Tonight’s trip to Chelsea, in all probability, will be the 16th and final European game of Legia Warsaw’s season. A 3-0 first-leg deficit in the Conference League quarter-finals has left a mountain to climb, and the adventures of Poland’s biggest club will likely end at Stamford Bridge.
UEFA is too diplomatic to publicly celebrate any club’s exit, but parting with the perennial bad boys at least rids their disciplinary department of a long, nagging headache.
Legia are the team that trouble follows in European competitions. UEFA fines have come after 17 of the club’s 30 continental ties since the start of the 2023-24 season, with the running total for their misdemeanours now standing at €464,250 (£396,000/$524,000).
Most have been due to the behaviour of Legia’s fans. The largest of those penalties — a round €100,000 — followed a night of extreme violence when last on England soil.
A Conference League group game away to Aston Villa in November 2023 was overshadowed by what West Midlands Police described as “disgusting and highly dangerous scenes” when police officers were attacked before the match. Forty-six arrests were made, with four officers, two horses and two dogs injured.
That riotous night at Villa Park has guaranteed a heavy police presence at Stamford Bridge this evening. The allocation of tickets given to visiting fans has been reduced to just over 1,000 (half of what they might ordinarily expect as an away club) following advice from the local Safety Advisory Group (SAG) during the build-up.
Chances are not being taken in west London, with some justification.
Further disorder — and more UEFA fines — came in the Conference League trips to Swedish club Djurgardens and Backa Topola of Serbia before Christmas.
Last year, there was also another fiery night away to Dutch side AZ. Local authorities described “intense violence directed at stewards and police officers” after visiting fans attempted to storm an entrance gate. Two Legia players — Radovan Pankov and Josue Pesqueira — were taken off the team bus and arrested, accused of assaulting a steward in the aftermath of the storm, but released without charge.
In a press conference the next day, Poland’s prime minister called for “urgent diplomatic action”, lamenting an “absolute scandal” in the Netherlands.
UEFA, though, has continued to bring Legia to task. The events of those trips to AZ and Villa collectively ensured the club’s fans were banned from following their team in six European away games this season and the last. “This kind of behaviour should not be tolerated at UEFA competition matches,” said the governing body in a report from December 2023.
Legia’s charge sheet is long and lengthening. Crowd disturbances, throwing objects, lighting fireworks, provocative messaging and blocking passageways have all been ticked off in the last 18 months. It has become a running battle with UEFA’s disciplinary arm.
Chelsea, who sampled the hostilities first-hand in Poland last week, will be braced for what comes their way.
If Manchester City fans, who boo the Champions League anthem, take a dim view of UEFA, it is nothing on Legia. This is the club that once displayed a giant tifo depicting a cartoon pig counting Legia’s money against the backdrop of UEFA’s logo in 2017 (pictured top). Beneath it read: “And the 35,000 fine goes to…”
UEFA’s disciplinary report says the club was then fined €50,000 for that, though does not make it clear exactly what the €35,000 fine was for. It was reported by ESPN at the time that it was for “blocked” stairways and a political tifo, which are forbidden, ahead of a Champions League qualifier commemorating the 73rd anniversary of the Warsaw uprising and showing a soldier holding a gun to a small boy’s head.
Powerful message from Legia Warsaw fans #PowstanieWarszawskie pic.twitter.com/UEKB8y16pk
— Cantona’s Trawler (@cantonastrawler) August 2, 2017
UEFA’s control, ethics and disciplinary body has Legia on speed dial.
Nine years ago, it instructed the Polish club to play Real Madrid behind closed doors in the Champions League following after crowd disturbances and racist chanting during a humiliating 6-0 loss at home to Borussia Dortmund.
Legia have not forgotten. Their long-running demonstrations have, at times, drifted towards the slapstick. The closure of their Zyleta stand, home to the club’s Ultras, for the visit of Molde last season came after unrest during the visit of AZ was punished by UEFA.
Delegates from the governing body arrived two hours before kick-off to find a 40-metre by six-metre banner hanging from the upper tier of the Zyleta: “This time you won, UEFA,” it read.
Seven minutes before kick-off, though, came the follow-up, with a gigantic banner measuring 40 metres by 30 metres unfurled in the stand opposite to the TV cameras: “Surprise, motherfuckers” it read, below a Lego figure wearing a Legia logo and sunglasses.
UEFA’s subsequent disciplinary case was damning. “The general conclusion is that the Legia club has no control over the Ultras fans, Legia Ultras control the entire stadium regarding their choreography and have the freedom to set up planned activities,” it read.
Legia’s Ultras, as is common with Eastern European clubs, carry great influence among the club’s fanbase. They are routinely credited with the tifo displays, which have become part of European football’s subculture and include pyrotechnics. Over 100 red flares were lit ahead of Real Betis’ visit in October, with smoke causing a five-minute delay to kick-off. An €80,000 fine, too, was soon in the post.
Disorder is generally considered rare at games in the Ekstraklasa (Poland’s top division) but European fixtures have become a stage to build recognition for the club’s Ultras.
History would suggest games in England, in particular, have become a moment to plant partisan flags. A Europa League tie away to Leicester City was marred by visiting supporters clashing with police inside the King Power Stadium in November 2021.
At that match, seven people were arrested after 12 police officers were left injured, when tarpaulin segregating fans was trampled and pulled back. One long-serving police officer told The Athletic it had been the worst disorder he had witnessed at a football match.
Much worse, however, was to come at Villa Park two years later. Legia fans, angered by not receiving what they considered their full quota of 1,703 tickets initially agreed with Villa, fought police who had chosen to keep a large body of visiting fans in a bus parking site adjacent to the stadium ahead of kick-off.
A security officer working for UEFA, whose disciplinary report of the night’s events ran to 24 pages, said it was “a real war zone” for 40 minutes, with fences and a lighting pole brought down. One police officer suffered burns when a lit flare was pushed into his chest.
The decision was soon made to deny all Legia fans entry to Villa Park an hour before kick-off and instead they were corralled back to Birmingham’s city centre. A total of 44 Legia fans were later ejected from home sections of the stadium once their team had equalised in what would turn out to be a 2-1 loss for the Polish side.
Legia’s security officer argued to UEFA that the violence had not been carried out by fans travelling from Poland, claiming the “leaders of the hardcore groups took their groups back to the city centre before the fighting started”. The inference was that UK-based Polish citizens had sparked the unrest. That theory did not hold water, though, with 36 of the 46 fans arrested on the night giving Polish addresses to police.
“The acts of damage constitute a conduct which is not acceptable in football,” concluded UEFA, who added they could not “accept such episodes of blind vandalism, which can only be described as blatant hooliganism”.
A five-game ban on away fans attending matches was the result, with Legia fans still congregating to watch a qualifier away to Welsh minnows Caernarfon from a nearby caravan park in August.
This has since become the furthest Legia have progressed in a European competition for almost three decades, but an underwhelming domestic campaign leaves them likely needing to win the Polish Cup final next month if they are to extend their long-running battles with UEFA next season.
Chelsea’s visit to Warsaw last week passed without notable incident at the Polish Army Stadium beyond a tifo that depicted a lion being slayed by a knife (pictured above). “Fear no one,” it read beneath. Visiting fans, whose own allocation had been capped at 742 due to safety concerns, were told to avoid wearing club colours and travel to the stadium in designated buses.
London’s Metropolitan Police, meanwhile, have their own plans for what will be a high-risk fixture. “We want everyone to come and enjoy themselves but we will act decisively to deal with anyone intent on causing trouble,” a Met spokesperson said in a statement to The Athletic.
“We have increased the policing presence for Chelsea’s home match against Legia Warsaw this Thursday to ensure it takes place in a safe and secure environment. This decision was taken following a careful assessment of information and intelligence.
“The MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) works with the local Safety Advisory Group (SAG). The SAG advised that Legia Warsaw should receive a reduced ticket allocation. Chelsea FC have implemented this decision. We will continue to work with the club and our local partners to ensure the safety of those attending the match and those in the wider community.”
Legia’s big night in London awaits.
(Top photo: A banner from 2017; by Foto Olimpik/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
