several stadiums has been a problem, one that certain clubs have been unable or/and unwilling to address.

Purely football-wise, Górnik Zabrze, Ruch Chorzów, Wisła Kraków, Legia Warszawa and Lech Poznań, have earned the right to be historically considered the country's “Big Five”, winning the vast majority of the Championship titles. No one doubts that Górnik have 14 of those. Officially, Ruch have just as many, and Wisła have one less, even though there is that infamous 1951 title. That season, the Cracow club won the league, but for some reason the Polish Football Association gave the Championship title to Ruch, winners of that season's Polish Cup.

Having written all that, another thing no one can doubt is that in many statistical categories everyone is looking at Legia's back. The Warsaw club have played in Poland's top category more years than any other club, they have played more games, gathered more points, won more matches, and scored more goals than anyone else. Actually, combining Championship and Cup titles, Legia are second to none, and the way they're going after 2010, their distance from the rest of the “Big Five” will only grow bigger.

Fans' passion-aside, what makes Ekstraklasa stick out and make it the envy of even several western European countries, is the fact that its games are played in mostly modern, beautiful, and football-specific stadiums. Poland invested heavily in stadium infrastructure after being named co-host of Euro 2012 (along with neighbouring Ukraine), with magnificent new football temples opening to the country's football-crazy public before that summer. Ever since then, new stadiums have been delivered, and what's maybe even more impressive is that modest clubs as well, like Jagiellonia and Podbeskidzie (to name just two of many) can be proud of having new, modern, football-specific stadiums, that even much bigger teams in countries where football is played at a higher level would love to have, and currently can only dream of.

League system

Ekstraklasa is the top level of the Polish football league system. The second division is since 2008 known as I Liga (or with alternative spelling 1. Liga), or Pierwsza liga. An overview of the current national league system is presented in table 1.

Table 1. Polish football tiers

Club	Tier
Ekstraklasa	1
I Liga (Pierwsza liga)	2
II Liga (Druga Liga)	3
III Liga (Trzecia Liga)	4
IV Liga (Czwarta Liga)	5
Klasa okręgowa (Liga okręgowa)	6

Below the sixth tier the league is played on district level. When Ekstraklasa was inaugurated for the 2007-2008 season, the rest of the levels were degraded one step; I Liga that before was the highest became the second and so on.

Stats

Teams with most titles

Statistics of all Polish clubs that have won the top league more than once, concerning the period 1927-2024.

Table 2. Clubs and Ekstraklasa titles

Club	Titles
Legia Warsawa	15
Górnik Zabrze	14
Wisła Kraków	14
Ruch Chorzów	13
Lech Poznań	8
Cracovia	5
Widzew Łódź	4
Polonia Bytom	2
Stal Mielec	2
ŁKS Łódź	2
Zagłębie Lubin	2
Śląsk Wrocław	2

In addition, Warta Poznań, Garbarnia Kraków, Szombierki Bytom, Polonia Warsaw and Piast Gliwice, have all been Polish champions once. No title was rewarded in the 1938-1939 season due to the World War II.

Audience

Capacity of Ekstraklasa stadiums

Table 3 the capacity of all Ekstraklasa club stadiums (based on the teams that participated in the league season 2019–2020). Lechia Gdańsk's Stadion Energa Gdańsk is the biggest in the league with capacity over 40,000 people. However, the biggest stadium in Poland is National Stadium, which was constructe to stand ready for Euro 2012 and has since been used for national football matches and other events.

Table 3. The stadium capacities in the Ekstraklasa season 2019-2020

Team	Stadium name	Capacity
Arka Gdynia	Stadion GOSiR	15,139
Cracovia	Marshal Józef Piłsudski Stadium	15,016
Górnik Zabrze	Ernest Pohl Stadium	24,413
Jagiellonia Białystok	Białystok City Stadium*	22,372
Korona Kielce	Kolporter Arena	15,550
Lech Poznań	INEA Stadion	43,269
Lechia Gdańsk	Stadion Energa Gdańsk	43,615
Legia Warsawa	Polish Army Stadium†	31,800
ŁKS Łódź	Stadion ŁKS	5,700
Piast Gliwice	Stadion Piast	10,037
Pogoń Szczecin Szczecin	Stadion im. Floriana Krygiera	18,027
Raków Częstochowa	Stadion GKS3	5,264
Sandecja Nowy Sącz	Stadion Termaliki Bruk-Bet	4,595
Śląsk Wrocław	Stadion Wrocław	42,771
Wisła Krakówa	Henryk Reyman Stadium	33,268
Wisła Płock	Kazimierz Górski Stadium	10,978
Zagłębie Lubin	Stadion Zagłębia Lubin	16,068

* Also known as Stadion Miejski w Białymstoku.
† Also known as Stadion Miejski Legii Warszawa im. Marszałka Józefa Piłsudskiego.

Former Prva HNL clubs and stadiums: Bruk-Bet Termalica, Stadion Termaliki Bruk-Bet (4,595); Sandecja Nowy Sącz, Władysław Augustynek Stadium (2,500).

Players

Records

The name “Legia” shows up again while presenting the league's top scorer. Legendary Polish (despite the German name and origins) striker Ernst Pohl, scored 43 goals in 55 matches for Legia in the mid fifties, before moving to Górnik Zabrze, whom he served for a whole decade, scoring another 143 goals in 209 league games. His total of 186 goals is slightly bigger than Lucjan Brychczy's, who finished his career having scored 182 goals, wearing only Legia's (again) jersey, from 1954 to 1972.

The top name in the “all-time most appearances” list is a different case, since Łukasz Surma not only tops the list, but he is still playing, meaning that his 524 games played record will be even bigger by the time he decides to retire.

Famous players

Some of the most famous players that have participated in the Polish Ekstraklasa are:

• Gerard Cieślik (Ruch Chorzów)
• Ernst Pohl (Legia Warsawa, Górnik Zabrze)
• Kazimierz Deyna (ŁKS Łódź, Legia Warsawa)
• Lucjan Brychczy (Legia Warsawa)
• Zbigniew Boniek (Zawisza Bydgoszcz, Widzew Łódź)
• Jerzy Dudek (Sokół Tychy)
• Jakub Błaszczykowski (Wisła Kraków)
• Robert Lewandowski (Znicz Pruszków, Lech Poznań)

Ernst Pohl who played in Legia Warsawa and Górnik Zabrze 1953–1967 is the top goalscorer in the history of the league with 186 goals.

By Dimitris Basias

References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekstraklasa
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekstraklasa_w_piłce_nożnej
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Pohl
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Łukasz_Surma