Retro Liga

Retro Liga
Founded	2017; 7 years ago
Country	Poland
Number of teams	8
Current champions	Strzelec Białystok (3rd title) ; (2023)
Most championships	Strzelec Białystok; (3 titles)
Website	retroliga.com.pl

The Retro Liga is a footballing league in Poland. The first footballing competition took place in 2017, with the leagues inauguration taking place in 2019, 100 years after the formation of the Polish Football Association.

Creation and rules

The idea of the league was to play with the rules and equipment used in football at the time of the Polish Football Association's formation in 1919. The equipment includes traditional leather boots with wooden studs, cotton shirts, and leather balls were used. The game follows the same rules as those used in 1919, such as no cards, and players only being dismissed after serious foul play, and goalkeepers being able to pick the ball up from back passes. The league structure also went back to those of the pre-war years, such as 2 points for a win instead of the 3 points you get now.

The league also has a clear rule on the teams that can included to participate, the rules being that the club must have ceased to exist by 1939, so only teams that played in the pre-war era and those that were not activated afterwards can be represented in the competition. Initially six teams were to take part in the first season; Lechia Lwów, Czarni Lwów, WKS 10 PP Łowicz, Śmigły Wilno, WKS 37 PP Kutno, and WKS Grodno, however the Czarni Lwów team dropped out before the start of the competition. Owing to the changing of Polish borders after WWII, those teams from cities that are no longer in Poland are played in different cities from where their name suggests, for instance Lechia Lwów, from Lviv now in Ukraine, play in Dzierżoniów. The other clubs whose original cities are now outside of Poland's borders are Śmigły Wilno, from Vilnius now in Lithuania, who play in Warsaw, and WKS Grodno, from Grodno now in Belarus, who play in Kozienice.^[1]

History

The first season took place in 2019 with 5 teams taking part, with each team playing each other once home and away for a total of 8 games each over the season. The season saw Lechia Lwów go unbeaten, winning 6 of their 8 games, and conceding only 6 in the process. WKS Grodno and WKS 37 PP Kutno rounded off the top three, while Śmigły Wilno came last having lost all their games and scored only 1 goal.

The second season saw the introduction of the sixth team, Hakoach Będzin.^[2] However the COVID-19 pandemic saw a new format for the 2020 season, seeing an introduction of regionalised games, requiring less travel for all teams, before a third place playoff and a final to decide the winners and second placed team, drastically reducing the overall games played. The third place playoff saw Hakoach Będzin playing WKS 37 PP Kutno with the game finishing 1–1. The result of the game on deciding who will finish in third place overall was decided on a coin toss, with the toss favouring Hakoach Będzin. The final saw Lechia Lwów going up against WKS Grodno, winning 2–0 and defending their title.^[3]

The 2021 season saw the introduction of Czarni Lwów and Strzelec Białystok. The format returned to the league structure, with the initial plan for each team to play each other twice, however this was revised later with teams playing each other once.^[4]

2022 saw yet more teams being included, with Victoria Sosnowiec, Pogoń Lwów, and WKS 42 PP Białystok being introduced for the competitions fourth season.

Teams

Information		Seasons			1939	Present day
Team	Titles	Position in 2023	Playing in 2024	Highest finish	City
Czarni Lwów	0	4th	Yes	2nd (2021)	Lwów	Wałbrzych
Hakoach Będzin	0	N/A	No	3rd (2020)	Będzin
Lechia Lwów	2	5th	Yes	1st (2019, 2020)	Lwów	Dzierżoniów
Pogoń Lwów	0	7th	Yes	7th (2023)	Lwów	Żarów
Śmigły Wilno	0	N/A	No	5th (2019)	Wilno	Warsaw
Strzelec Białystok	3	1st	Yes	1st (2021, 2022, 2023)	Choroszcz
Victoria Sosnowiec	0	2nd	Yes	2nd (2023)	Sosnowiec
WKS 10PP Łowicz	0	8th	Yes	4th (2019)	Łowicz
WKS 37PP Kutno	0	6th	Yes	3rd (2019)	Kutno
WKS 42 PP Białystok	0	3rd	Yes	3rd (2023)	Białystok
WKS Grodno	0	N/A	No	2nd (2019, 2020)	Grodno	Kozienice

Participation

Team	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Czarni Lwów	-	-	2nd	5th	4th
Hakoach Będzin	-	3rd	4th	-	-
Lechia Lwów	1st	1st	3rd	2nd	5th
Pogoń Lwów	-	-	-	8th	7th
Śmigły Wilno	5th	6th	8th	-	-
Strzelec Białystok	-	-	1st	1st	1st
Victoria Sosnowiec	-	-	-	3rd	2nd
WKS 10PP Łowicz	4th	5th	7th	-	8th
WKS 37PP Kutno	3rd	4th	6th	6th	6th
WKS 42 PP Białystok	-	-	-	4th	3rd
WKS Grodno	2nd	2nd	5th	7th	-

Seasons

2019

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Lechia Lwów	8	6	2	0	48	6	+42	14
2	WKS Grodno	8	5	0	3	29	11	+18	10
3	WKS 37 PP Kutno	8	4	1	3	29	16	+13	9
4	WKS 10 PP Łowicz	8	3	1	4	27	25	+2	7
5	Śmigły Wilno	8	0	0	8	1	77	-76	0

2020

Group A
Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	WKS 37 PP Kutno	2	1	1	0	4	0	+4	3
2	Lechia Lwów	2	1	1	0	2	1	+1	3
3	WKS 10 PP Łowicz	0	0	2	1	6	-5	0

Group B
Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Hakoach Będzin	2	2	0	16	0	+16	4
2	WKS Grodno	2	1	1	9	3	+6	2
3	Śmigły Wilno	2	0	2	0	22	0

Semifinals
Team 1	Team 2	Game 1	Game 2	Agg.	Notes
WKS Grodno	WKS 37 PP Kutno	6–2	3–1	9–3	WKS Grodno progress to the final
Lechia Lwów	Hakoach Będzin	3–0	0–2	3–2	Lechia progress to the final

Finals
Game	Team 1	Team 2	Score	Notes
Final	Lechia Lwów	WKS Grodno	2–0	Lechia Lwów won the 2020 Retro Liga title^[5]	WKS Grodno finish as runners-up
Third place final	Hakoach Będzin	WKS 37 PP Kutno	1–1	As the result was a draw, the match result was awarded on a coin toss giving Hakoach Będzin the win, and 3rd overall	WKS 37 PP Kutno finish 4th overall
Fifth place final	WKS 10 PP Łowicz	Śmigły Wilno	?	WKS 10 PP Łowicz won to finish 5th overall	Śmigły Wilno finish 6th overall

2021

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	Pts
1	Strzelec Białystok	7	6	0	1	12
2	Czarni Lwów	7	5	1	1	11
3	Lechia Lwów	7	5	1	1	11
4	Hakoach Będzin	7	3	0	4	6
5	WKS Grodno	7	3	0	4	6
6	WKS 37 PP Kutno	7	3	0	4	6
7	WKS 10 PP Łowicz	7	2	0	5	4
8	Śmigły Wilno	7	0	0	7	0

2022

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	Pts
1	Strzelec Białystok	7	4	2	1	10
2	Lechja Lwów	7	4	1	2	9
3	Victoria Sosnowiec	7	3	2	2	8
4	WKS 42 PP Białystok	7	1	6	0	8
5	Czarni Lwów	7	2	2	3	6
6	WKS 37 PP Kutno	7	2	2	3	6
7	WKS Grodno	7	2	2	3	6
8	Pogoń Lwów	7	1	1	5	3

2023

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	Pts
1	Strzelec Białystok	7	6	1	12
2	Victoria Sosnowiec	7	6	1	12
3	WKS 42 PP Białystok	7	6	1	12
4	Czarni Lwów	7	4	3	8
5	Lechja Lwów	7	2	5	4
6	WKS 37 PP Kutno	7	2	5	4
7	Pogoń Lwów	7	2	5	4
8	WKS 10 PP Łowicz	7	0	7	0

Champions

2019: Lechia Lwów
2020: Lechia Lwów
2021: Strzelec Białystok
2022: Strzelec Białystok
2023: Strzelec Białystok

Team performances

Team	Winners	Runners-up	Third place	Winning years
Strzelec Białystok Choroszcz	3	-	-	2021, 2022, 2023
Lechia Lwów	2	1	1	2019, 2020
WKS Grodno	-	2	-	-
Victoria Sosnowiec	-	1	1	-
Czarni Lwów	-	1	-	-
WKS 37 PP Kutno	-	-	1	-
Hakoach Będzin	-	-	1	-
WKS 42 PP Białystok	-	-	1	-

References

^ ""Lekcja historii na żywo". Retro Liga wkracza w decydującą fazę". sport.tvp.pl.
^ "Hakoach Będzin w Retro Lidze. Przedwojenne stroje, buty, piłki i pierwsze, historyczne zwycięstwo na koncie". bedzin.naszemiasto.pl.
^ "WIELKI FINAŁ 2020". retroliga.com.pl.
^ "ZACZYNAMY SEZON 2021". retroliga.com.pl.
^ "Retro Liga 2020 zakończona. Lechja Lwów obroniła tytuł mistrzowski". laczynaspilka.pl.

[1] ""Lekcja historii na żywo". Retro Liga wkracza w decydującą fazę". sport.tvp.pl.

[2] "Hakoach Będzin w Retro Lidze. Przedwojenne stroje, buty, piłki i pierwsze, historyczne zwycięstwo na koncie". bedzin.naszemiasto.pl.

[3] "WIELKI FINAŁ 2020". retroliga.com.pl.

[4] "ZACZYNAMY SEZON 2021". retroliga.com.pl.

[5] "Retro Liga 2020 zakończona. Lechja Lwów obroniła tytuł mistrzowski". laczynaspilka.pl.

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