This thread has been sleeping for far too long so what better way of awakening it with a kick than by taking a look at the murky world of the Polish Ekstraklasa
. We'll examine last weekend's round.
But first, let's evoke a bit of family-friendly Ekstraklasa ambience
:
Arka Gdynia 3 Cracovia 0
ARKA GDYNIA:
Started: 9 Whites (4 Poles, 2 Croatians, 1 Slovak, 1 Lithuanian, 1 Brazilian), 2 blacks
Finished; 9 Whites (4 Poles, 2 Croatians, 1 Slovak, 1 Macedonian, 1 Brazilian), 2 blacks
CRACOVIA:
Started: 9 Whites (3 Poles, 1 Slovenian, 1 Bosnian, 1 Serb, 1 Latvian, 1 Montenegrin, 1 Slovak), 2 blacks
Finished: 9 Whites (4 Poles, 1 Slovenian, 1 Bosnian, 1 Serb, 1 Montenegrin, 1 Moldovan), 2 blacks
Gornik Zabrze 0 Lechia Gdansk 0
GORNIK ZABRZE:
Started: 11 Whites (8 Poles, 1 German*, 1 Slovak, 1 Austrian*) *N.B. Michael Bemben and Daniel Sikorski were both born in Poland
Finished: 11 Whites (7 Poles, 1 German*, 2 Slovaks, 1 Austrian*)
LECHIA GDANSK:
Started: 9 Whites (6 Poles, 1 Croatian, 1 Lithuanian, 1 Latvian), 2 blacks
Finished: 9 Whites (5 Poles, 1 Croatian, 1 Lithuanian, 1 Latvian, 1 Armenian), 2 blacks
Lech Poznan 1 Legia Warszawa 0
LECH POZNAN:
Started: 9 Whites (7 Poles, 1 Serb, 1 Belarusian), 2 blacks
Finished: 9 Whites (5 Poles, 2 Serbs, 1 Belarusiian, 1 Latvian), 2 blacks
LEGIA WARSZAWA:
Started: 8 Whites (5 Poles, 1 Spaniard, 1 Croatian, 1 Serb), 3 blacks
Finished: 9 Whites (5 Poles, 1 Spaniard, 1 Croatian, 1 Argentine, 1 Czech),2 blacks
Polonia Bytom 0 Polonia Warszawa 2
POLONIA BYTOM:
Started: 11 Whites (9 Poles, 2 Czechs)
Finished: 11 Whites (7 Poles, 2 Czechs, 2 Slovaks)
POLONIA WARSZAWA:
Started: 11 Whites (8 Poles, 1 Czech, 1 Spaniard, 1 Brazilian)
Finished: 11 Whites (9 Poles, 1 Spaniard, 1 Brazilian)
Slask Wroclaw 0 Korona Kielce 1
SLASK WROCLAW:
Started: 11 Whites (9 Poles, 1 Slovak, 1 Argentine)
Finished: 11 Whites (10 Poles, 1 Slovak)
KORONA KIELCE:
Started: 9 Whites (7 Poles, 1 Slovak, 1 Bosnian), 2 blacks
Finished: 8 Whites (5 Poles, 1 Slovak, 1 Bosnian, 1 Estonian), 3 blacks
Widzew Lodz 0 Ruch Chorzow 0
WIDZEW LODZ:
Started: 9 Whites (4 Poles, 2 Lithuanians, 1 Finn, 1 Georgian, 1 Brazilian), 1 black, 1 Arab
Finished: 10 Whites (6 Poles, 1 Lithuanian, 1 Georgian, 1 Latvian, 1 Brazilian), 1 black
RUCH CHORZOW:
Started: 11 Whites (8 Poles, 1 Croatian, 1 Bosnian, 1 Slovenian)
Finished: 11 Whites (8 Poles, 1 half-Pole*, 1 Croatian, 1 Bosnian) *N.B. Pawel Abbott was born in York to a Polish mother and English father. Just for a bit of trivia, Pawel Abbott's brother Billy (who was born in Poland) plays for Cuiavia Inowroclaw in the Polish IV Liga (i.e. 5th division)
Wisla Krakow 3 GKS Belchatow 1
WISLA KRAKOW:
Started: 8 Whites (1 Pole, 1 Estonian, 1 Slovak, 1 German, 1 Slovenian, 1 Belarusian, 1 Czech, 1 Bulgarian), 2 blacks, 1 Israeli
Finished: 8 Whites (3 Poles, 1 Estonian, 1 Slovak, 1 German, 1 Slovenian, 1 Belarusian), 2 blacks, 1 mestizo
GKS BELCHATOW:
Started: 11 Whites (10 Poles, 1 Croatian)
Finished: 11 Whites (9 Poles, 1 Croatian, 1 Russian)
Zaglebie Lubin 0 Jagiellonia Bialystok 2
ZAGLEBIE LUBIN:
Started: 8 Whites (5 Poles, 1 Serb, 1 Slovak, 1 Portuguese), 2 blacks, 1 mestizo
Finished: 7 Whites (5 Poles, 1 Serb, 1 Slovak), 3 blacks, 1 mestizo
JAGIELLONIA BIALYSTOK:
Started: 11 Whites (5 Poles, 2 Lithuanians, 1 Armenian, 1 Montenegrin, 2 Brazilians)
Finished: 10 Whites (4 Poles, 2 Lithuanians, 1 Armenian, 1 Montenegrin, 2 Brazilians), 1 black
SUMMARY OF POLISH EKSTRAKLASA ROUND:
176 Starters
155 Whites (88.068%) 99 Poles (56.25%)
18 blacks (10.227%)
3 other non-Whites (1.704%)
The Ekstraklasa is a kind of parallel alternate-universe. The match between Zaglebie Lubin and Jagiellonia Bialystok was interrupted for 19 minutes due to a floodlight failure, while 2 of the yellow cards shown in the Widzew Lodz - Ruch Chorzow match won't count against the players' disciplinary records as it was deemed that they were given unfairly - too bad that one of the yellows resulted in Ruch being reduced to 10 men after only 37 minutes...
As a startling example of the Polish footballing twilight zone we havethe case of notorious Legia Warszawa hooligan (sorry, "fan") Piotr Staruchowicz, known as "Staruch". Staruch is one of the main Legia ultras who leads the matchday chanting via a megaphone (that's right...). He was banned from the stadium last year after bellowing rather tasteless statements through his megaphone upon the announcement of the death of one of Legia's owners. Here is a photo of Staruch being discreetly removed by security:
However,
following pressure from the Legia firms, Staruch's ban was overturned by the club management. Now comes the classic part. Three rounds ago, Legia lost 2-3 at home to Ruch after being two goals up. The Legia fans went spare and hurled a sh*tload of abuse at the players as they left the field. DefenderJakub Rzezniczak turned around, walked up to the fans and "said something" - whereupon an incensed Staruch jumped the fence and smacked him in the mouth. The security guards pulled him awaybut,
instead of detaining him, they simply escorted Staruch from the stadium and he ambled off home!
Quite naturally, this precipitated a media outcry and Staruch has now copped another ban - yet he turned up to the I Liga (Second Division) Pogon Szczecin - Warta Poznan match last week(Pogonfanshave an "alliance" with Legia fans). He was stopped at the gates and the police were called. When the police arrived, Staruch calmly informed them that his ban only pertained to Ekstraklasa matches and did not extend to lower division fixtures - the police promptly left, Staruch strolled into the stadium and ostentatiously got involved in the Pogon chanting:
Bloody hell (exasperated groan)...
Edited by: Rebajlo 
