Kalisz

Twice a season the chants from the terraces in Kalisz turn political. Autonomia Kaliska! — independence from Wielkopolska — is answered from the away end with Wielkopolska bez Kalisza!, and the football is only part of what is being argued about.

Money ran out in 1992, the last of it disappeared in 2003, and in 2005 supporters and officials put the thing back together, keeping the old name and, later, the old year in the title.

What followed was a climb through the county leagues, one promotion at a time from Klasa A in 2008. The season that made the rest of Poland look up was 2022/23, when the cup run took them past Widzew Łódź, Górnik Zabrze and Śląsk Wrocław — three Ekstraklasa sides — before Legia Warsaw won the semi-final 2:1.

Promotion has been the harder thing. Third in the second tier in 2023/24 put them in the play-offs, and they lost the final 1:2 to Stal Stalowa Wola. The Stadion Miejski holds 8,166, and the target has not moved: the first division, by whichever route.