{"id":18721,"date":"2024-04-06T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-06T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/?p=18721"},"modified":"2025-03-25T16:10:45","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T16:10:45","slug":"small-town-heroes-chronicling-the-fast-disappearing-world-of-polish-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/?p=18721","title":{"rendered":"Small-town heroes: Chronicling the fast-disappearing world of Polish football"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>English writer and photographer Alex Webber, author of the forthcoming <em>The Heart of Poland: An Odyssey Through a Country&#8217;s Football Culture<\/em>, believes that the iconoclasm present in Polish football reflects a trend visible across wider society.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alex Webber would probably be horrified to be labelled an influencer, but when it comes to lower league Polish football, he has become\u2014unwillingly, unknowingly or otherwise\u2014just that.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For several years, Webber has been leaving his home in Warsaw every weekend to travel to football grounds across Poland\u2014often in its furthest flung regions\u2014to document the match day experience. His tally of Polish stadiums now tops 160.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI want to capture what makes these places special,\u201d he says. \u201cThe stadiums, the fan culture, the impact football can have on small towns.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/after-hours\/travelling-through-central-and-eastern-europe-and-central-asia-five-essential-reads\/\">Travelling through Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Five essential reads<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/after-hours\/a-history-of-poland-in-five-novels\/\">A history of Poland in five novels<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/after-hours\/steauas-1986-european-cup-miracle-would-be-impossible-now-but-they-can-at-least-dream\/\">Steaua Bucharest\u2019s 1986 European Cup miracle would be impossible now, but they can at least dream<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Webber has lived in Poland for nearly a quarter of a century, having originally moved to Warsaw in 2000 to take up a job as the editor of city guide Warsaw In Your Pocket. He quickly became a fixture in the Polish capital, his powerful pen and acerbic wit the bane of many a restaurant and bar owner. He once famously referred to an Irish pub (now long defunct) as having \u201cabout as much in common with the Emerald Isle as Ghana\u201d.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Webber says that he ditched travel writing out of sheer apathy. \u201cThere just isn\u2019t really anything left for me to say about Warsaw\u2019s restaurants,\u201d he says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The road less travelled&nbsp;<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>Throughout his long stint in Poland, Bristolian Webber (City, not Rovers) has remained a keen football fan, attending as many games as his busy (and by his own admission chaotic) schedule allowed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These days he devotes even more time to football\u2014he will usually attend three matches each week. A typical weekend will usually include a game from one of Poland\u2019s top two divisions featuring the country\u2019s biggest teams, as well as two other matches from lower down the pyramid.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMy focus has always been on the lower leagues, the forgotten leagues, the dungeon leagues, the little teams, the rural sides. The road less travelled,\u201d Webber says. \u201cIt was the same when I was a travel writer\u2014the places that go under the radar often turn out to be the most interesting.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/gryf-slupsk-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-87061\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><em>Fans of fourth division Gryf S\u0142upsk<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Besides writing features for football magazines from the across the globe, Webber chronicles his travels on <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/alexwebber.life\/\" target=\"_blank\">his popular website<\/a>, as well as an increasingly successful Instagram account, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/polskifootballculture\/\" target=\"_blank\">PolskiFootballCulture<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An accomplished photographer as well as wordsmith, Webber\u2019s latest project is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Heart-Poland-Odyssey-Countrys-Football\/dp\/1801507147\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">book<\/a>, <em>The Heart of Poland: An Odyssey Through a Country&#8217;s Football Culture<\/em>, set to be published later this year by Pitch Publishing, the UK&#8217;s most prolific independent sports publisher.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though it features stunning photos from across the country, the narrative that accompanies them makes it clear where Webber places that heart. \u201cSilesia,\u201d he says, without hesitation.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Silesia is often recognised as the industrial powerhouse of Poland, a region where factory chimneys tower over the landscape like floodlights at a football ground.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, to pigeonhole Silesia merely as an industrial hub is, Webber argues, to overlook one of its most passionate and vibrant facets\u2014its central role in the heart and soul of Polish football. \u201cAnd not just the big clubs such as Ruch Chorz\u00f3w, GKS Katowice or G\u00f3rnik Zabrze. It&#8217;s the smaller sides in the region\u2014such as G\u00f3rnik Wojkowice\u2014that that really consist of the heart, the pumping blood.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/gornik-wojkowice-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-87056\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><em>G\u00f3rnik Wojkowice<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou can attend a game with 300 fans and a couple of dogs and yet the atmosphere will be electric.\u00a0 That\u2019s where you\u2019ll find the lifeblood of the game: in these grimy cities and towns and stadiums that are falling apart, that have been forgotten.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For decades, until the redevelopment of Warsaw\u2019s Narodowy Stadium for the UEFA 2012 European Championships, Silesia&#8217;s \u015al\u0105ski Stadium in Chorzow hosted Poland\u2019s national team matches. It was perhaps the bleakest of all the socialist superbowls that littered Central and Eastern Europe, but some of Poland\u2019s most fervent fan bases made it a daunting place for visiting teams\u2014and supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Death by renovation&nbsp;<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>Like so many of Poland\u2019s football grounds however, \u015al\u0105ski Stadium has also been renovated\u2014stripped, in the name of modernisation, of much of its charm and menace. Webber points out, however, that a few old details have been \u201csplendidly\u201d preserved, such as a mosaic outside the old stand and a couple of the tunnels that used to lead onto the pitch.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn Chorzow, you can at least still sense the sporting history,\u201d he says. Other places in the country have not been so fortunate. It\u2019s an unwelcome trend that haunts modern football across the globe.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo quickly are these wonderful old grounds disappearing that if I didn\u2019t write my book now, then the opportunity would have passed. The game that I love is disappearing, and I&#8217;ve no doubt that in a few years&#8217; time, I would have given up on it entirely,&#8221; Webber confesses. \u201cI say that with sadness, but also with a degree of certainty.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of his favourite grounds, such as GKS Katowice and Odra Opole, will soon be filed under paradise lost; both clubs are moving to new stadiums at the end of this season. Cisowianka Drzewce meanwhile, \u201cthe epitome of rural football,\u201d as Webber puts it, can no longer play in their own stadium due to safety regulations.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/cisowianka-drzewce-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-87057\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><em>Cisowianka Drzewce: &#8216;The epitome of rural football<\/em>&#8216;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Webber believes that Euro 2012 was a watershed moment for Polish football: \u201cThat&#8217;s when the police really started getting their game together. That&#8217;s when the stadiums started to close. That&#8217;s when the stadium improvements first started.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He admits, however, that the changes have been efficient at reducing the amount of hooliganism\u2014once a major problem in Polish football. \u201cThat said, it still goes on. There are still some high-profile incidents,\u201d Webber says, adding that he sometimes captures them on his camera.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI sometimes refer to myself as a storm chaser in that I do look for the feistier games.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the methods that Polish football has long employed to combat hooliganism is the use of so-called \u2018away cages\u2019\u2014pens in which supporters of opposition teams would be forced to stand.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey look like a cross between medieval public jails and something in which you&#8217;d keep the elephant man in Victorian London,\u201d says Webber. \u201cThey\u2019re brutal but I love them. Unfortunately, they are shrinking in number as stadium improvements are carried out across the board\u2014from the top teams in the first division to the lowliest side in the smallest village.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/away-pen-at-chelmianka-chelm-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-87059\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><em>The away supporters cage at Che\u0142mianka Che\u0142m<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Iconolasm\u00a0<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>Webber quickly adds, however, that he uses the word \u2018improvements\u2019 ironically, referring to the \u201canonymous, identical plastic box stadiums that look as though they have all been ordered from the same catalogue.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s all part of the homogenisation of football, its gentrification. To me, a stadium should be unique, a timeless link between a village, town or city and the team that represents it,\u201d he argues.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pointing out that, \u201cI\u2019m not a dinosaur, I do believe in progress,\u201d Webber suggests that progress should, however, never come at the cost of heritage and tradition.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAcross the world, hundreds of millions of people identify themselves through the football club they support. It\u2019s as much part of their identity and self-expression as their clothes or haircut. More, even. But a football club is not just part of a person\u2019s identity, it funnels out to become part of a town\u2019s identity. So why are clubs, towns, fans, settling for stadiums that look like carbon copies of each other?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese stadiums are where history is written, where stories are told, where legends and heroes are made. I am of the belief that a stadium should channel this. One shoe does not fit all, a stadium needs to be individual. My message to cities and to architects is to come up with something different.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Webber points at Japan\u2019s J-League or the US MLS as positive examples. \u201cThere are so many different styles of stadiums in these leagues, you wonder how countries that lack the overt football tradition of Poland manage to do so much better when it comes to stadium design.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Webber believes that the iconoclasm present in Polish football reflects a trend visible across wider society.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPoles love history, but there\u2019s very little love for anything built during the period of communist rule, even the modernist gems of the 1960s,\u201d he says. \u201cIf something went up before World War II, the attitude is, \u2018let\u2019s protect it, let\u2019s preserve it\u2019. For anything post war, there\u2019s not quite so much enthusiasm.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI get the impression that they don\u2019t smell the story, they just see the dirt that\u2019s accumulated. But the story matters. History matters. Heritage matters. Character matters. Not just in football, but life in general. But we live in a world where we\u2019ve lost sight of this.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAnd when it comes to sport, tradition really matters, especially when it comes to football. You\u2019re brought up on tales from the past.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fortunately, Webber\u2019s timely book promises to immortalise them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>All photos by and \u00a9 Alex Webber.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Unlike many news and information platforms,&nbsp;<em>Emerging Europe<\/em>&nbsp;is free to read, and always will be.&nbsp;There is no paywall here.&nbsp;We are independent,&nbsp;not affiliated with nor representing any political party or business&nbsp;organisation.&nbsp;We want the very best for emerging Europe, nothing more, nothing less. Your support will help us continue to spread the word about this amazing region.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>You can contribute&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/emergingeurope.krtra.com\/t\/NlQnFuOA2C9c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>. Thank you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/emergingeurope.krtra.com\/t\/NlQnFuOA2C9c\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/copy-of-add-a-heading.png\" alt=\"emerging europe support independent journalism\" class=\"wp-image-50811\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>English writer and photographer Alex Webber, author of the forthcoming The Heart of Poland: An Odyssey Through a Country&#8217;s Football Culture, believes that the iconoclasm present<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8363,6578],"tags":[7144,6732,7149,6320,7148,7142,9,7147,7143,7152,7146,7150,7141,7151,7145],"class_list":["post-18721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-travel-sport","tag-alex-webber","tag-books","tag-chorzow","tag-featured","tag-football","tag-katowice","tag-poland","tag-polish-football","tag-silesia","tag-slaski-stadium","tag-sport","tag-the-heart-of-poland-an-odyssey-through-a-countrys-football-culture","tag-warsaw","tag-wojkowice","tag-zabrze"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19878,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18721\/revisions\/19878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}