1972–73 Ekstraklasa

I liga

Season	1972–73
Dates	26 July 1972 – 24 June 1973
Champions	Stal Mielec (1st title)
Relegated	None (Polonia & Odra played playoff relegation)
European Cup	Stal Mielec
Cup Winners' Cup	Legia Warsaw
UEFA Cup	Ruch Chorzów Gwardia Warsaw
Matches played	182
Goals scored	373 (2.05 per match)
Top goalscorer	Grzegorz Lato (13 goals)
Biggest home win	Stal 5–0 Gwardia Legia 5–0 ŁKS Zagłębie W. 5–0 Polonia
Biggest away win	Polonia 0–6 Stal
Highest scoring	Gwardia 4–2 Odra Pogoń 5–1 Odra Polonia 0–6 Stal
Highest attendance	60,000
Total attendance	2,690,506
Average attendance	14,783 14.0%
← 1971–72 1973–74 →

The 1972–73 I liga was the 47th season of the Polish Football Championship and the 39th season of the I liga, the top Polish professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1927. The league was operated by the Polish Football Association (PZPN).

The champions were Stal Mielec, who won their 1st Polish title.

Competition modus

The season started on 26 July 1972 and concluded on 24 June 1973 (autumn-spring league). The season was played as a round-robin tournament. The team at the top of the standings won the league title. A total of 14 teams participated, 12 of which competed in the league during the 1971–72 season, while the remaining two were promoted from the 1971–72 II liga. Each team played a total of 26 matches, half at home and half away, two games against each other team. Teams received two points for a win and one point for a draw.

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Stal Mielec (C)	26	13	10	3	47	21	+26	36	Qualification to European Cup first round
2	Ruch Chorzów	26	13	7	6	29	16	+13	33	Qualification to UEFA Cup first round
3	Gwardia Warsaw	26	8	14	4	31	22	+9	30
4	Górnik Zabrze	26	10	10	6	23	15	+8	30
5	Wisła Kraków	26	13	4	9	31	28	+3	30
6	ŁKS Łódź	26	9	11	6	26	26	0	29
7	ROW Rybnik	26	8	10	8	20	21	−1	26
8	Legia Warsaw	26	6	11	9	29	28	+1	23	Qualification to Cup Winners' Cup first round
9	Pogoń Szczecin	26	8	7	11	28	30	−2	23
10	Zagłębie Sosnowiec	26	8	6	12	30	31	−1	22
11	Zagłębie Wałbrzych	26	8	6	12	22	31	−9	22
12	Lech Poznań	26	6	10	10	16	26	−10	22
13	Polonia Bytom	26	7	6	13	20	42	−22	20	Qualification to Relegation playoffs
14	Odra Opole	26	3	12	11	21	36	−15	18

Source: 90minut.pl (in Polish)
(C) Champions

Results

Home \ Away	GÓR	GWA	LPO	LEG	ŁKS	OOP	POG	BYT	RYB	RUC	STA	WIS	ZSO	ZWA
Górnik Zabrze		0–0	3–0	2–1	1–3	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	0–0	1–1	0–1	1–0	0–1
Gwardia Warsaw	1–1		1–1	1–0	4–0	4–2	3–0	3–1	0–1	3–1	0–0	0–1	2–2	3–1
Lech Poznań	0–0	0–0		1–0	0–1	2–0	0–0	2–1	0–0	0–0	3–0	3–0	2–1	0–0
Legia Warsaw	1–4	0–0	0–0		5–0	1–1	2–3	2–1	3–0	0–0	0–3	1–1	3–1	3–0
ŁKS Łódź	0–0	1–0	0–0	1–1		3–1	1–0	0–1	0–0	1–2	0–0	1–1	2–1	3–1
Odra Opole	1–0	1–1	0–0	2–2	1–1		2–2	0–0	0–1	1–0	2–2	3–0	1–1	0–1
Pogoń Szczecin	1–0	1–1	2–0	0–1	0–0	5–1		1–0	0–0	0–1	1–3	1–3	2–0	1–0
Polonia Bytom	2–2	0–0	2–0	0–0	2–0	2–1	1–1		3–0	0–0	0–6	1–4	2–1	1–0
ROW Rybnik	1–2	0–0	4–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	2–1	4–0		1–0	0–3	2–1	1–0	1–1
Ruch Chorzów	0–0	1–1	3–0	2–0	2–1	1–0	0–2	2–0	1–0		2–2	2–0	3–0	3–1
Stal Mielec	0–0	5–0	3–2	1–0	1–1	0–0	3–1	3–0	1–1	2–1		2–0	0–0	2–0
Wisła Kraków	1–0	1–1	2–0	2–1	1–2	2–0	2–1	2–0	0–0	0–1	0–3		2–0	3–1
Zagłębie Sosnowiec	0–0	0–1	2–0	1–1	1–4	4–1	1–1	2–0	2–0	0–1	4–1	2–0		1–0
Zagłębie Wałbrzych	0–2	1–1	1–0	1–1	0–0	0–0	2–1	5–0	2–1	1–0	2–0	0–1	0–3

Source: 90minut.pl (in Polish)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Relegation playoffs

At the end of the first and second division season, the play-off was played between:

• the 13th placed team in the I liga and the 4th team in the II liga
• the 14th placed team in the I liga and the 3rd team in the II liga

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Polonia Bytom	1–0	GKS Katowice	0–0	1–0
Odra Opole	2–0	Hutnik Kraków	0–0	2–0

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Grzegorz Lato	Stal Mielec	13
2	Ryszard Sarnat	Wisła Kraków	12
	Kazimierz Kmiecik	Wisła Kraków	12
4	Andrzej Jarosik	Zagłębie Sosnowiec	11
	Andrzej Szarmach	Górnik Zabrze	10
6	Robert Gadocha	Legia Warsaw	9
	Jan Benigier	Ruch Chorzów	9
	Ryszard Szymczak	Gwardia Warsaw	9
	Jan Małkiewicz	Gwardia Warsaw	9
10	Kazimierz Deyna	Legia Warsaw	8
	Tadeusz Pawłowski	Zagłębie Wałbrzych	8
	Witold Karaś	Stal Mielec	8

Bibliography

• Gowarzewski, Andrzej (2000). Encyklopedia Piłkarska Fuji. Liga Polska. O tytuł mistrza Polski 1920–2000 (in Polish). GiA, Katowice. ISBN 83-88232-02-9.

External links

• Poland – List of final tables at RSSSF (in English)
• List of Polish football championships (in English)
• History of the Polish League (in English)
• List of Polish football championships (in Polish)