After the 18th round of the Ekstraklasa, Lechia Gdańsk is in 17th place in the table. The best team of the previous season in the first league failed not only in terms of sports, but above all in terms of organization. Today, few people believe in Polo Urfer's assurances that everything will be fine. Fans from Gdańsk have every right to fear that the current Lechia will face its last months of existence.
Lechia players receive their first outstanding salaries. But the problems are still there
From time to time there is information that Lechia players are fed up with the situation in the club. And no wonder. The club from Gdańsk is regularly late in payments, and the promises of president Paolo Urfer rarely translate into actual actions. Now, however, Lechia must pay – otherwise it will not be allowed to play in the top league. And the first spring round is just a few weeks away.
And it looks like the club has started doing something in this direction. As reported by the WP Sportowe Fakty portal, the outstanding money was transferred to the accounts of the players from Gdańsk. “From Wednesday, outstanding salaries began to be repaid,” writes Tomasz Galiński, who is well versed in the realities of the Gdańsk club. At the same time, he adds: “This is just a drop in the ocean. The debt to the security company is growing, the team does not have its own bus at the moment. And so you can calculate.”
And there are more problems. Lechia was also punished with a transfer ban, so for now there is no reason to count on reinforcements. Besides, it is difficult to imagine that Lechia would be able to achieve them. “Incoming transfers sound like science fiction today. The club lacks money for everything,” the journalist notes. Currently, Michał Głogowski, who joined Lechia from Hutnik Kraków, cannot be registered either. The 19-year-old scored 10 goals in the second league.
Will Lechia fall into new hands? This could save the club from bankruptcy
There's some other good news, too. Lechia's players are to go to a training camp in Turkey on January 9. And it looks like there is no threat that the players will have to stay in Gdańsk. “The camp is theoretically certain, an advance payment has been made (20% of the total amount) and the club believes that for today there is no fear that it will not take place,” we read.
In addition, the club could change its owner – which many people would welcome. Two investors are interested in Lechia. The problem is that Paolo Urfer… doesn't want to agree to it.
“As we have established in two independent sources, Urfer could easily sell the club, because there are two people willing to do so. One from Poland (specifically from Pomerania), the other from abroad. And we hear from people associated with Lechia that this is the only solution to prevent the club from went bankrupt. However, Urfer does not want to hear about the sale,” WP Sportowe Fakty informs.
And one can only wonder – what does Paolo Urfer actually want to achieve? Recent months have shown that he does not have the ability to normally manage a club at the top league level – even despite having more money at this level. There is still no large sponsor in Gdańsk, which is probably the biggest failure of the Swiss – and each passing day makes it more and more difficult to believe that one will finally appear. In the current situation, relegation to the first league would probably be the nail in the coffin for Lechia.