 Poland
Poland
The Polish Ekstraklasa is composed of 16 teams, playing each other twice. The bottom 2 teams automatically get relegated, with the team finishing 14th having to face the 3rd place team from the 2nd division in a playoff.
Euro qualifiying is as follows:
1st: Champions League 3rd qualifying round
2nd: UEFA Cup First Round
3rd: Inter-Toto Cup (depending on cup winner)
This league has been dominated by Wisla Krakow in recent years, but were pushed into 2nd by suprise package Zaglebie last season.
As with most teams from this part of the world, the bigger the city they come from, the more cash they have. Wisla, Legia and Widzew are the fininacal powers in Poland, but the mid teams of Lech, Korona and Groclin are comfortable.
Polish teams have no restrictions on the countries which players were born, however a maximum of 25 players can be in the first team squad. A player takes 3 years to gain Polish nationality.
The Polish league runs from the end of July to mid November, with a mid-season break until the beginning of march, with the season ending at the end of May.
Despite the general stereotype of polish players being big, strong players who can only play the long ball game, you will find the compleate opposite. At the moment, Poland is going through a change in training techniques and theories due to their recent membership to the EU. This has resulted in many Polish youngsters adopting a free and flowing style of football. Poland has an abundance of great youth players, many avalable for just a few thousand pounds/euros.
Overall, Poland is a good challenge to take up if you want to try your hand at a competative league, and face an intresting Euorpean Campaign, with players who you may not of heard of.
Ill even give you a few tips of players to look at:
Grzegorz Bonin (korona)
Pawel Linka (Odra)
Pawel Kazmierczak (Polkowice)
Piotr Hernacki (Pogon)
Lukasz Szafren (Lech)
Give it a go, you wont be dissapointed
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