We are checking the preparation plans of our teams before the start of the 2026/2027 season.
The 2025/2026 season ended just a few days ago, and fans are already counting down the days to the first whistle of the new campaign. This time the break is exceptionally short - PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa will kick off on Friday, 24 July, just five days after the World Cup final. There is little time to prepare, and the stakes are high, as none of the eighteen teams want to drop points on the opening day.
While in winter most of the league heads to Turkey or Spain, in the June and July heat clubs prefer a cooler climate and closer locations. The vast majority of the field stayed in Poland, and the most frequently chosen destination turned out to be Opalenica. As many as four teams will travel to the Greater Poland centre: GKS Katowice, Piast Gliwice, Wisła Płock and KGHM Zagłębie Lubin. The rest of the field found their spots in various corners of Poland. The league champions are honing their form in Wronki, Korona Kielce is making use of facilities in Busko-Zdrój, Raków Częstochowa has headed to the Bieszczady mountains in Arłamów, and Motor Lublin is preparing near Sochocin - the domestic map of training camps thus stretches from the mountains all the way to Mazovia.
A smaller group crossed the border, and their destination was almost unanimous: Austria. Cracovia, Jagiellonia Białystok, Widzew Łódź, Górnik Zabrze and Pogoń Szczecin all chose centres there. Legia Warszawa opted for Herzogenaurach in Bavaria.
The promoted clubs are naturally attracting a great deal of attention. Wisła Kraków will take to the pitch as one of the first in the league - as early as 17 June, with their training camp taking place in Wola Chorzelowska. Biała Gwiazda has also arranged the most high-profile friendly of the entire field, as on 11 July they will face Wrexham AFC, the club owned by Hollywood stars. Śląsk Wrocław has taken the most low-key approach: a training camp in Trzebnica and a series of matches against regional and lower-ranked opponents. Wieczysta Kraków is the only one of the promoted clubs to have gone abroad. The Kraków side chose Krems an der Donau in Austria and planned an interesting set of opponents - in the coming days they will play against Dynamo Kyiv, Slavia Praha and Maccabi Netanya.
Wieczysta is not, however, the only team to have set the bar high. Cracovia will conclude their pre-season with a prestigious match against Sevilla, Pogoń Szczecin will test themselves against Fenerbahce and Sturm Graz, while Raków Częstochowa has planned friendly matches against PSV Eindhoven, Olympiacos and Zulte Waregem - it is hard to imagine a tougher test of form ahead of European competition qualifying.
And it is precisely the European competitions that are having the greatest impact on this year's schedule. For the first time in history, as many as five Polish clubs will compete on the international stage, and since the first qualifying rounds are played as early as July, the European hopefuls could not afford a longer rest. GKS Katowice returned to training the earliest - as early as 15 June - followed on 17 June by Górnik Zabrze and KGHM Zagłębie Lubin. At the other end of the spectrum was Korona Kielce, which extended its holidays all the way to 24 June.
Although the individual teams' schedules differ in terms of travel dates and the number of planned friendlies, the goal of all of them remains the same: to make the most of these few weeks and enter the season in optimal condition. The first opportunity to check the results of the summer's work will come quickly. In the very first round, Polish champions Lech Poznań will host Cracovia, Pogoń Szczecin will face Legia Warszawa, and Wisła Kraków, returning to the top flight, will face GKS Katowice at their own stadium.
