Lodz’s two football sides will compete this season in the Polish First Division (the second tier) following a year of shared off-pitch disaster. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, specially seeing both sides did enough on the pitch to guarantee top flight football; LKS Lodz finished a credible 8th in the Ekstraklasa in their first season back, but were forcibly relegated as punishment for financial mismanagement at board level. Meanwhile, cross-city rivals Widzew had looked to have done enough to earn promotion to the Ekstraklasa by finishing top, but were condemned to another season in the Polish First Division amid charges of corruption. A summer of appeals and counter-appeals proved fruitless, and both now find themselves plodding once more in the nether reaches of Polish football. The fall from grace has been spectacular; both won the league title in the late 90s, with Widzew actually being the last Polish side to make it to the group stages of the Champions League. Worse still, the two clubs have made far from an impressive start to the new season and have done little to suggest they’ll be bouncing back. Nonetheless, while the standard of football might be less than inspiring, those wishing to catch a game will find cheap tickets and a cracking atmosphere far removed from the sanitized English leagues. For Widzew, playing at ul. Piłsudskiego 138, expect to pay from 23-113zl for a ticket, while for LKS (Al. Unii Lubelskiej 2) it’s 10-30zl. For fixtures take a look at their respective websites on either www.lkslodz.pl or www.widzew.pl.