The Polish League Cup ( pl, Puchar Ligi Polskiej) was a short lived cup competition in Poland spanning three editions from 1999 to 2002. The Polish League Cup was a newly created competition to revive the League Cup in Poland, which was last cancelled 21 years prior in 1978. The competition was presented and pushed by

Zbigniew Boniek Zbigniew Boniek (; born 3 March 1956) is a Polish former footballer and manager as well as current UEFA vice-president. A former midfielder, who was also capable of playing mostly as a right winger and second striker, he is considered one of t ...

and Richard Raczkowski. They wanted the competition to have a high interest from the fans and to make games competitive. They did this by giving a large financial bonus for each round the team got into, with the winner earning a total of 1.3 million PLN. The format of the competition changed between its editions. The first edition was a two-legged knockout tournament with the final being a one-off game to win the competition. The second and third editions followed the same format but included teams from the II liga and saw the finals being played over two legs.

Polish League Cup 1999–2000

The first edition of the Polish League Cup only involved those 16 teams in the

Ekstraklasa Poland Ekstraklasa (), meaning "Extra Class" in Polish, named PKO Ekstraklasa since the 2019–20 season due to its sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is the top Polish professional league for men's association football teams. Contested by 18 ...

with the competition being a knockout tournament with teams playing each other twice, both home and away. The final was an all

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

affair with the game being contested between

Polonia Warsaw Polonia Warsaw ( pl, Polonia Warszawa, ), founded on 19 November 1911, is the oldest existing Varsovian sports club, best known for its football and basketball teams. It also has track and field, swimming, chess, mountain biking, and contract ...

and Legia Warsaw, with the final being held at Legia's stadium.

Final

Polonia Warsaw won the 1999–2000 Polish League Cup.

Polish League Cup 2000–2001

The second edition saw the introduction of teams in the

II liga II liga (Druga Liga, ), currently named eWinner II liga due to sponsorship reasons by eWinner, is a Polish football league that sits at the third tier of the Polish football league system. Until the end of the 2007–08 season ''II Liga'' refer ...

, a move which was generally seen as positive for the competitiveness of the competition with the lower league teams often rising to the challenge of those teams in the league above. The final was contested between

Zagłębie Lubin Zagłębie Lubin S.A. () is a Polish professional football club based in Lubin. Founded in 1945 as ''OMTUR Lubin'', the club competes in the Ekstraklasa. History The football team was founded in 1945 as OMTUR Lubin by local members of the ' ...

and

Wisła Kraków Towarzystwo Sportowe Wisła Kraków Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Wisła Kraków (), is a Polish professional football club based in Kraków. It currently competes in the I liga, the second level of Polish football league system. ...

, with this years tournament being played over a two-legged final, seeing the finalists playing both home and away.

Final

First-leg

Second-leg

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

Polish League Cup 2001–2002

The third, and what turned out to be the final Polish League Cup, was again contested between teams from the I liga and II liga. The two finalists were Legia Warsaw and

, Legia being the losing finalist in the first edition, and Wisła being the winner of the previous edition.

Final

First-leg

Second-leg

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

Winners and finalists

Aftermath

As was the case with the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

in 1977–1978 the competition resulted in low attendances and low interest from fans. After the third edition the

Polish Football Association The Polish Football Association ( pl, Polski Związek Piłki Nożnej; PZPN) is the governing body of association football in Poland. It organizes the Polish football leagues (without the Ekstraklasa), the Polish Cup and the Polish national footb ...

stated that they would not be organising any further tournaments and the competition was taken off the calendar. A League Cup competition returned again in 2006 with the Ekstraklasa Cup, but that too lasted only three seasons before being taken off the footballing calendar for good.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Polish League Cup 1999-2002 Football cup competitions in Poland Defunct football competitions in Poland Recurring sporting events established in 1999 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2002 1999 establishments in Poland 2002 disestablishments in Poland