The Remarkable Rise, Fall & Rise Again of Widzew Łódź
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- čas přidán 2. 03. 2023
- Taken over by one of the richest men in Poland in 2007 and implicated in a massive corruption scandal six months later, four-time Polish champions RTS Widzew Łódź, who famously knocked Manchester United and Liverpool out of European competitions in the early 1980s, were declared bankrupt in 2015.
Undeterred, the club's famously passionate and numerous supporters rallied around and ensured that Widzew survived - re-starting as an amateur fan-owned club in Poland's fifth tier.
Eight years and four promotions on, HITC Sevens takes a look at the extraordinary history of Widzew Łódź and their resurgence, now that the club is third in the Ekstraklasa table. - Sport
You don't have to appologise for butchering Polish Alfie :D What you will find is that (most) Polish people will be highly appreciative of you at least trying and it's always nice when we hear positive things about our country with our "Polish Pride". Poland suffered a great deal last century, so if anything positive - we are tough and do find the strange masochistic pleasure in watching our domestic league :D
Watching our national team however is just masochistic and brings no pleasure
Fun fact: before the breakout of WW1 one of the winners of the Łódź city cup was a club called Newcastle Łódź. Apparently their coach was a Geordie & it was him who came up with that name.
Ruch Chorzów, my club (I live a walking distance from the stadium) has experienced a similar story. Perennially underfunded, they managed to win a record 14 championships. Some 10 years ago they still managed to qualify for the european competitions. Then the financial shit hit the fan, and within three years they were struggling in fourth tier of Polish football. They have since risen again, and are currently very much in contention for third back-to-back promotion, which would bring them back to top tier. Oh, and also, they are allied with Widzew, and the games between the two clubs were called something along Friendship Derby.
Widzew Ruch!
Wiele takich historii u nas. Polonię Warszawę też można podpiąć
Do Ruch Chorzów have a few similar friendships with other Polish clubs? I went to Poland recently for 3 weeks towards the end of last year, went to quite a few Polish football games, and I thought I noticed that some clubs had banners just stating 'Ruch Chorzów' on them - I think Wisła Kraków might have been one.
@@thomasjohnson2862 yup, all polish clubs have those agreements (we call them 'zgoda') with other clubs. For example Lech Poznań has this agreement with Cracovia and Legia fans are friends with Zagłębie Sosnowiec
@@kacperstoj4235 Interesting. Why do certain clubs become friends with each other? For footballing reasons or something like religion, ideology etc?
I just want to say thank you for making this. As a fan of the Ekstraklasa, the league and its clubs never get the any attention for how truly competitive the league is. It was very nice to see such a popular CZcamsr make a video on it
Very good video. What is worth to mention is that Widzew has interesting ticketing system. Due to almost all seats are sold-out for season tickets, club provided possibility to "release" your seat for single match, so at 18K stadium Widzew sells around 20K-22K tickets per home game. That 2K-5K tickets difference are the fans, that know in advance that won't be able to come to stadium during matchday and agree to free their place. Otherwise there would be no possibility to visit stadium only for single game.
As a Pole I really appreciate your effort when it comes to polish pronounciations
Isn't it pronounced more like Wooj?
@@thomasjohnson2862 Yeah, close to that
Widzew Łódź without a doubt has one of the best fans in the country, really glad you made a video about us! Really cool people are interested in our history
What’s the history of the city rivalry with ŁKS?
@@thomasjohnson2862 Always been in our shadow
@@iorn2590 What’s ŁKS’s club’s history and story? Widzew are from the Widzew part of the city and founded by workers, what’s ŁKS’s background?
@@thomasjohnson2862 not too sure actually
RTS Widzew Lodz are one of my favourite respective Polish football clubs and I fully salute their bravery in terms how they would overcome their difficulties after that heroic shocking victory over Liverpool to be where they are now and I fully hope they would replicate their glory years as a real mediocre club in Poland as they would work hard in their transfers and thus,work extra hard to win their titles in near future,good friends!!!LONG LIVES RESPECTIVE RTS WIDZEW LODZ AND POLISH FOOTBALL!!! 🇵🇱
What’s the history of their rivalry with ŁKS?
This isn't a football channel it's a history channel. Love it
Can you do a documentary about Boavista FC? One of only two clubs in Portugal who broke the hegemony of the Big Three in Portugal and were crowned champions in 2001. Played the likes of Bayern Munich and Liverpool in the UCL and reached the UEFA Cup semifinal in 2003. They were relegated in 2008 and only came back to top flight in 2014, following many years of judicial cases and financial crisis.
Faria um video excelente adorava ver o Alfie a cobrir. E também ouvir ele a dizer Loureiro
Wonderful video. Many years ago i had a polish girlfriend, and i lived for 4 months in Widzew. I got photos in the old stadium, i said “i’m a tourist” in broken polish and they let me in 😂❤. Given all that i cared and studied the past of Widzew Łódź, and i was surprised to see their rich history in polish football. I noticed when they were relegated in the last decade, so now this video makes me very very happy for WL and it’s people. Zawsze wierni ❤⚽️
This video makes me proud as a Widzew fan. Thank you for the time to do such extensive research, and for putting this video together!!
Damn, these documentaries are super interesting. Can only appreciate the research you put into those... and the pronunciations of course.
I appreciate Alfie's effort, but honestly these polish pronouciations were abysmal lmaoo
@@armavir740 Polish is quite hard to pronounce for foreigners. Even an apparently simple word like Lodz will require some checking.
yeah i know I'm not mad, it's just funny
@@armavir740 Of course he could have just used the usual English versions and run away with it... I don't think anyone except for some purists would bother.
dude chill
Alfie is the only person that can make me watch a documentary all the way through about a highly obscure team that I never heard of. Way to go my man!!!!
Great job Alfie :) I would definitely add something about Marek Citko. He was the biggest star of that mid-90s team. He was the first "football celebrity" in Poland, although not by choice. He is quite a modest man, but in those grim days he was a spark of light, much better technically than others and the whole nation literally adored him for a year or two. People were wearing shirts with his name, hanging his posters on the wall, etc. We called it "Citkomania". He was supposed to join Blackburn in 1997 (a year after Shearer left), but a terrible injury stopped his career.
Brit living in Łódź here and I've been to the Wedzew stadium to watch the U21 world cup match between New Zealand vs Columbia
As someone who works on the Ekstraklasa for my job, this video is a delight.
could you do a video on Gazélec Ajaccio who went from playing in Ligue 1 in the 15-16 Season to being Dissolved in the 5th tier because of their association with Corsican Mafia A.K.A The French Connection.
I really like the historical part of the videos too. the parts that have not much to do with the club perse but give you a really good feeling on how the region is.. + a little knowledge is always fun
Great video! Always nice to see you going to my country, or to any country which is less known to the average football fan for that matter.
As usual, I really appreciate your effort to get the right pronunciations. Yes, you still got a lot wrong, but come on, it's Polish, nobody expects you to be good at it, and you surpass my expectations anyway. But as a footnote, since you seemed slightly confused about the right way to pronounce the club name, it isn't "vidzyev" but simply "vidzev" (former is more Russian/Ukrainian, not Polish), and the "ó" in "Łódź" is pronounced like "oo". Again though, only a footnote, and the thoroughness of your research shows as usual, doing the extra mile and clearly distinguishing you from most football channels. You're awesome.
Incredible research 👏🏽
YEESSSS ALFIE CAN'T BELIEVE I'VE LIVED TO SEE THE DAY YOU MADE A VIDEO ABOUT MY CLUB
We're witnessing the rebirth of "The Third Grand Widzew". Do boju Widzew!!!
We'll see you in European cups in couple of years again.
Great video as always. Another example of how a fan run club can take them to the top and kinda reminds me a bit (but not quite as extreme) as what my team, heart of Midlothian, have gone through over the past 20 years or so
I enjoyed the opportunity to learn something about polish football from the english channel as a Pole myself, great job Alfie😌
Great research done!
Great video. As a citizen of Łódź and a season ticket holder for Widzew I salute you. I imagine It required a very deep research to make especially from a foreign perspecive. After Poland regained Independence in 1918 due to Marshall Piłsudski and his newly created Polish army we only had about 20 years of peace. In 1939 we were invaded by Germany and Russia and until 1989 we had Communism imposed by Soviets. In reality we had only been developing properly as a country for the last 30 or so years. For the first time since we lost Independence in 1795. Crazy when you take that into perspective.
What will happen to Everton if they they get relegated that would be an interesting discussion
I’m sure that they’ll just get promoted straight away next season if they did, which is unfortunate because I love seeing them struggle 😂
@@mathres17 well he means on a wider scale
Everton are one of the founding members of the English football league and have never been relegated, they technically are a big club but i love watching them struggle because they’re shit😂
@@saeed_05Everton have been relegated before lol twice in fact
The difference is the sums of money floating around now are magnitudes above what it was compared to 1930 and between 1951-54
@@MrBlazemaster525 well they haven’t been relegated yet in the premier league era but it’s just great to watch them struggle so badly
@@saeed_05 football didn't start in 1992 🤡
Supporting an historic club who has yet to reach the top league again 12 years after bankruptcy I'm jealous of supporters to clubs like Widzew Łódź that just bounce back asap. They know nothing about suffering!
Kinda reminds me of CSKA Sofia and to some extent Hajduk Split and I guess Union Berlin and Rangers. I'm just naming them randomly though, the heck do I know.
Definitely not rangers lol.
Such a interesting club.
due to this video i learned that the weird polish "L" with a diagonal line through it is pronounced like a "W". thank you alfie
Greetings from Poland. Thank you for wonderfull vid.
Majestic video
Football clubs should be owned by fans as a rule - great stuff from Widzew's supporters - I wish you luck :)
Thank you for this. I was really moved ❤️🤍❤️. Widzew is in my heart in whole my entire life
22:06 confusingly. Lol yeah, because League 2 being the 4th tier isn't weird at all is it Alfie...
*stares at the English League Two*
@@jesuisunstroopwafel Erm, well yeah, that's the point I was making mate lol.
He made an allusion to the illogical naming of the top 4 tiers of English football quite recently.
@@OfficialFingazMC he’s made fun of that before many, many times. Also just because England’s league structure is confusing doesn’t make Polands any less so
@@bababababababa6124 Who said it does?
Class video as always - any chance of a Real Sociedad video - few interesting points about the club and now we are back to ucl/ even title challengers
AUPA BILBAO!!
The best videos are ones like these from outside the top 5 leagues, imo
my team 😀😀😀
Gornik Zabrze had a big success between 1960s and 1980s, winning 5 for each league and domestic cups. English football might be familiar about this club, especially Manchester. In 1968, Gornik was one of the victims from Matt Busby's winning team, though they salvaged a 1-0 win at home as a consolation. Two years later, Gornik stuns the likes of Olympiacos, Rangers, and Roma to reach the Cup Winners Cup Final, but lost to none other than English club, this time United's city rivals before the dominant force with Abu Dhabi Group and Pep Guardiola (even though they are still deserved to win the Champions League). Gornik also faced numerous European giants like Juventus, Bayern Munich, and Real Madrid.
To this day this cups winners cup is the only international award for Man City.
Love to see the Club from my hometown on this channel!
That was a lot of good and proper information about Widzew Lodz. GJ!!
Great video Alfie! I've become quite sympathetic to Polish football after spending 3 weeks there last year. I'd be interested to go and watch Widzew Łódź, if they have enough capacity in their stadium of course, and I would need to find something red to wear. I've been watching the Ekstraklasa since, and Widzew played pretty well in their 2-2 draw at Legia last week.
Alfie mentioned the Ekstraklasa's low place in the UEFA rankings, and you wonder why. Poland has one of the worst reputations in Europe for hooliganism, but is Poland's hooliganism really much worse than its counterparts? The country's stadiums seem to be very good. I've seen it said that Ekstraklasa is competitive and the top places in the league change every year, so the same teams don't play in Europe every year, which weakens the coefficient. From what I understand, the top Polish clubs aren't that well run by their owners, which maybe partly explains why Raków Częstochowa are top of the Ekstraklasa?
This is an issue on a much deeper level - the clubs are generally overspending, the youth training is poor, to say the least, clubs don't function in the long term, there were multiple corruption scandals, nearly every club has a managerial merry-go-round, and clubs are eager to sell their best players as soon as they are worth anything of note, just to balance the books. Raków is one of the few clubs that had a long-term strategy, and stuck to it, even if it meant short-term losses. This is now paying dividends.
@@jmakiola Interesting. Hopefully Widzew can be among the small list of well run clubs. This video suggests they’re well run, well supported and have a long-term strategy.
@@thomasjohnson2862 Additionaly... In Poland, public money often supports the budgets of clubs. But also from public companies (KGHM - Zagłębie Lubin, Orlen - Wisła Płock, PGE - Stal Mielec). This money is most often spent unwisely. Don't invest in scouting, training, marketing, etc., just buy players from managers you know. Clubs that also have public funds can easily accept players (giving them a good salary) from poorer clubs that try to manage their money wisely, train players or build their strategy (Warta Poznań, SKRA Częstochowa). Raków was in a better situation, because their owner is very rich and was able to keep players.
Thank you for the great video :)
I should be working on a grad school paper but Alfie comes first.
Fantastic job mate💪
Can you do a video about the club currently at the top of the Polish League? I though Legia was up top until I realized it was a team that I've never heard about
I love to see Polish Clubs On this channel! Well done bro! 🎉
I just watched the away game of Widzew live against Pogon and their away fans were really impressive. They supported 90mins, made flag displays, a tifo, A LOT of flares and in the last 15min they all took their shirts off lol
It’s pronounced “Vidzev Woodge” that’s the closest transliteration in English but really it’s Widzew Łódz
Video idea:
7 formations that are rarely used in modern association football
good to see alfie looking at polish clubs, wisła befone now Widzew cant wait for other teams like Lech or some from 1 liga (second tier).
Widzew top
in poland we have so many clubs that did something in european cups then rise again in second tier of polish football now we have clubs like Ruch ŁKS (rising again) or Wisła Kraków (that is falling)
Consider doing a video on the 7 highest paid footballers in WSL it’d be fascinating to see if women get paid well
Bro he actually needs to get views to make money 😂
Look I don’t mind the WSL I watch it from time to time, but if we’re being real most people just don’t care about it unfortunately
They are paid very well even better than men for the revenues they generate. But very few watch them because it's a physical sport which women can't play forever biologically. Hence, no need to watch it. Don't be a pseudoliberal fool.
I don't want a 10min video on that to be honest, it's just not my thing.
It is still an issues here in Europe? I don't follow this part of news but as far as I know the american are the one being loud about this. American sports culture is silly (to put it kindly) TBH. Insane ticket price and the american actually indoctrinated to enjoy commercial while watching sports. And they complain not getting view from matches.
@@bababababababa6124 Well, he releases videos on quite some obscure topics (Widzew Lodz is not exactly blockbuster material) so going after easy money is not his sole motivation.
a documentary on the afc Wimbledon on the nine promotions in eleven years, how they’re a fan own club and how they have a stadium in plough lane now.
The story of they lost the club, how the F A allowed that and won’t allow that anymore.
How they were very close to moving to ireland
How they went up the English football leagues.
It would be a good documentary video if you can do this. #thepeopleschannel
Please do a video on teams who won a trophy/league title and do not exist now (more recent ones but any work)
"Wudzh"
I'm so proud of your attempts to pronounce the Polish names
Can you make a video on Polonia Warsaw
Been to see them play! I see they were Ekstraklasa champions in about 2000, now they're in the 3rd division.
You should do a video about Rapid Bucharest!
I don’t like widzew but I’m just proud Polish football is becoming recognised :)
Suggestion - 7 footballers who were underused by their international side; think Marcus Rashford for England at 2022 World Cup.
What's happening with Russian football since their suspension by FIFA? Video idea.
My first European game was them v Man City 76/77(?)
Day 400: Indonesia XI If All Eligible Players Had Declared For Them.
Keep dreaming bocah
Naturalisisi wkwkwkwkwk
Its out you mad lad
Why is it that whenever I do a new Football Manager save Alfie makes a video on them?
What On Earth Is Going On At Dundee United?
Hiya Alfie, would you ban Polish clubs out of European football like what we had to suffer in the middle 1980s to the early 1990s? because of the state of hooliganism? I hope the Polish Football league can get it sorted out, I can remember when Widzew Lodz played Manchester United in the 1998/99 Treble winning season for Manchester United, Manchester United won 2-0 at Old Trafford and it was 0-0 draw at Widzew.
Your memory is not to great, check again who was playing against mu then 🔴⚪🔴TYLKO WIDZEW RTS !!!
Videos that start with an embarrassing Liverpool defeat are good videos
every video concerning an embarrassing Liverpool defeat is a good video
Videos that start with Liverpool accolades are good videos
@@paintsniffer401 your name checks out
@@BigSwan090 cry more
@@BigSwan090 found the Liverpool fan
Lets go
Its pronounced "Woodge" not "Wodge". The "O" with the dot on top is pronounced with the "ooh" sound.
The traditionally top 3 clubs in Poland with a rich history are Widzew Lodz, Legia Warsaw and Lech Poznan
Wisla nothing?
Also Wisla Krakow, Ruch Chorzow and Gornik Zabrze.
Highly recommend Pogoń Szczecin all brazilian team to make new video about it
You should point out that the fall of communism was "bad" for Polish football, in the sense that there was no longer a draconian authoritarian police state to prevent players leaving and pursuing their careers where they pleased. Rather an important distinction.
Funniest thing about this is that if Widzew would lost yesterdays match there was a chance of them falling to the league below but RTS won and we all happy
Berlin is the capital and largest city of Germany yet has had very little success in terms of its football clubs so being a large city isn't always a guarantee of having successful football teams
PSG wasn't that successful either before the arrival of the Qatari millions.
Indeed
@@seandelap8587 Berlin has a complicated political history and much because of that it's (for German standards) a poor city and the 50 + 1 rule of German football prevents a takeover of a Berlin club by some millionaire. When it comes to Paris, it's not really a football loving city. For a city of 10 million or so people, the support thrown behind PSG is quite small. It's a city of many other interests and the common Parisian only has a vested interest in football.
@@soundscape26 uefa cup semi finals in the 1990s says they weren't exactly struggling. Hertha berlin have been hugely underachieving always.
@@soundscape26 yes and no. If psg were run with a well run structure they would succeed.
Use Dinamo Bucharest for a video!!!
Łks myje ręce szamponem
Widzew myśli, że Mazurek Dąbrowskiego to ciasto
ŁKS myśli, że In-vitro to pizzeria
łks myśli, ze szampon to napój wyskokowy :)
Best German players in the premier league of all time. (Day 467)
I will not give up until the video is made or Alfie himself tells me to stop. Everyone else telling me that will be ignored.
If you don't believe my number, just go back to the previous videos. I'm at the bottom most of the time, but I'm there.
Stop lol
Day1: Rise and fall of Klaipėdos Atalantas
Why did u change the thumbnail? Was the original one a load of shite?
Algorithm optimisation
Went to an LKS Łódz game to watch my mate play. One guy in the turnstiles said you guys better not be Widzew academy players, you’re not safe here 😂
Is the rivalry between Widzew and ŁKS mainly down to being from different parts of the city and Widzew being a workers' team? Plus Łódz I imagine is big enough for 2 clubs, who will probably meet again in Ekstraklasa next season
łódź is 4 biggest city in poland right now
Make a video about Raków Częstochowa.
Interesting to talk of a complete lack of nostalgia for the communist days in Poland, unlike other countries. Was it because communism was imposed on them, or also because the country was left so devastated by the wars, or something else? I know Poland is also quite a Catholic country and the church was opposed by the state, not sure if that's something to do with it?
It's because USSR invaded Poland when we were fighting Germans in 1939. After Poland was sold to USSR during Jalta Conference in 1945 Stalin imposed Communism on Poland, created Central Economy, communist militia, spies were keeping tabs on people. Imagine Orwells 1984 came true. Former Polish soldiers and rebels were convicted by Soviet Comissars and sentenced to death and torture. People were transported to labor camps in Syberia. You were not allowed to say anything against the Communist party and you could go to prison or worse for teaching real history in which USSR was not painted as a friend of Poland but as an agressor. Due to Cold War USSR started losing it's integrity and Poland's workers strikes became very powerful. USA's inteligence had their share in making sure the collapse will be complete. Pope Jean Paul II gave people confidence and soviets could not stop him from publicly telling the truth about USSR. Since 1989 Poland made a massive leap forward in all areas of development and no one wants to go back co socialism/communism because we know what it means.
"Somewhat confusingly named fourth liga". Bro, you're fourth tier is called league 2. What are you saying
the name is also not rolling from the tongue in German :D
Have you ever heard of club the rangers from Scotland
Tylko Widzew💪
I'm gonna put in another request for a hypothetical starting XI for the East African Federation, a proposed federation (big surprise there) of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. None of them are exactly what you'd call powerhouse footballing nations, with the exception of the DRC, but with plenty of players from those nationalities in the French and German leagues there's bound to be some diamonds in the rough. I did actually send Alfie a Twitter DM detailing my own attempt at an EAF first team, complete with a kit design and a subs bench, but since that didn't get a response I can only assume it got lost in the post. It's not like he'd ignore an unsolicited private message about putting together a national football team for a country that doesn't exist, right? Right?
This is request number 7; calling it a streak feels a little disingenuous considering I miss days a lot of the time due to my health. I intend to go for as long as I can until Alfie either makes the video or tells me to bugger off. I'm sure you have your own opinions about which is more likely. =]
there needs to be a comma after "Fall" in the title.
but, you know, great video otherwise.
Not sure you can complain about a fifth tier called the fourth league when you live in a country that insists on, for example, calling the fifth level of a building the fourth floor 😅
So you're an anti-ground level?
How Football In Ukraine Was Affected During The Russian Invasion
Unlike Manchester though, it's a nice place
Would this Jewish and English association be crassly partly why we now have the coloquial association with having a wadge of cash or even a boatload (town name translation) of cash ?
At this stage the question is: are you Polish or have any serious connection to the country?
🫶🏼🤔
ŁKS Widzew Łódź