Date: 18 August 2024 / League: Polish sixth tier
Final Score: 3-0 (walkover) / Attendance: approx. 450
Experience
I had hoped that my recent trip to Lodz would prove to be the only debacle of my summer (for that, CLICK ME!), but as it turns out that was a mere appetizer ahead of the complete calamity I endured in Przemysl.
For those of you who might be unaware, Przemysl lies on Poland’s very eastern flank, a fact that makes the journey from Warsaw a complete pain in the neck. Take my trip there on Sunday. Rising at 4.50 a.m., I hot-footed it down the station only to find that the direct train I’d booked was about as direct as the walk to a Wetherspoons toilet. Two trains and one bus later, it wasn’t till just before 1 p.m. that I arrived at the Target Destination… And from there, it just got worse.
I was here for the Przemysl derby, a fixture that hadn’t been played for around 15 years. Even though away fans weren’t being allowed, a fiery atmosphere was all but guaranteed – when Czuwaj met Polonia’s reserves just two seasons previous, the riot police ended up getting chased out of the ground under a hail of tables, benches, seats, and bottles. Well, if that’s what happens when the reserves are in town, just what could arise from a first-team clash?
Bugger all was the answer. While I knew away fans wouldn’t be present, I had at least expected the away team to show. No such luck. As it turns out, they’d been physically barred from making the journey across the river by their own fans: “If we can’t go to watch you, then we’re going to ruin the derby for Czuwaj,” was pretty much the logic.
With Czuwaj’s players waiting around on the pitch, the referee gave it fifteen minutes before blowing the whistle and calling it a no-show. Game over.
And for me, the luck just didn’t turn. I did find a train to get me back to Warsaw, but it involved standing room only for the first few hours. And with temperatures tipping into the early 30s throughout the day, by evening the carriage was every bit as toasty as walking on the Sun. By the time I rolled home at 1 a.m., I looked like I’d completed a month of SAS jungle training. What an effing fiasco of a day…
But… silver linings. It’s always nice to return to Przemysl – one of Poland’s most underrated cities – and it’s always a delight to visit the home of Czuwaj. This isn’t just one of Poland’s finest grounds, but surely one of Europe’s.
Defined by its glorious chalet-style grandstand, its beauty belies belief. The only improvement I can think of would be the addition of a boutique hotel for groundhoppers located inside. They’d make a bloody fortune.
Anyhow, for previous musings and happier memories of this place, then CLICK ME!
On another point, despite being but a lowly sixth-tier fixture, news of Polonia’s no-show, and the reasoning behind it, has scandalized Polish football society, and I’m pretty sure there’ll be consequences that go beyond a cursory fine and points deduction.
Given the general headache this fixture has traditionally brought with it, it would not surprise me in the slightest if future derbies between the pair are held without the public ‘until further notice’. I hope I’m wrong, but it’s Poland – as I’ve learned repeatedly to my cost, expect the worst-case scenario.
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