Polish_Cup
Polish Cup
Football tournament
The Polish Cup in football (Polish: Puchar Polski w piłce nożnej [ˌpuxar ˈpɔlskʲi]) is an elimination tournament for Polish football clubs, held continuously from 1950, and is the second most important national title in Polish football after the Ekstraklasa title. Due to mass participation of teams, the tournament is often called The Cup of the Thousand Teams (Polish: Puchar Tysiąca Drużyn [ˌpuxar tɨˌɕɔnt͡sa ˈdruʐɨn]).
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Participation is open to any club registered with the Polish FA, regardless of whether it competes in any league in the national pyramid. Reserve and veteran teams are also eligible, with reserve teams reaching the final on two occasions (and winning it once). The Cup is popular among lower-level teams, as it gives them a chance to play better known sides. In some cases, the underdogs even reached the final, with the most famous example being Czarni Żagań, who at the time of the 1964–65 final, eventually won by Górnik Zabrze, were playing in the third division.
Lower league clubs have to enter regional qualification rounds and the winners of these join the teams from the first and second division in the competition proper. The regional qualifications are played in the preceding season, so that one edition of Polish Cup for lower ranked clubs can last two seasons. Each tie is decided by a single game which is held at the lower league side's stadium. The final used to be a single match, but 2002–2006 it was contested over two legs. Since 2007, the Cup has returned to the single-game final.
The first edition of the Polish Cup took place in 1926, but it was quickly abandoned. In the late 1930s, the President of Poland's Football Cup was organized, which featured teams of the Polish Football Association's regional districts.