Sport in Warsaw

National Stadium

Warsaw is home to 2 major professional football clubs and a number of smaller clubs. The only one currently playing in the first division (Ekstraklasa) is Legia Warszawa.

Overview

On 9 April 2008 the President of Warsaw, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, obtained from the mayor of Stuttgart Wolfgang Schuster a challenge award – a commemorative plaque awarded to Warsaw as the European Capital of Sport in 2008.[1]

The National Stadium, holds a capacity of 58,500 seat football (soccer) stadium, Warsaw's recently demolished 10th-Anniversary Stadium.[2] The national stadium is due to host the opening match, 2 group matches, a quarterfinal, and a semifinal of the UEFA Euro 2012 hosted jointly by Poland and Ukraine.[3]

Eastern stand named after legendary Kazimierz Deyna at the Pepsi Arena

There are many sports centres in the city as well. Most of these facilities are swimming pools and sports halls, many of them built by the municipality in the past several years. The main indoor venue is Hala Torwar, used for all kinds of indoor sports (it was a venue for the 2009 EuroBasket[4] but it is also used as an indoor skating rink. There is also open-air skating rink (Stegny) and the horse racetrack (Służewiec).

The best of the city's swimming centres is at Wodny Park Warszawianka, 4 km south of the centre at Merliniego Street, where there's an Olympic-sized pool as well as water slides and children's areas.[5]

From the Warsovian football teams, the most famous is Legia Warszawa – the army club with a nationwide following play at Polish Army Stadium, just southeast of the centre at Łazienkowska Street. Established in 1916, they have won the country’s championship 8 times (most recently in 2006) and won the Polish Cup 14 times. They have never been relegated divisions. In the Champions League season 1995/96 they reached the quarter-finals, where they lost to Panathinaikos Athens.

Their local rivals, Polonia Warsaw, have significantly fewer supporters, yet they managed to win Ekstraklasa Championship in 2000. They also won the country’s championship in 1946, and won the cup twice as well. Polonia's home venue is located at Konwiktorska Street, a ten-minute walk north from the Old Town.

Warsaw was chosen as one of four Polish cities to host the UEFA Euro 2012 tournament alongside Ukraine. Its National Stadium (Warsaw) will be hosting just under a sixth of the games in the competition. It will host 3 group A matches (including the opening game), 1 quarter-final and 1 semi-final at the European tournament.[6] Its city emblem (a mermaid) was chosen as the badge to symbolise the area. The city has also 4 teams who have their team base there or thereabouts: Russia, Croatia, Greece and of course, Poland.[7] The stadium is fully equipped including a folding roof (largest cubic volume in Europe) and a 56,000 seater capacity. The host stadium was only completed in November 2011, under a year before the start of UEFA Euro 2012 and it has hosted 2/3 of Poland's group matches.[8]

Club Sport Founded League Venue Head Coach
Legia Warszawa[9] Football 1916 Ekstraklasa Pepsi Arena Henning Berg
Polonia Warszawa[10] Football 1911 IV Liga Stadion Polonii Igor Gołaszewski
Legia Warszawa[11] Basketball 1947 Second League OSiR Bemowo Wojciech Kiełbasiewicz
Polonia Gaz Ziemny Warszawa[12] Basketball 1911 Polska Liga Koszykówki Hala Sportowa "Koło" Wojciech Kamiński
AZS Politechnika Warszawa Volleyball 1918 Polska Liga Siatkówki Hala UCSiR Radosław Panas
Cumann Warszawa (Warsaw GAA) Gaelic Football and Hurling 2009 European Gaelic Football Championship Stadion Skra, Pole Mokotowskie Eoin Sheedy
Królewscy Warszawa American Football 2012 Polska Liga Futbolu Amerykańskiego Hutnik Stadium James Deacon

Like most of Polish sport clubs, those based in Warsaw have also branches that specialize in other disciplines. The following lists the major sport clubs and the discipline the club is famous for:

Football clubs

Basketball teams

Volleyball teams

Handball teams

American football

Other

References

  1. ↑ "European Capitals of Sport". www.aces-europa.eu. Retrieved 30 January 2009.
  2. ↑ Ryan Lucas. "UEFA turns attention to Euro 2012". sports.sportsillustrated.cnn.com. Retrieved 31 January 2009.
  3. ↑ "Warsaw". www1.e2012.org. Archived from the original on 3 August 2008. Retrieved 31 January 2009.
  4. ↑ 2009 EuroBasket, ARCHIVE.FIBA.com, Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  5. ↑ "Wodny Park". www.wodnypark.com.pl. Retrieved 31 January 2009.
  6. ↑ http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/season=2012/hostcountries/poland/city=3149/stadium/index.html (12 June 2012). "National Stadium". www.UEFA.com.
  7. ↑ http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/news/newsid=1740634.html (12 June 2012). "Team bases". www.UEFA.com.
  8. ↑ http://uefaeuro2012.um.warszawa.pl/sites/euro2012.um.warszawa.pl/files/newsletter_6_ang.pdf. "Warsaw host city".
  9. ↑ "KP Legia Warszawa". legia.com (in Polish). Archived from the original on November 8, 2008. Retrieved 5 November 2008.
  10. ↑ "KSP Polonia Warszawa". www.ksppolonia.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 5 November 2008.
  11. ↑ "Legia LIVE!". www.legialive.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 5 November 2008.
  12. ↑ "Polonia". www.polonia.waw.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 5 November 2008.
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