The Polish League Cup () 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 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 (; meaning "Extra Class" in Polish), officially known as PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa due to its Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is a professional association football league in Poland and the highest level of the Polish foo ...

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

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

affair with the game being contested between Polonia Warsaw and

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 a record 15 champions titles, a record 2 ...

, 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, 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 and Wisła Kraków, 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

and Wisła Kraków, 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 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 ( PZPN) is the governing body of association football in Poland. It organizes the Polish football leagues (without the ), the national cups, and manages the men's and women's national teams. It also runs the nati ...

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