Zawisza Bydgoszcz

Zawisza Bydgoszcz

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Full name	WKS Zawisza Bydgoszcz SA
Nickname(s)	Wojskowi ("The Army"), Niebiesko-Czarni ("Blue-Black"), Rycerze Pomorza ("Knights of Pomerania")
Founded	1946
Ground	Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak Stadium
Ground Capacity	20,247
Chairman	Anita Osuch
Manager	Maciej Bartoszek
League	I liga
2014–15	Ekstraklasa, 15th (relegated)
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Zawisza Bydgoszcz (Polish pronunciation: [zaˈviʂa bɨˈdɡɔʂt͡ʂ]) is a sports club from Bydgoszcz, Poland, founded in 1946. Its name commemorates a legendary Polish 15th-century knight, Zawisza Czarny (Zawisza the Black). The club holds many sections: football, track and field athletics, boxing, rowing, canoeing, weightlifting, gymnastics, shooting, and parachuting ones.

History

File:Radosław Osuch.jpg

Radosław Osuch. Club owner

The team was founded in 1946, as an military-sponsored club in Koszalin, although they only played friendly matches initially. When the army headquarters moved to Bydgoszcz a year later in 1947 the club followed.

The football team has achieved some successes, playing for several years in the Polish First Division. For the first time, Zawisza won promotion in 1961. After relegation in the 1993/1994 season, the team had not managed to get back to the First Division till 2013. They reached the semi-finals of the Polish Cup in 1991 and competed in 1993 Intertoto Cup.

Zawisza was relegated from Second Level to Fourth Level in the 1997–98 season. In 2001 they controversially merged with Chemik Bydgoszcz, and played as Chemik-Zawisza, whist the reserve team was initially meant to be called Zawisza-Chemik, although ultimately the reserved team remained as simply "Zawisza". The merger turned out to be very unsuccessful, and the senior side started anew from the bottom of the league pyramid reverting to "Chemik", leaving the reserve team in the fifth division, which subsequently became Zawisza's senior team.

Aside from the ongoing Hydrobudowa scandal between 2006 and 2008, the original team were promoted to Third Level after finishing 1st in their regional Group of 3rd liga in the 2007–2008 season. On 12 June 2011, after a 13-year absence, Zawisza was promoted to the Second Division after finishing second 5 points behind Olimpia Grudziądz in the Third Division West in the 2010–11 season. In 2013 Zawisza got promoted to the Ekstraklasa after 19 years of playing in lower leagues. Finally Zawisza won Polish Cup in 2013–14 season, winning 6–5 on penalties after a goalless 120 minutes against Zagłębie Lubin, and qualified to UEFA Europe League second qualifying round.

Zawisza's youth teams have also won several medals during the national championships – gold (1981), silver (1958, 1986, 2013) and bronze (1967, 1979, 1998 ).

Hydrobudowa

Zawisza Bydgoszcz SA was a club that was created when Kujawiak Włocławek were moved to Bydgoszcz and renamed by Hydrobudowa, their owners. The original Zawisza Bydgoszcz continued playing in the fourth division, however the new club had a very similar logo and an identical name. As a result Kujawiak, Zawisza and supporters all over the country boycotted the relocated team. The reserve team continued to play under the name Kujawiak Włocławek in the Fourth Polish league. Many considered this club to be a continuation of Zawisza.

The club lasted 2 seasons in the Second Division, before it folded in 2007 as a result of serious corruption allegations and widespread condemnation.

Honours and achievements

Domestic

• Ekstraklasa:
  • 4th spot: 1990
• Polish Cup:
  • Winner: 2013–14

• Polish SuperCup
  • Winner: 2014

• Football Junior Championships of Poland
  • Gold medal U-19: 1981
  • Silver medal U-19: 1958, 1986
  • Bronze medal U-19: 1967, 1979
• Silver medal U-17: 2013

International

• 1993 Intertoto Cup: second place in Group 1, behind Rapid Wien
• Second qualifying round of the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League, losing to S.V. Zulte Waregem

Supporters

The fan movement at Zawisza started in the 1970s, one of the first clubs with organised support in the country. Since then club has always attracted a large support considering its relative lack of success. The club enjoys support from around Cuiavia, with fan-clubs in several other major towns, most notably in Inowrocław, Janikowo, Nakło and Mogilno, among several others.

The fans have good relations with fans of ŁKS Łódź, GKS Tychy, Zagłębie Lubin and Górnik Wałbrzych. Their arch-rivals are fellow locals Polonia Bydgoszcz, with whom they contest the Bydgoszcz Derby, and regional rivals Elana Toruń, with whom they play the Cuiavian Derby, with the Toruń and Bydgoszcz rivalry between the two cities one which goes even beyond sport.

Protests

File:Zawisza Bydgoszcz vector.svg

The club's traditional logo, one that most fans still identify with as the current logo is often associated with controversy

In the 21st Century, the Zawisza fans have encountered numerous challenges from owners, city council, politicians and the media, frequently battling against them for public support.

First they opposed the controversial merger with Chemik Bydgoszcz in 2001, choosing to boycott the new merged club (which turned out to be hugely unsuccessful) and support the reserve team which still played under the Zawisza name.

In 2006 the fans opposed the new relocated Zawisza, again opting to continue to support the original team made up of the reserve squad. When the "new Zawisza" failed to win any trophies and was embroiled in a match-fixing scandal, subsequently folding, the fans triumphantly announced victory against the media and politicians who supported it.

In 2008 the fans protested against the city council which was insistent on renaming the newly rebuilt stadium as the "Municipal Stadium", with the fans claiming that to omit any link to Zawisza was unfair.

In 2014, the fans began to boycott matches after a match against Widzew Łódź. The fans claim that the police brutally assaulted fans, when preventing Zawisza and ŁKS Łódź fans from entering the stadium, including women, the elderly and children, causing one fan to lose their eye. Following the incident, the fans asked to see the security footage, however, the footage was claimed to be lost due to an alleged "technical fault". The club chairman, Radosław Osuch, and a large portion of the media and public opinion, attributed the incident to football hooliganism. The football players currently at the club, decided to openly support the chairman, sparking fury from the fans. Meanwhile Osuch has even threatened to relocate the club, and has openly declared war against the fans He changed the club crest to the similar but despised crest used by the relocated Zawisza in 2006, further angering the fans. Since 2014 the boycott has been upheld, meaning that there has been minimal attendance and almost no vocal support during matches, including the historic Polish Cup win. In January 2015, a group of fans broke into the stadium and placed 15 coffins on the pitch, depicting 14 players and the chairman, and a banner with the words "Osuch's whore spares, you are morally dead", as a protest against the chairman and the players. The club issued a criminal investigation into the incident. In May 2015, after Górnik Łęczna keeper Sergiusz Prusak displayed a t-shirt showing his support to the Zawisza fans, the Zawisza fans decided to break their boycott for one match only to come and thank him in a match against Górnik. In order to prevent the fans from coming to Zawisza, Osuch subsequently raised the match ticket price to a very high 200zł in order to stop the fans attending.

Ground

Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak Stadium

European record

Season	Competition	Round	Opponent	1st leg	2nd leg	Aggregate
2014–15	UEFA Europa League	2Q	Zulte Waregem	1–2 (A)	1–3 (H)	2–5

Current squad

As of 30 June 2015 Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Łukasz Sapela 2 DF Piotr Stawarczyk 3 DF Mateusz Mazalon 4 DF Krzysztof Nykiel 5 MF Michał Cywiński 7 MF Jakub Smektała 10 MF Mica 11 MF Vasil Panayotov 12 GK Dominik Kowalski 13 MF Sylwester Patejuk 14 MF Kamil Drygas (captain) 16 FW Kamil Żylski

No. Position Player 17 FW Arkadiusz Gajewski 18 DF Damian Ciechanowski 19 DF Blažo Igumanović 20 FW Szymon Lewicki 21 MF Jakub Łukowski 25 MF Damian Michalik 26 MF Marko Banović 27 DF Tomasz Wełnicki 28 MF Sebastian Kamiński 30 MF Maciej Kona 32 DF Łukasz Nawotczyński 96 GK Damian Węglarz

Coaching staff

• Coach: Zbigniew Smółka
• Second Coach: Hermes
• Assistants Coach: Daniel Osiński
• Goalkeeping Coach: Przemysław Norko
• Team Doctor: Marcin Andrzejewski

Managers

• Antoni Brzeżańczyk (1 July 1957 – 30 June 1958)
• Edward Brzozowski (1963–64)
• Bronisław Waligóra (1971–72), (1974–75)
• Wojciech Łazarek (1 July 1978–79)
• Władysław Stachurski (1 April 1988 – 30 June 1990)
• Adam Topolski (1 May 1991 – 30 June 1992)
• Leszek Jezierski (1992)
• Bogusław Kaczmarek (1 July 1993 – 31 Dec 1993)
• Bronisław Waligóra (1995–96)
• Zbigniew Franiak (1 July 1996 – 1 April 1997)
• Ryszard Lukasik (10 Feb 2007 – 11 April 2007)
• Piotr Tworek (11 April 2007 – 14 March 2009)
• Mariusz Kuras (29 March 2009 – 30 June 2010)

• Maciej Murawski (1 July 2010 – 9 April 2011)
• Adam Topolski (14 April 2011 – 22 June 2011)
• Janusz Kubot (22 June 2011 – 18 April 2012)
• Yuriy Shatalov (19 April 2012 – 26 April 2013)
• Ryszard Tarasiewicz (27 April 2013 – 17 June 2014)
• Jorge Paixão (24 June 2014 – 30 August 2014)
• Mariusz Rumak (1 September 2014 – 8 September 2015)
• Maciej Bartoszek (1 October 2015 – 7 January 2016)
• Zbigniew Smółka 8 January 2016 –

Notable Players

Zbigniew Boniek, the most famous Zawisza's former player. Current Polish Football Association chairman

Internationally capped players

• Zbigniew Boniek
• Paweł Kryszałowicz
• Wojciech Łobodziński
• Stefan Majewski
• Piotr Nowak
• Sławomir Wojciechowski
• Vuk Sotirović

External links

• Official website
• Recent results and upcoming fixtures at FIFA
• Zawisza Bydgoszcz on 90minut.pl