The Polish Cup in football (Polish: Puchar Polski, ) or officially Remes Puchar Polski, 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, ).
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 oldboys teams are also eligible, with reserve teams particularly 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, which in 1964–1965 season lost the final game 0–4 to Górnik Zabrze.
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. 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, Italian style. Since 2007, the Cup has returned to the single-game final.
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 (1936 - 1939) was organized, which featured teams of the Polish Football Association's regional districts.
Read more about Polish Cup: Polish Cup Winners, Performance By Club
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