Warsaw National Stadium before Germany - Italy (6)

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 ...

is home to one major professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club and a number of smaller clubs. The only one currently playing in the first division ( Ekstraklasa) is

Legia Warsaw Legia Warszawa (), commonly referred to as Legia Warsaw or simply Legia, is a professional football club based in Warsaw, Poland. Legia is the most successful Polish football club in history, winning record 15 Ekstraklasa champions titles, a ...

Overview

On 9 April 2008 the President of Warsaw, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, obtained from the mayor of

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

Wolfgang Schuster Wolfgang Schuster (born 5 September 1949 in Ulm) is the former Lord Mayor of Stuttgart, Germany, from January 1997 until January 2013. He was the successor to Manfred Rommel and he is a member of the CDU. Career Studies and early positions Sch ...

a challenge award – a

commemorative plaque A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other ...

awarded to Warsaw as the European Capital of Sport in 2008. The

Stadion Narodowy The Stadion Narodowy im. Kazimierza Górskiego (, en, Kazimierz Górski's National Stadium), known for sponsorship reasons as the PGE Narodowy since 2015 (with patron being added in 2021), is a retractable roof football stadium located in W ...

, holds a capacity of 58,500 seat

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

, Warsaw's recently demolished

10th-Anniversary Stadium 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

. The national stadium hosted the opening match, two group matches, a quarter-final, and a semi-final of

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...

, hosted jointly by Poland and

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

There are many sports centres in the city as well. Most of these facilities are

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...

s and sports halls, many of them built by the municipality in the past several years. The main indoor venue is

Hala Torwar The Central Sports Centre Torwar (formerly known as Hala Torwar, commonly referred to as the Arena COS Torwar) is an indoor arena in Warsaw, Poland. It opened in 1953 and seats 4,824 people in the stands, with up to an additional 1,480 seats avai ...

, used for all kinds of indoor sports (it was a venue for the

2009 EuroBasket The 2009 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 2009, was the 36th FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship held by FIBA Europe. The tournament, which was hosted by Poland, began on 7 September and concluded with the ...

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. From the Warsovian football teams, the most famous is

– the army club with a nationwide following play at

Polish Army Stadium The Stadion Wojska Polskiego (, en, Polish Army Stadium), officially named Stadion Miejski Legii Warszawa im. Marszałka Józefa Piłsudskiego ( eng, The Marshall Józef Piłsudski's Municipal Stadium of Legia Warsaw) in Warsaw, Poland, is an all- ...

, just southeast of the centre at Łazienkowska Street. Established in 1916, they have won the country's championship fifteen times (most recently in 2021) and won the Polish Cup nineteen times. In the

1995–96 UEFA Champions League The 1995–96 UEFA Champions League was the 41st season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, and the fourth since its rebranding as the UEFA Champions League. The tournament was won by Juventus, who beat defending champions Ajax on ...

season, they reached the quarter-finals, where they lost to Greek club

Panathinaikos Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos ( el, Παναθηναϊκός Αθλητικός Όμιλος, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club ba ...

. 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 In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...

. Warsaw was chosen as one of four Polish cities to host the

tournament alongside Ukraine. Its

hosted just under a sixth of the games in the competition. It hosted 3 group A matches (including the opening game), 1 quarter-final and 1 semi-final at the European tournament. 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. 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

and it has hosted 2/3 of Poland's group matches.

Football clubs

– men's

team * Polonia Warsaw – men's

team * Gwardia Warsaw – men's

team *

Hutnik Warsaw Hutnik Warszawa, known in English as Hutnik Warsaw, is a Polish professional association football, football Football team, club based in the Bielany district of Warsaw, Poland. It was founded on April 21, 1957 as Hutniczy Klub Sportowy (''Steelwo ...

– men's

team

Basketball teams

–

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

team

Volleyball teams

* AZS Politechnika Warsaw – men's

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

team

Handball teams

* Warszawianka –

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

, swimming * AZS AWF Warsaw –

American football

* Warsaw Eagles - Polish Champion (2006, 2008) *

Warsaw Spartans 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 officially ...

* Królewscy Warszawa

Other

* Legia Warszawa (boxing) –

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

team *

Polonia GSM Warszawa Polonia may refer to: * Poland, in Latin Places * Polonia Maior or Greater Poland, a historical region of Poland *Polonia Minor or Lesser Poland, a historical region of Poland * Polonia, Manitoba, Canada * Polonia, Texas, United States * Poloni ...

–

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

team *

Warsaw Marathon The Warsaw Marathon ( Polish: ''Maraton Warszawski'' pronunced: , also referred to as the PZU Warsaw Marathon) is an annual marathon event which takes place on the streets of Warsaw, Poland. It is the oldest annual marathon in Poland, held since 1 ...

– annual

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

Centaury Warszawa Centaury is a common name for several plants and may refer to: *''Centaurea'', a genus in the Asteraceae containing species sometimes called centaury *'' Centaurium'', a genus in the Gentianaceae containing species commonly called centaury **'' Gyr ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

team * Feniksy Warszawa -

team
Polish Devils
- Australian Football

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sport In Warsaw