Górnik Łęczna

Górnik Łęczna
Full name Górniczy Klub Sportowy Górnik Łęczna
Nickname(s) Zielono-Czarni
Founded 1979
Ground Stadion Górnik
Łęczna, Poland
Capacity 7,500
Chairman Poland Artur Kapelko
Manager Ukraine Poland Yuriy Shatalov
League Ekstraklasa
2013–14 I Liga I liga, 2nd (promoted)
Website Club home page

GKS Górnik Łęczna is a sports club club based in Łęczna, Poland. It is best known for its men's professional football team, which competes in Ekstraklasa, the highest division in the Polish football league system. The club also fields teams in women's football and wrestling.

History

The club was founded in 1979, as a club for the local coal miners. As the years went, the local Bogdanka Coal Mine decided to invest more and more money and as a result the club quickly rose through the leagues. The club shed its relative obscurity when it gained promotion to the Ekstraklasa ni 2003.

Górnik Łęczna played in the top division from 2003 until 2007, when they were relegated to the 3rd division, as a consequence of their involvement in a match fixing scandal. However they were promoted straight back up as league winners after the 2007–08 season and competed in the I Liga for six years before winning promotion to the 2014–15 Ekstraklasa.

Since January 1, 2007, the men's football department has been operating as a business entity separate from the rest of the club.

In February 2011 the team was renamed GKS Bogdanka (Polish pronunciation: [ˈboɢɖɐ͡kɑ]) for sponsorship reasons, a decision from the local Bogdanka coal mine.[1] As a result a group of supporters opposing the name change formed an amateur team GKS Górnik 1979 Łęczna.[2] On 23 July 2013 GKS Bogdanka's board of directors announced the return to the former name.[3]

Current squad

As of 23 January 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 Croatia GK Silvio Rodić
2 Slovakia DF Patrik Mráz
4 Serbia MF Veljko Nikitović (captain)
6 Poland DF Paweł Sasin
7 Poland MF Tomasz Nowak
8 Belarus MF Filip Rudzik
9 Poland MF Sebastian Szalachowski
11 Lithuania FW Fiodor Černych
13 Poland GK Paweł Socha
14 Kosovo FW Shpëtim Hasani
15 Poland MF Grzegorz Bonin
16 Poland MF Wojciech Kalinowski
17 Poland MF Radosław Pruchnik
18 Poland MF Przemysław Kaźmierczak
19 Slovakia MF Miroslav Božok
20 Slovakia DF Lukáš Bielák
No. Position Player
21 Poland DF Bartosz Wiązowski
22 Poland DF Łukasz Mierzejewski
23 Poland DF Maciej Szmatiuk
24 Croatia DF Tomislav Božić
25 Poland DF Marcin Kalkowski
26 Poland MF Damian Szpak
27 Poland MF Kamil Dubicki
34 Ukraine MF Volodymyr Tanchyk
44 Latvia MF Nikolajs Kozačuks
73 Poland MF Patryk Burzyński
79 Poland GK Sergiusz Prusak
87 Poland MF Filip Burkhardt
90 Lithuania FW Evaldas Razulis
93 Poland FW Piotr Okuniewicz
94 Poland MF Patryk Pokrywka
99 Spain MF Josu

Out on loan

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

No. Position Player
10 Poland FW Paweł Buzała (at Bytovia Bytow)
Poland MF Marcin Swiech (at Motor Lublin)
No. Position Player

GKS Górnik 1979 Łęczna

Górnik 1979 Łęczna was a club founded in 2011 by Górnik Łęczna fans who were unhappy with the name change to GKS Bogdanka. The club eventually changed its name back in 2013 but the fan owned counterpart has continued to operate in amateur football leagues. On 22 August 2014 the club withdrew from all competitions and ceased to operate, the reason cited were the lack of funds and the fact that the original Górnik Łęczna team went back to its original name scrapping the GKS Bogdanka name.[4]

Women's section

The women's section of Górnik Łęczna played for years in the second and third tier leagues of Poland. In 2006-07 the team reached the semi-finals of the Polish Cup but lost to Medyk Konin.[5] In the 2009-10 season with the expansion of the Ekstraliga Kobiet the team finally gained promotion to it by finishing second in its 2nd tier division.[6] In its Ekstraliga debut Górnik was 5th.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Górnik Łęczna zmienił nazwę" (in Polish). 90minut.pl. 18 February 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  2. ↑ Olkiewicz, Jakub (26 March 2012). "Wyzwanie przyjęte – piłka w Łęcznej bez Bogdanki" (in Polish). Weszło!. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  3. ↑ "Wracamy do historycznej nazwy - Górnik Łęczna" (in Polish). GKS Bogdanka. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  4. ↑ http://gornik-leczna.com/gornik-1979-leczna/
  5. ↑ http://www.90minut.pl/liga/0/liga3120.html
  6. ↑ http://www.90minut.pl/liga/0/liga4600.html
  7. ↑ 2010-11 table in Soccerway.com

External links