Pitch Invasion

It might not be the biggest derby in the world, but Krakow plays host to perhaps the most intense: they call it the Holy War for a reason, as Michal Karas explains.

A recent BBC report painted Polish football as unrelentingly grim, violent and racist. Whilst there remains unacceptable behaviour that needs to be eradicated, Polish fan Michal Karaś argues the report exaggerates the issue.

Photo credit: mi… on Flickr, via the Pitch Invasion photo pool.

Editor’s note: It’s not every day a Wisla Krakow supporter writes to Pitch Invasion reporting of a burgeoning fans’ protest in Poland that all started with a perceived injustice done to ultras of their bitter rivals, Lech Poznan. But a writer under the pseudonym of “South Pole” has contributed the below tale of growing demands […]

For their behaviour in the video below, Legia Warsaw fans have managed to get their club expelled from the Intertoto Cup, as Soccernet reports.
UEFA officials abandoned the second-round match in Vilnius after fans of the Polish club clashed with police and fired numerous missiles onto the pitch.
FK Vetra had been winning 2-0 when the […]

It’s the first pitchinvasion.net battle of the Polish ultras! After we posted this video of Lech Poznan’s ultras yesterday, commenter BoB asserted they were nothing compared to those of Legia Warsaw. So who’s better? You decide (I’m certainly not - Chicago has a very large and avid Polish soccer community, after all).

We’ve looked at a couple of differing sides of Polish supporters recently in photos, but this video shows the full range of their lightshow antics in full. Let’s hope some of this atmosphere shows up in EURO 2012. Warning: not for those allergic to strobe lighting.