English info

The begining

Polonia Warszawa was founded in the autumn of 1911 as a union of certain school teams. The founder of the club was captain Wacław Denhoff-Czarnocki, who also invented the name of the club ( which is latin for 'Poland'). In the beginning the players played in black and white striped shirts but in the spring of 1912 established their traditional outfit with pitch black shirts. Why black? The 'patriotic' explanation says that it was to be a sign of mourning for the occupied and divided Poland, nonexistant at the time ( this version also explains the white shorts and red sox - the colours of the Polish flag. ) but the more probable version is that the man who was responsible for buying strips (Janusz Muck) could only get the black shirts. Only in the time of the Stalinist regime did the team play in different outfits. This lasting devotion to the tradition resulted in the club's popular name - The Black Shirts.
The first match in 19.11.1911 Polonia - Korona (a very strong local rival) ended with the score 3:4. Two years later, in February 1913 The Black Shirts defeated Korona 4:0!

Prewar period

April 29th 1917 - the first match between Polonia and Legia, the score was 1:1. This was the firs historic Great Derby of Warsaw - the clash of two rival teams. Hatred divided their supporters early in the clubs' history and lasts till this day, causing strong emotion during the matches and sometimes even greater in the time between.
Legia was a front-line soldier football team formed in Ukraine which came to Warsaw to play against local teams. A month later there was a second match between the teams , ending with the same score.
The first season of Polish football championship was 1921. The Black Shirts came up 2nd . In 1926 they also finished the season as vice-champions. Polonia was Warsaw's most favourite club - a great majority of the city's inhabitants where devoted Black Shirt supporters.
The friendship between Polonia and Cracovia Krakow - the prewar Polish football legend - dates back to those days.
World War II changed a lot.

The first Polish Championship relegation

In 1946 Polonia finally achieves the Polish Championship - a symbolic title as it had been won among the ruins of the bombed and burned captal. The final match was organized on "Wojska Polskiego"(the Polish Army's - Legia's ground ) Stadium on Lazienkowska St. and The Black Shirts defeated AKS Chorzów because Polonia's stadium on 6 Konwiktorska St., which lays in the Jewish ghetto area, was ruined after the war.
In 1952 "The Black Shirts" won another trophy - The Polish Cup. In the final match, they defeated their rivals Legia - 1:0 'away'. That was the last success of that period.
In the Stalinist period Polonia's name and strip where changed - Warsaw's oldest club and pride was renamed Kolejarz (which stands for Railroad worker - the team was now tied to the Polish National Railroad company) and the black shirts where banned.
Later on Polonia was relegated to 2nd division and had to face great problems. The communist government tried to erase everything which was associated with Warsaw from before the war. Every polish football club got a "resort" 'sponsor' such as the army, militia or mining industry. Unfortunately the railroad where the poorest. Also the club's management was not competent and could not face the problems the club had to cope up with.
15 years later there were still thousands of fans on Konwiktorska but Legia - which played in the 1st division and became one of Poland's strongest teams began to take over the supporters - especially the people who moved to the deserted capital after the war and had no emotional bond to Polonia.
The darkest age of the Black Shirts is the time spent in the third division - a disgrace which is never to happen again - as the fans from Konwiktorska sing: 'for those 40 years, and for the taste of the third league - the time has come, we shall be the champions of Poland'. This song seems to have been a prophecy as.

Happy days are here again

In the 1992/93 season Polonia Warsaw was promoted to 1st division. Unfortunately the organization of the club was insufficient , there was no money and no training base. One year later the team has been relegated yet again - but fortunately only for one season. In the 1995/96 season Polonia Warszawa and Wisła Kraków were promoted to first division. Good news was that since 1996 Polonia was headed by Janusz Romanowski who had just backed out from sponsoring Legia - and achieved great success - the quarter-final of the Champions League with our rival club. In 1998 "The Black Shirts" became vice-champions of 1st Division and in 1999 were in the semi-finals of the Intertoto Cup.

Polonia Warszawa - Polish 1st Division Champion 2000

In 1999/2000 season nobody mentioned Polonia as contestor for the title. At the end of the autumn round he Black Shirts were, first time in club's history ( as the championship in 1946 has been played in the cup system ), leading in the league. There were two team managers - Jerzy Engel ( who later became the coach of Polish national team and qualified for the World Cup'02 )and Dariusz Wdowczyk ( formem Polish national ). During the winter break Polonia signed contracts with talented players such as - Tomasz Wieszczycki or Tomasz Kielbowicz. In the spring round The Black Shirts lost only two games and only one ended with the draw.
Officially Polonia became Polish 1st Division Champion after thrashing Legia on the "Wojska Polskiego" Stadium 3:0. Before that the team also won a League Cup beating Legia away 2:1. In July they confirmed their class by winning The Super Cup after a match against Amica Wronki with a score 4:2.
In Champions League qualifiers The Black Shirts first won against Dinamo Bucuresti (4:3, 3:1), but then lost at the hands of Panathinaikos (2:2,1:2)
Unfortunately, things were not perfect on Konwiktorska. We won the polish league as Hoop Polonia Warszawa. Hoop was the name of a sponsor and wasn't accepted by Polonia's fans. Luckily Hoop backed out from sponsoring Polonia and took it's trademark out of the club's name.
In 2000/2001 The Black Shirts lost their form, played poor in the 1st division, but they managed to win The Polish Cup.
At the moment the club is going through a financial crisis and is desperate to remain in the first division, playing mostly with young club-raised footballers from Warsaw.

Polish 1st division Champions - 1946, 2000
2nd place - 1921, 1926, 1998
Polish Cup - 1952, 2001
League Cup - 2000
Super Cup - 2000