PGE GKS Bełchatów is the first Extraklasa team to become a Friend of the Show Racism the Red Card campaign. The campaign, initiated this year, aims to fight all forms of racism in the sport. The Bełchatów club was delighted to accept the invitation to become a part of the campaign. Working together with Czerwona Kartka Rasizmowi, or CKR for short, the Polish Show Racism the Red Card organisation, the club will launch a series of anti-racism sessions in September, under the banner of the upcoming round of Schools + GKS meetings.

The club was also very happy to join the campaign on account of the unhappy memories it already has of racist treatment meted out to its players during away matches.

“We’ve come up against displays of intolerance towards our black players at more than one stadium. Happily, these incidents are occurring less and less often. But we can't give up the fight against that type of behaviour, not for so much as a second,” says Michał Antczak, the club’s press officer. “After being subjected to racist treatment in our country, foreign players are hardly inclined to speak too highly of Polish society. This has to change! And that’s what the Show Racism the Red Card campaign is all about.”

After joining forces with CKR, the Bełchatów club came up with the idea of using the campaign materials they have received from the organisers to create an outreach programme targeted at local schools. Discussions on the issue of racism will be one of the features of the team's visits to educational institutions during the third Schools + GKS programme. The PGE GKS coaches and players were also delighted to be joining forces with the campaign. After receiving a coaching board bearing the Czerwona Kartka Rasizmowi logo, Rafał Ulatowski said:

“I’m wholeheartedly behind joining the campaign and I’ll be giving it my best efforts. I’ve had the pleasure of working with a great many players of different races and it's never proved to be any kind of barrier in our team.”

The ideas and the concept underlying the campaign were born in 2005 during a series of games in Western Poland, when we witnessed some scandalous behaviour directed towards teams where there were black players.

The main thrust of the campaign is to run an educational and promotional programme in Poland and Great Britain and one of the tasks Czerwona Kartka Rasizmowi has set itself is to create and distribute materials which will help in the fight against racism in football. However, the key, the thing that will be instrumental to the campaign, will be the players themselves. Their image and experience in the sports world will be a positive force for Polish youngsters, setting them an example worthy of following. Czerwona Kartka Rasizmowi will be running a wide-scale campaign in sports clubs and schools, as well as during a variety of sporting events, including, but not restricted to, football.

In the photo: Młoda Ekstraklasa manager, Maciej Bartoszek, team captain, Dariusz Pietrasiak, Carlo Costly and manager, Rafał Ulatowski.

  Two PGE GKS Bełchatów midfielders, Krzysztof Janus and Kajub Tosik, have been capped to play for the Polish under-23 team by manager Stefan Majewski. The match, Poland v. Wales, to be preceded by a training camp in Warsaw from 3rd – 7th September, will be played on 8th September at 7.30 PM at the Richmond Park stadium in Carmarthen, Wales.

The two players received their caps after manager Leo Beenhakker announced the national squad for the match against Northern Ireland.

The PGE GKS Bełchatów team is on the way back from Turkey after a successful fifteen-day training camp. The team enjoyed their last taste of glorious Mediterranean weather during their morning training session. After their extraordinarily gruelling match against CFR Cluj, the coaches treated the players to a run on the beach and a game of footbag net.

After lunch at the Topkapi Palace, the Bełchatów team will make their way to Antalya airport. From there they will take off at 4.15 PM for Vienna, where a coach will be waiting for them and will deliver them to ul. Sportowa at daybreak on Wednesday.

The first training session after their return will be held on Friday at 4 PM. However, the players will be meeting two hours earlier for a drugs awareness session.

The final two friendlies with Korona Kielce, scheduled for Saturday 14th February, are to be played on the grass pitch in Gutów Mały.

PGE GKS Bełchatów has reached the end of a two-week training camp in Turkey. By way of a dessert, the Bełchatow players, by now well into their stride, defeated a member of the Champions’ League group stage in a prestigious match, winning against CFR 1907 Cluj 3:2 (2:0).

It was a highly emotion-filled game which saw the PGE GKS team beat Rumanian champions and Champions’ league member. By the end of the first half, GKS had already scored two goals. The first player to score was Ihor Mihalevskyy. In the 27th minute, Tomasz Wróbel passed him the ball and he sent it home with a sixteen metre shot, defeating Hirschfeld. The second goal for GKS was scored by Wróbel in the 35th minute. ‘Ćwiras’ took the ball fastest after the Cluj goalkeeper had saved a shot made by Dziedzic and sent it straight into the goal.

The result at the end of the first 45 minutes must have come as a surprise to the self-assured Romanians, who then began to play a tougher and tougher game, with Janusz Dziedzic becoming the victim of a brutal foul in the 48th minute and being replaced by Janus. In the 52nd minute, a goal from Culio brought CFR back into the running. The third goal for GKS, which came in the 78th minute, was the work of Bartłomiej Chwalibogowski. Receiving the ball from Paweł Adamiec, he manoeuvred through the opposing defences and, once he was up against the Romanian champions’ goalkeeper, never slipped up. Cluj responded with a goal from Traoré in the 85th minute, but he was unable to pull anything else out of the hat. Towards the end of the match, the opposing side, fighting for a draw, took refuge in an even tougher game and were not above shoving, either, which resulted in two red cards for the Romanian Cup winners.

Players: PGE GKS

Kozik (46. Sapela) - Fonfara (69. Herrera), Pietrasiak (80. Magdoń), Drzymont (62. Cecot), Popek (82. Chałas) - Wróbel (67. Chwalibogowski), Cetnarski (71. Marciniak), Rachwał, Mihalevskyy (46. Gol), Dziedzic (48. Janus) - Ujek (66. Adamiec

PGE GKS games in Turkey:

30.01. Partizan Belgrad 0:1

01.02. Dynamo Zagrzeb 2:2
Mariusz Ujek 45-k, Pawał Adamiec 68

03.02. FK Rudar Pljevlja 1:1
Mateusz Cetnarski 39

07.02. Sanfrecce Hiroshima 2:1
Ihor Mihalevskyy 77, Paweł Magdoń 88

09.02. CFR Cluj 3:2
Ihor Mihalevskyy 27, Tomasz Wróbel 35, Batłomiej Chwalibogowski 78

The national squad of Polish League players drew against Portugal’s Faro 1:1 (1:1) in a match played in Lithuania. In the second half, PGE GKS Bełchatow player, Łukasz Garguła, took over as team captain. Garguła gave his opponents plenty to worry about, with a number of precise crosses into the penalty box and was one of the best actors in a weak game.

7th February 2009 - Faro (Estadio Algarve)
Lithuania - Polska 1:1 (1:1)
Goals: Arunas Klimavicius (26) - Paweł Brożek (11).

In their fourth friendly during the training camp in Antalya, Turkey, PGE GKS defeated the Japanese team, Sanfrecce Hiroshima, 2:1 (1:0).

The game against this demanding opponent got off to a bad start for the Bełchatów team, who were already one goal down by the 14th minute, after one of the opposing team sent a goal home with a long shot. But that was the moment when PGE GKS began to gain the upper hand and, in the 59th minute, they were able to equalise. However, after a foul presented them with a penalty kick, Kuba Tosik failed to score.

The GKS players fought and showed their class at the end. Mateusz Cetnarski played director and twice assisted his colleagues at the goal. The first to score was Ihor Mihalevskyy, heading a goal into the near post after a cross from ‘Cetnara’, while Pawel Magdoń took the Bełchatów team to victory when, two minutes before the final whistle, he turned a corner kick into a beauty of a header, sending the ball home right in front of the Japanese goalkeeper’s eyes.

The victory over Jagiellonia was the last match in the autumn round of the 2008/09 season. All the teams played 15 sets of matches, after which the leader is Warsaw Polonia with scarcely an advantage of one point over Lech, Legia and Wisła and three over PGE GKS.

The autumn round played by GKS, in spite of a weak star, at the end proved to be very successful. The team of trainer Janas won nine victories the same as all the leaders, while the lower place is caused by five defeats, of which three were minimal. GKS had only one draw, becoming the least compromising team in the whole Extra Class League.

Thanks to the perfect form of the last weeks Łukasz Garguła and Dawid Nowak distinguished themselves – with 4 goals. In addition we have Tomasz Jarzębowski with three goals, Carlo Costly and Mariusz Ujek – 2 and other players with 1 goal: Mateusz Cetnarski, Marcin Drzymont, Piotr Klepczarek and Tomasz Wróbel.

Meanwhile, the three christened as “Top GUN”: Garguła – 5, Nowak – 3, Ujek – 3 lead the team.

The most minutes on the pitch were played by:

Jarzębowski – 1350, Kozik – 1350, Rachwał – 1251, Pietrasiak – 1235, Popek – 1138, Garguła – 1019.

Dawid Nowak and Łukasz Garguła have been chosen for the eleven in the extra class rounds already played. Both GKSO beat Piotr Lech in the match against Jagiellonia. Furthermore Dawid Nowak received a star for the best player in the chosen eleven.

In the last matches in the autumn round PGE GKS won against Jagiellonia Białystok 2:0 (1:0). In the difficult winter conditions the GKS players managed better and proved their superiority with a beautiful double act Ujek - Nowak and that final goal. In the second half, apart from a delay of several minutes, the GKS Miners launched attack after attack, but the former GKS goal keeper, Piotr Lech, defended his goal magnificently. Finally the third victory in succession over Jagiellonia was assured by the goal of Łukasz Garguły after a perfect pass from Tomek Jarzębowski.

And already next Friday GKS will begin the spring round with a match against Górnik Zabrze. The last game in the 2008 Extra Class begins at 17:45.

GKS Bełchatów - Jagiellonia Białystok 2:0 (1:0)

Goals: Dawid Nowak (20), Łukasz Garguła (84).

Leo Beenhakker summoned 24 players to the Polish team group in Turkey (Antalya), which will take place from the 8th to the 15th of December. The called up group consists mainly of players from the years 1984-1987, who have played in national youth teams. The PGE GKS forward Nowak is in the basic list, as the previous year, in turn our halfback Piotr Kuklis is on the reserve list waiting for his chance.

The idea of the group is – as the trainer puts it – to give these players the chance to show what they can do and equally in the context of the near future as well as the preparation of the prospective team, which will represent Poland in the 2012 European Cup. In Turkey the representation will play two matches: on the 10th of December a friendly match with the team of Antalyaspor Kulübü and on the 14th of December an official match with Serbia.