Polish lower divisions - sentimental journey and restoring the pride.

[Kostropaty]

Polish club football is a mess. Years of underachieving, just few successful spells in Europe in the recent years, corrupted refs, financial difficulties etc.

It has however excellent broadcast by Canal + (they turned **** into gold), better infrastructure and pretty decent fan culture (except some extremism and hooliganism, but anyway -away days are something to remember).

Polish lower leagues update gives you an opportunity to play really rural clubs like GKS Wikielec or clubs with history like Polonia Warsaw.

Well, being Polonias supporter is not an easy thing-  once winning 2-0 vs Mourinhos Porto , playing in the Champions League quals (2-2 and 1-2 vs PAO) and generally nice away european trips (NAC Breda- my favourite). More recently bankrupcy, felling down from 1 st to 5 th tier and some chances of ending this misery by new french chairman -Gregoire Nitot.

Started this save alone, but later in the 1st season my mate -MS- Wisła Puławy supporter joined in.

Its not a normal save. Usually you dont know well the players that you re signing or your relationship with the chairman is just ordinary. Here, i just have signed my mates son for DC. MS is even more club-bound. He used to play basketball with the chairman and knows well the reserves manager.
Concerning leagues poor reputation it was imperative to do smart signings. Agent related transfers are closer to polish reality than anything in this FM version, managed to sign absolute gem -Jari Oosterwijk on free (used to play for Twente). 1 st season ended in last week decider -had to at least draw with archrival reserves. Went down to 10 men just after 5 mins, losing 1-0 on HT and had a feeling that everything is over. 2 nd half penalty and 30 m screamer made it 2-1 and some promotion joy.

Currently we re in the 2 nd season - Polonia is about to be promoted to the 2 nd tier (no too much gap between lower tiers), Wisła Puławy is storming 4th division and most important are in the FA Cup Semi final (along the other 4th div team lol).

Save is played only when we re not playing our Italian Serie C or EFL Champ online saves, usually in the mornings or late night.
If someone wats to join -contact me via steam ("kostropaty").

Some league rules below, as well as screens of current positions and my best player.



 

Edited February 3, 2021 by Kostropaty

[Kostropaty]

 

This is how it looks- 60k capacity National Stadium in Warsaw, during the Polish FA Cup final. 4th tier club leading top Ekstraklasa team 2-0.

Full time 3-1 and soon-3rd tier club playing in Europe next season.

[Kostropaty]

End of 2 nd season
Promotion joy for both of us, however MS won th FA cup and will compete in Europa Conference League. Money is important, especially in LLM. MSs Wisła Puławy turned into semi-pro, he lost some crucial players but ended the season with just one loss and celebrating double. The reward is 1 mln pounds for a cup and escape from bankrupcy. The question is whether he manage to find adequate players for European fun.
My budget is tight as well, chairman is delighted after repairing clubs financial damage 6 years ahead of schedule. In reward I have exactly the same wage and transfer budget (15 k and 33 k respectively).
You have to stay happy and passionate.
Pictured below -me during Warsaws derby away game many years ago.


Who knows what the future holds.
 

Edited February 3, 2021 by Kostropaty

[Kostropaty]

European journey update
Typical polish club euro experience -just one round and its over.
Credits to MS as his 3rd tier Wisła managed to get into the extra time vs highly-ranked Rosenborg.

My Polonia currently 1st in the 2nd tier after just 2 weeks -some interesting  loans from various teams relegated from Slovenian or Croatian leagues.
Next update in the mid of the season.

Edited February 5, 2021 by Kostropaty

[iGoldenBen]

Fantastic, I am half polish and have been playing as Polonia Warszawa on every FM since FM11.

The last few years I have only signed polish single/dual nationality players to make it harder.

The polish lower leagues are quite competitive too, shocking also that teams such as Ruch Chorzow are in the 4th tier.

 

Edited February 14, 2021 by iGoldenBen