In Polish football there have been four different League Cups with varying levels of success, but all were short-lived competitions, held irregularly over the years. The league cup competitions focused mainly on top division teams, in contrast to that of the

Polish Cup The Polish Cup in Association football, football ( ) is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout football competition for Polish football club (association football), football clubs, held continuously since 1950, and is the second most i ...

which allows teams much lower down in the footballing pyramid to compete. The four League Cup competitions played in Poland are; the ''Young Leaders Rally Cup'' () (1952), the ''League Cup'' () (1977–1978), the ''Polish League Cup'' () (1999–2002), and the ''Ekstraklasa Cup'' () (2006–2009), the former three being organised by the

Polish Football Association The Polish Football Association ( PZPN) is the governing body of association football in Poland. It organizes the Polish football leagues (without the ), the national cups, and manages the men's and women's national teams. It also runs the nati ...

while the most recent competition was organised by Ekstraklasa SA. League Cups in Poland *Young Leaders Rally Cup (1952) *League Cup (1977–1978) *Polish League Cup (1999–2002) *Ekstraklasa Cup (2006–2009)

Young Leaders Rally Cup

The Cup of the Rally of Young Leaders was the first League Cup in Poland. The tournament was created by the then president of the

with all 12 teams of the

I liga I liga (, ), currently named Betclic I liga due to its sponsorship by Betclic, is the men's second professional association football division of the Polish football league system, below the Ekstraklasa and above the II liga via promotion/rel ...

being involved. Due to the league being delayed until after the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics (, ), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad (, ) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952, were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1952 in Helsinki, Finland. After Japan declared in ...

the tournament provided the players a chance to show off their skills with a chance of being called up into the Olympic squad. The tournament structure was 2 groups of 6 who played each other twice. The top team in each group played in the final of the tournament, while the teams that finished 2nd and 3rd in the group played for the third place and fifth placed playoffs. The tournament took its name from the youth rally that was taking place in the city from 20–22 July 1952.

1952 Final

Wawel Kraków won the Young Leaders Rally Cup.

League Cup

The League Cup was introduced as a cup competition due to the rising popularity of football in Poland as a result of the success of the national team and of Polish clubs in European competitions. Journalists from the Polish magazine, "Sport" promoted the idea to the Polish Football Association. The format of the competition was to include all 16 teams in the

with 4 groups of 4. The winners of each group would then play in a knockout phase to decide the winner. While the winner of the competition won qualification to the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

. The League Cup was seen in part as a failure due to the little interest from fans and dwindling attendances. For the second edition the Polish Football Association did not promote the competition, meaning it had to be held independently, and that all the teams in the top division didn't have to take part. In the second edition 5 of the 16 I liga teams refused to take part, leading to the invitation of 4 Hungarian teams and Górnik Zabrze in the II liga.

1977 Final

Odra Opole won the 1977 League Cup.

1978 Final

Górnik Zabrze won the 1978 League Cup.

Polish League Cup

The Polish League Cup was created due to

Zbigniew Boniek Zbigniew Kazimierz Boniek (; born 3 March 1956) is a Polish former association football, footballer and manager as well as a current UEFA vice-president. A former midfielder, who was also capable of playing mostly as a right winger and Forward ( ...

and Richard Raczkowski pushing the idea to the Polish Football Association. To try and make the tournament more successful than the previous edition large financial bonuses were used for reaching each round of the competition, with the winners receiving 1.3million PLN in total. The format of the first competition was a knockout tournament with each tie being over two legs, until the final which was a one-off for the cup win. The second edition included teams playing in the II liga, and kept its two-legged knockout rounds, including a two-legged final, this was also the same format used in the third edition. After the third edition the Polish Football Association announced that it would not be organising the tournament for the following season and the competition never returned to the footballing calendar.

2000 Final

Polonia Warsaw won the 1999–2000 Polish League Cup.

2001 Final

First-leg

Second-leg

Wisła Kraków won the 2000–2001 Polish League Cup winning 4–2 on aggregate.

2002 Final

First-leg

Second-leg

Legia Warsaw won the 2001–2002 Polish League Cup winning 4–2 on aggregate.

Ekstraklasa Cup

The Ekstraklasa Cup, organised by Ekstraklasa SA and not the Polish Football association was introduced in 2006. The format was similar to that of the Champions League, with four groups of four and the top two in the groups progressing to a knockout phase. The competition was cancelled in 2009 due to lack of sponsorship and no channel wanting to buy the television rights to games. It was later announced that the teams in the Ekstraklasa voted for the cup competition not to return making it impossible for the Ekstraklasa Cup in its format to return in the future.

2007 Final

Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski won the 2006–2007 Ekstraklasa Cup.

2008 Final

Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski won the 2007–2008 Ekstraklasa Cup.

2009 Final

Śląsk Wrocław won the 2008–2009 Ekstraklasa Cup.

Finals

Future

The future of a League Cup competition in Polish football again looks bleak for now. In 2013 the Ekstraklasa introduced championship and relegation groups to conclude the season, leading to 7 additional games for each team in the league. In 2019 the I liga and leagues lower down on the pyramid introduced promotion playoffs, lengthening the season for the teams in the playoffs by at least weeks. Due to the increasing number of fixtures it is unlikely a League Cup will be introduced while the leagues are in their current format.

References

{{League Cups in Polish football, state=expanded Football cup competitions in Poland Defunct football competitions in Poland