Football in Gdansk

The roots of football in Gdańsk/Danzig can be traced to 1903 and the creation of Fußballclub Danzig. A new stadium was built in 1927 on what is now ul. Tragutta and in 1935 a modernization program was undertaken to make the arena one of the most advanced in this part of the world. Now, take a step back. At the same time that Fußballclub Danzig were kicking their first ball so too were a club called Lechia Lwow (Lechia is the historical name of the Poland). Founded by students the club played in the Polish league in the inter-war years, claiming runners-up spot in 1935. Once WWII kicked off Lwow found itself under Soviet occupation, and both club and players disappeared. After the war the city was ceded to Ukraine and renamed Lviv, while German Danzig became Polish Gdańsk. Waves of Poles migrated westwards to Gdańsk, and in 1945 former residents of Lwow reactivated the club they had once supported.

Originally operating as BKS Lechia Gdansk, (Budowlany Klub Sportowy) they eventually reverted back to plain old Lechia at the end of the 80s. Those in between years were spent wondering the footballing wilderness, the one piece of silverware arriving in 1983 when Lechia snatched the Polish Cup while still in the third division of the Polish league. With that came entry in the Cup Winners’ Cup, which brought with it the most famous day in the club’s history. With an estimated 40,000 inside the ground, and thousands locked outside, Lechia took on a star-studded Juventus side featuring Platini, Boniek and coached by none other than Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni. With the Solidarity movement having sprung up in the neighbouring shipyards a few years earlier and with the country having only been released from the grip of Martial Law 2 months before, the game represented much more than a European football tie. Support for, what was seen as basically Solidarity F.C., was evident in the fans ability to smuggle Lech Walesa into the ground and the subsequent singing of Solidarity songs throughout the game. Although they lost that game 3-2 the memory of leading Juventus 2-1 lives long in the memory of Lechia Gdańsk fans, and raising a mention of this game is a sure-fire way of getting a free vodka. On a purely footballing note Lechia fans, while eulogising about the great day, often forget to mention the 7-0 tonking their team had already taken in the first leg.

But dark times were around the corner, and the collapse of communism saw a combination of financial scandals, poor form and failed mergers with Lechia plunging as low as the 5th division at one stage. Saved from oblivion by donations from the fans the revitalized club gradually recovered to the point it finds itself today. The new PGE Arena built especially to host games in the EURO 2012 finals has been Lechia’s new home since the start of the 2011/2012 season with the 40,000 seats nearly filled for its opening games (attendances have since dropped back into the low teens), but the potential for the club, sitting as it does at the heart of a huge potential catchment area remains huge. With Lech Walesa a proclaimed fan and both the Prime Minister - Donald Tusk - and the President of Gdansk - Pawel Adamowicz both die-hard Lechia supporters these could be the start of a very memorable era for the club from Lwow.