PZPN

Polish Football Association is the largest and one of the oldest Polish sports associations. The founding convention of Polish FA took place on 20 and 21 December 1919 in Warsaw. During the meeting, the Statute of the association was created and approved. Its authors were Józef Lustgarten, Jan Polakiewicz and Jan Weyssenhoff. The first president of the Association was Dr. Edward Cetnarowski, a famous Cracovia activist, and the first headquarters of the Polish Football Association was located in Cracow. Year later, regional football associations began to form.

In 1920, there were already four regional associations: in Cracow, Lviv, Poznan and Lodz. Football was becoming increasingly popular in the country by the Vistula River.

In 1923, the Polish FA obtained FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) membership, which resulted in the fact that a year later the Bialo-czerwoni competed at the Paris Olympics. Despite an unsuccessful performance, at the end of the year, 510 clubs, 17 000 athletes and 200 judges were registered in the Polish FA. In just three years, the number of professional players increased over sevenfold.

During the General Reporting Assembly of Polish FA, convened in February 1927 in Warsaw, clubs and Football Association were unable to reach an agreement. There was a split in Polish football - 14 top clubs formed the league. Only Cracovia, the president of which was the president of Polish FA Edward Cetnarowski, remained loyal to the Association. The first league match took place on April 2, 1927 in Warsaw - Warszawianka defeated Legia (4:1). Wisła Kraków won the league competition; the first relegated team was Aurora Kraków. Shortly after the tournament, Cracovia joined the league competition. Convened on 18 December 1927, the Extraordinary Meeting of Polish FA finally legitimized the league. In 1928, the Football Association headquarters was moved to Warsaw, and a year later, new regional associations were created: Bialystok, Polesia and Volhynia.

In 1934, our team made its debut in World Cup qualifiers, and four years later, for the first time in history, it has qualified for the finals of this event. In France, the Bialo-czerwoni lost their first game with Brazil, after extra time, (5:6). The hero of the meeting was Ernest Wilimowski, who scored four goals. However, the defeat - as it turned out later - to the world's third team meant a farewell to the championship finals.

Shortly after the war, on 29 June 1945, the Polish Football Association was reactivated in Cracow. Tadeusz Kuchar was elected president of Polish FA, and the representatives of seven districts attended the first meeting.

In 1950, the historical names of clubs were replaced with the newly formed, artificial titles, created according to the prevailing political climate: Włókniarze (‘textile workers’) - ŁKS and Garbarnia, Kolejarze (‘railroaders’) - Lech and Polonia, ‘guard teams’ - Wisła, ‘union teams’ - Warta, ‘construction teams’ – AKS, and ‘military teams’ - CWKS instead of Legia. Year later, a breakneck statutory solution was introduced – although Wisła placed first in the league, the title of champion was awarded to Ruch Chorzów, the Polish Cup winner. The first edition of the revived tournament gathered almost 8,000 teams.

In 1957 when our footballers won in Chorzow against the Soviet Union (2:1) in World Cup qualifiers. The legendary Gerard Cieślik netted twice, and the victory became a demonstration in its political dimension.

Led by the legendary coach Kazimierz Górski, the Polish national team won the gold medal at the 1972 Olympics. His team defeated Hungary 2-1 in the final, with both goals for the White-and-Reds scored by Kazimierz Deyna. (Photo by East News)

In the least expected moment, when the country was under the martial law, the national team, under the leadership of Antoni Piechniczek, bounced back and brought the bronze medal from the Spanish World Cup. The Polish squad went to the next World Cup, but a positive result was out of reach, and afterwards, according to the "curse" by Zbigniew Boniek – the Poles would not be taking part in the finals of the biggest football event for another twenty years.

In 1988, Polish FA announced further reforms in the league. The Ekstraklasa was supposed to include 14 teams, the second league – 18 teams, and the third league - 64 (divided into four groups).

Youth football brought redemption. In 1993, Poland won the UEFA European Under-16 Championship (coach - Andrzej Zamilski). Polish footballers were runners-up in the same competition six years later and also collected the U-18 title in 2001 (coached by Michał Globisz).

In the World Cup in Korea - Japan 2002 qualifiers, the Boniek’s "curse" lost its power, and the Polish national team, after 16 years of absence, advanced to the finals of the world championships. However, the performance during the tournament was not a successful one - despite the best hopes - the Poles, led by Jerzy Engel, did not forward to the qualifying group.

In 2007, Poland qualified for the first time to the European Championships. This can seem quite astonishing, but even for the "golden eleven”, coached by Kazimierz Górski, the qualifiers for the continental championship proved to be too much of a challenge. The Dutch coach of the Polish “Eagles” Leo Beenhakker managed to break through the powerlessness. The year 2007 brought an enormous success on the international level. UEFA decided to entrust the organization of Euro 2012 tournament to Poland and Ukraine. This was certainly one of the most important events in the history of Polish football, and still - one of the biggest challenges.
 

November 26th 2012, Zbigniew Boniek was elected for the presidency of the PZPN. He managed to get 61 votes which resulted in a win in the second round of voting. The runner ups were: vice president Potok, of the Lodzki ZPN (27 votes), Roman Kosecki (15) and Zdzisław Kręcina, the former secretary-general of the PZPN. Stefan Antkowiak, head of the Wielkopolski ZPN lost in the first round with 10 votes.

11 October 2014 was a date that would go down in the history of Polish football. The Polish national team defeated Germany for the first time! Led by coach Adam Nawałka, the team won 2-0 at the National Stadium in Warsaw after goals by Arkadiusz Milik and Sebastian Mila.  

A General Meeting and Elections of the Polish Football Association took place on 28 October 2016. During the meeting, 115 delegates voted to elect the President of the Polish Football Association. Zbigniew Boniek won the election with 99 votes.

After a twelve-year-long break, the Polish national team won a promotion to the 2018 World Cup. The White-and-Reds won the group, leaving Denmark, Montenegro, Romania, Armenia and Kazakhstan behind. In the last qualifier, Poland defeated Montenegro 4-2. With sixteen goals scored, Robert Lewandowski became the top goalscorer of the qualifiers, and Adam Nawałka became the first coach in history to succeed in leading his team to both the European Championship and the World Cup. 

Adam Nawałka stepped down as the coach of the Polish national team after the World Cup. He was replaced by Jerzy Brzęczek, whose debut as the coach resulted in a draw against Italy in the UEFA Nations League tournament.

FIFA Under-20 World Cup 2019 – the twenty-second World Cup tournament of the men's U-20 teams. For the first time this tournament took place in Poland. It began on 23 May and ended on 15 June 2019. Ukraine won the U-20 World Cup, beating South Korea 3:1 in the final played in Łódź. The Polish national team, led by coach Jacek Magiera, finished the tournament in the round of 16, where they lost 0:1 to Italy.

On 21 January, Paulo Sousa, a Portugese coach and a former representative of his country, has been appointed as the new head coach of the Polish national football team. The coach used to work with such teams as Leicester City, ACF Forentina or Girondins Bordeaux. He won the Israeli championship with Maccabi Tel Aviv, and together with FC Basel he won the championship of Switzerland. Paulo Sousa replaced Jerzy Brzęczek as the head coach.

Poland hosted the final match of the UEFA Europa League for the second time. In the final game, Villarreal CF defeated Manchester United after a penalty shootout (the score was 1:1 after 90 minutes and extra time). In the shootout, the Spanish team won 11:10.

During the General Reporting and Elections Meeting of Delegates of the Polish Football Association held on 18 August 2021, Cezary Kulesza, previously Vice President for Professional Football of the Polish Football Association, has been elected the new President of the Polish Football Association.

On 31 January 2022, Czesław Michniewicz became the new head coach of the Polish national team. "After much discussion, analysis and further consideration, I made a choice that I am satisfied with and consider to be the best possible choice under the current circumstances. Coach Michniewicz convinced me with his specific plan. Our main goal is the play-off matches and, as we both believe, promotion to the World Cup in Qatar," said Cezary Kulesza, President of the Polish Football Association. The 52-year-old coach signed a contract until the end of the year, with an option to extend it.

The Polish national team lost 1:3 to France at Al Thumama Stadium in Doha in the 1/8 finals match of the World Cup in Qatar. The White-and-Reds put up a fight, but the current world champions proved too strong an opponent for them. Kylian Mbappé scored two goals for the 'Tricolores', while Olivier Giroud also added to the score The honour score for Poland was courtesy of Robert Lewandowski, who took advantage of a penalty kick in added time. Czesław Michniewicz's team will return to the country on Monday. It should be mentioned that at the World Cup in Qatar, the White-and-Reds advanced out of the group for the first time in 36 years.

On 24 January 2023, the Portuguese coach Fernando Santos was appointed as the new Polish national team head coach. The contract with the coach, who led the Portuguese national team to the 2016 European Championships, will last for the next two qualifying cycles - for the European and World Cups. "I firmly believe that the new head coach will bring a great deal of good to the national team and Polish football as a whole," said the president of thehe Polish Football Association, Cezary Kulesza.