LKS LODZ - FANATICS FROM POLAND
Lodz (Lodz means boat in english) is the largest city in Poland right after Warsaw. Lodz have over 800.000 inhabitants and is famous for textile industry. LKS LODZ is one of the oldest club in Poland and was founded in 1908.
Our colours: White-Red-White are the same as a flag of Poland (White and Red). We were playing in the highest league from 1927 to 2000 (except for 1939, 1953, 1969-1971 when we played in the 2nd league). Our club was degraded to second league in 2000. It was shock for us becouse in 1998 for the second time we won Champion of Poland (first in 1958 and in 1957 we won Polish Cup) and then we played with Manchester United in European Champion Clubs Cup! Now we have played in the second league and we usually play with very small and unknown clubs. BTW our club has a terrible problems both finance and sporting.
Name of the sector in which stay the hottest fans is called "GALERA"
(Galley). The number of supporters in our sector depends on the league and the importance of the game. For example, when we played with Widzew or Legia in 1st league (major league) it was even 3.000. In the 2nd league these figures are lower �on average about 500 fans.
The districts of Lodz where most of LKS fanatics live are: Retkinia, Srodmiescie (they call themselves Crazy Cannibals), Polesie (Hell's Boys), Baluty, Koziny, Limanka, Teofilow, Karolew, Radogoszcz, Chojny, Dabrowa, Gorniak. LKS has supporters all over Poland but a number of them live in the cities of Pabianice and Wloclawek. Ultra Force (UF) and Net Force (NF) are our ultras groups. Our hools group has no name but they possess a war-cry: "LKS -AVID FOR BLOOD!".
LKS fans like other supporters in Poland have enemies and friends. We have good relationship with the fans of GKS Tychy, Resovia Rzeszow, Zawisza Bydgoszcz. We hate Widzew Lodz and we call them "Zydzew" (means "Jews"), Legia Warsaw, Lech Poznan, Wisla Krakow and others.
We have published following fanzines: "RED DEVILS" (almost 200 issues since 1991 - it's the oldest zine in Poland), "Galera News" (over 120 issues since 1996), "Sektor Galera" (6 issues since 2002).
HISTORY OF LKS LODZ
Our club was established in 1908 and since the beginning its fans were strongly connected with the club. They helped to build the stadium and supported the team not only during the home games but also traveled to its away games.In 1954 first official supporters organization was founded. In the 1950�s thousands of fans attended away games. The most fans showed up at the away game with Gornik Zabrze in 1958, approximately 10.000 supporters. This game decided that LKS won championship.
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Gornik Zabrze - LKS Lodz, 26.10.1958
The photos show fans on the train and during the game with the banner that reads: "MISTRZOWI POLSKI, �KS 100 LAT, KIBICE" - "THE POLISH CHAMPIONS, LKS 100 YEARS WISH FANS".
In the early 1970�s fanatics movement was born in our country. LKS fans were one of the first along with Legia Warsaw, Slask Wroclaw, Lechia Gdansk, and Polonia Bytom that started this movement in Poland. They started making flags, scarves, writing song that were singed at the games etc. LKS fanatics attended in numbers away games for example:
20.06.1971 Slask Wroclaw � LKS Lodz � 5.000 fans.
25.08. 1971 Legia Warsaw � LKS Lodz � 10.000 fans.
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LKS Lodz, 20.06.1971
The photo shows supporters going to the match in Wroclaw.
In 1975 LKS fans were invited to the match between Widzew and Motor Lublin in order to support Widzew players, back then this club had no supporters. This game decided that Widzew advanced to the major league, afterwards Widzew gained fans.
Since the early 80�s polish fans started fighting between themselves. This case decrease in number of fans that traveled to away games. In the 80� and 90�s LKS and polish fans were not original.
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Legia Warsaw - LKS Lodz, 18.06.1994
Approximately 2500 LKS supporters traveled to the final game of Polish Cup, all of them wore hats and scarves and held small flags.
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Widzew Lodz - LKS Lodz, 03.06.1998
TODAY's ULTRAS MOVEMENT IN OUR CLUB
The year 2001 was very critical for ultras movement in Poland. In many clubs fans organized themselves in groups that applaud and prepare fire work shows at the stadium. In our club two groups were established Ultra Force and Net Force. The main goal of these groups is to organize other fans.
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LKS Lodz - Arka Gdynia, 29.03.2002
For example UF & NF prepared 1.000 flags for the game with Arka.
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LKS Lodz - Hetman Zamosc, 19.04.2002
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LKS Lodz - Swit Nowy Dwor Maz., 10.08.2002
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LKS Lodz - Slask Wroclaw, 26-10-2002
The fan magazine TMK classified our club at the sixth place in ultras achievements. Below the entire table is presented.
| - | Club | Number of Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Legia Warsaw | 862 |
| 2. | Lech Poznan | 832 |
| 3. | Widzew Lodz | 784 |
| 4. | Gornik Zabrze | 528 |
| 5. | GKS Katowice | 464 |
| 6. | LKS Lodz | 382 |
| 7. | Ruch Chorzow | 343 |
| 8. | Arka Gdynia | 326 |
| 9. | Wis�a Krakow | 298 |
| 10 | Pogon Szczecin | 256 |
LKS LODZ FANS IN 2003
In the year 2003 we continued with ultras displays during the games. It was not easy, since our team struggled in the second division. We organized displays for every single game that year however we prepared well for the games with Arka, Ruch, Cracovia. Fire works became our specialty along with displays with small flags and banners.The main portion of funds came from sales of gadgets. Also older fans that have their businesses contributed to our displays. For example for the game with Cracovia we gathered 2.500 dollars.
In November 2003 we set new record in Poland, at the same time we set off 320 fire works. It happened during the game with Cracovia. We also prepared a flag with image of Viking�s vessel.
In the year 2003 attendance at our stadium ranged from 3,000 to 5,000 people. The game with Cracovia saw more than 10,000 fans. That year our sector - Galera filled 1,000 fans during the important games, and on average 500.