Arka Gdynia

When Marcin Gruchała bought the majority of the shares in 2024, the season that followed ended with Arka Gdynia top of the 1. Liga.

That rhythm is old. The club reached the top flight for the first time in 1974 and again two years later, then waited 23 years before returning in 2005. Two seasons after that the Polish federation relegated them by decision rather than by results.

The best of it came in 2017. Arka beat Lechia Poznań 2:1 to take the Polish Cup, and added the Super Cup the same year. They kept the Super Cup in 2018 — two trophies in two seasons.

Home since 2011 is the ground on Olimpijska Street, the Stadion Miejski, which holds 15,139. The yellow shirt and blue shorts date from 1972, when the club took back the name Arka and the colours it had worn before the merger that made it MZKS Gdynia in 1964.

The name itself is younger than the club. ARKA first appeared in 1952, attached to a railwaymen's sports club; before that there had been Kotwica, founded in 1934 under the maritime authority, and the fishermen's club MIR in 1946.