ŁKS Łódź (''Łódzki Klub Sportowy Łódź''; ) is a Polish sports club based in

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

. They are best known for their football club but are represented in many sports such as

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

, and in the past

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

, athletics,

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

, etc. The club is based at Władysław Król Municipal Stadium, at Aleja Unii Lubelskiej 2 in the West of Łódź. This article focuses on the football club. Their nickname "''Rycerze Wiosny''" ("Knights of Spring") was given to them due to their usually strong performances after the winter break in the league.

History

The club was founded in 1908. It was one of the founders of the Ekstraklasa, Poland's top division. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, two pre-war players of ŁKS, Adam Obrubański and Alojzy Welnitz, were among Poles murdered by the Russians in the large Katyn massacre in April–May 1940. ŁKS enjoyed greatest success in the 1950s and 1990s, when it reached the podium six times, including winning the championship title in 1958 and 1997–98. It also won the Polish Cup in 1957, and reached the final in 1994. In March 2010, the city government sold the football team to a private investor, as the city could no longer afford to support the football team, particularly after several seasons in the top level Ekstraklasa, where expenses often exceeded the ticket revenue from the club's small seating-capacity stadium. In May 2013, at the conclusion of the second-tier 2012–13 I liga season, the private investor declared bankruptcy. The club survived when a partnership between fans and other local investors raised the necessary funds to enter the much more affordable amateur fifth-level IV liga in time for the 2013–14 IV liga season, competing against other local area teams in the Łódź group. The rebuilt club returned to the top division in 2019. On 28 May 2023, ŁKS secured promotion to Ekstraklasa after a 1–1 draw against Arka Gdynia; this result also confirmed ŁKS as I liga champions. However, they were relegated to the second division after just one season back in the top flight.

Facilities

In 2009 the new Atlas Arena was completed adjacent to the football stadium. It is an indoor arena and has already hosted international events in basketball, volleyball and boxing. The City council, owner of the various ŁKS Łódź sports clubs, still intend to construct a brand new stadium on the site of the current football stadium. It was intended to be complete in time for UEFA Euro 2012, but now is expected to be finished in late 2013-early 2014. Although Łódź is not a Euro 2012 host city, it had been believed that a failure by Ukraine to be ready on time would lead to Poland hosting the entire tournament on its own and therefore requiring more host cities. There were four Polish host cities (

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, Gdańsk,

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

and

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

) involved in hosting the tournament. It was envisioned the new stadium would have approximately 34,000 seats, as required by

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

. While the concept of a new stadium for ŁKS Łódź was being discussed in 2009, cross-town rival Widzew Łódź announced that they would not contribute to any such stadium, as they had imminent plans to renovate their own stadium (the Widzew Łódź plans were stalled for years, eventually opening the 18,000 seat Widzew Łódź Stadium in 2017). Support for the project was undermined by the successful re-call of the Łódź city president in early 2010. The city also announced a public auction for their stake in the club as they could no longer afford to cover the clubs loses. Owing to financial constraints and lack of demand from LKS fans, the conceptual plan for a new ŁKS Łódź stadium was scaled down to 16,500 in 2012. As part of renovations, a new 3,000 seat arena was supposed to be built to complement the existing Atlas Arena. All work was expected to cost 218 million PLN. All plans to provide the club with new facilities, however, were abandoned as of 2013, due to financial constraints and the bankruptcy of the club in May 2013. However, with an upturn in the clubs fortunes, a new stadium is currently being built. One side was used during the 2019–20 Ekstraklasa season with the remainder of the ground set to be completed by 2021.

Rivalries

The club has a fierce rivalry with cross-town club Widzew Łódź, with the derby match between the two clubs being intense both on and off the field. See Łódź derby.

Honours

League

* Ekstraklasa ** Champions: 1958, 1997–98 ** Runners-up: 1954 ** Third place: 1922, 1957, 1992–93 * I liga ** Champions: 2010–11, 2022–23

Cup

* Polish Cup ** Winners: 1956–57 ** Runners-up: 1993–94 * Polish Super Cup ** Runners-up: 1994, 1998

Youth teams

* Polish U19 championship ** Champions: 1962, 1983, 1999 ** Runners-up: 1953, 1955, 1973, 2002 ** Third place: 1971, 1981 * Polish U17 championship ** Champions: 1994, 1999

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

Notable former players

ŁKS in Europe

Managers

* Lajos Czeizler (1923–26) * Lajos Czeizler (1935–36) * Władysław Król (1949) * Jan Wiszniowski (1950) * Edward Drabiński (1950–51) * Artur Woźniak (1951) * Władysław Król (1952–59) * Kazimierz Radwański (1960) * Stanisław Baran (1961) * Władysław Król * Tadeusz Foryś (1965) * Longin Janeczek (1966–67) * Wacław Pegza (1968) * Józef Walczak (1971–72) * Paweł Kowalski (1972) * Kazimierz Górski (1973) * Grzegorz Polakow (1975) * Longin Janeczek (1976) * Leszek Jezierski (1976–78) * Zygmunt Małolepszy (1978) * Józef Walczak (1980) * Wojciech Łazarek (1991) * Ryszard Polak (1991–95) * Zbigniew Lepczyk (1995) * Marek Dziuba (1996–99) * Adam Topolski (2000) * Włodzimierz Gąsior (2002) * Bogusław Pietrzak (2002–03) * Włodzimierz Tylak (2003) * Wojciech Borecki (2003–04) * Marek Chojnacki (2004) *

Wiesław Wojno Wiesław Wojno (born 28 August 1955) is a Polish former professional Manager (association football), football manager. Honours KSZO Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski * II liga, II liga East: 2008–09 References

1955 births Living people Polis ...

(2005–06) * Jerzy Kasalik (2006) * Marek Chojnacki (2006–07) * Wojciech Borecki (2007) * Mirosław Jabłoński (2007–08) * Marek Chojnacki (2008) * Grzegorz Wesołowski (2008–10) * Andrzej Pyrdoł (2010–11) * Dariusz Bratkowski (2011) * Michał Probierz (2011) * Tomasz Wieszczycki ''(caretaker)'' (2011) * Ryszard Tarasiewicz (2011–12) * Andrzej Pyrdoł (2012) * Marek Chojnacki (2012) * Maciej Szpak (2013) * Piotr Zajączkowski (2013) * Wojciech Robaszek (2013–2014) * Andrzej Kretek (2014) * Marek Chojnacki (2014–2015) * Robert Szwarc (2015–2016) * Wojciech Robaszek (2016) * Marcin Pyrdoł (2016–17) * Wojciech Robaszek (2017–18) * Kazimierz Moskal (2018–20) * Wojciech Stawowy (2020–21) * Ireneusz Mamrot (2021) * Kibu Vicuña (2021–22) * Marcin Pogorzała ''(caretaker)'' (2022) * Kazimierz Moskal (2022–23) * Piotr Stokowiec (2023–24) * Marcin Matysiak (2024) * Jakub Dziółka (2024–25) * Ariel Galeano (2025) * Ryszard Robakiewicz ''(interim)'' (2025–''present'')

ŁKS Łódź II

As of the 2024–25 season, the club's

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

competes in II liga, having won promotion from the 2022–23 III liga.

ŁKS Łódź III

The club also operates a third team, which was established in 2019. It currently plays in the

IV liga Łódź IV liga Łódź group (grupa łódzka), also known as Betcris IV liga łódzka for sponsorship reasons, is one of the groups of IV liga, the fifth level of Polish football league system. The league was created in the 2000–01 season after a new ...

, the fifth tier of the league pyramid.

References

External links

*
ŁKS Łódź
at 90minut.pl
Łódzki KS
at 90minut.pl
Atlas Arena Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lks Lodz Football clubs in Łódź Association football clubs established in 1908 1908 establishments in Poland 1908 establishments in the Russian Empire