Why Socios?

Why you should join Socios

Everyone who comes here will ask the question – why should I join Socios, what will it give me, what do I get out of it, what do I expect from Socios ? We are already in Socios, so we know the answers to those questions and we want to share them.

We are an association that works with and for the benefit of the most honoured football club in Poland. For many years, Górnik Zabrze was the pride of the whole country, representing it in European competitions and being the only Polish club to have ever reached a final of any of them.

Playing against Roma, Tottenham, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Manchester City or Manchester United, Górnik attracted hundreds of thousands of fans to the stadium, while further millions of people would watch the team’s games on TV, or listen to them on the radio. Football fans from all over Poland used to keep their fingers crossed for the club, no matter whether they were from Szczecin, Poznań, Kraków, Bielsko-Biała, or many other cities and towns. For them, Górnik was something that brought joy and reason to be proud of being Polish on a daily basis. Let us not forget what times were back then, what political and economic reality we had to face.

This is the history – beautiful and filled with both domestic and international success, but it’s already past. Currently Górnik is facing the same problems as many other clubs in Polish Ekstraklasa, or lower leagues. The fact that the team has had to play in front of a very limited audience (about 3,000 fans can attend) for a number of years causes a significant decrease of income from the so-called match day. And we all still remember well the games our team used to play for eighteen or twenty thousand people, even when we were relegated to the first division for one season.

What does this show ?

Górnik Zabrze has many faithful and dedicated fans, who are with the club for better and for worse. It is estimated that over 700,000 people in Poland and around the world identify themselves with the club and show affinity for it. This is a huge potential to be used. These fans need to be convinced that with their support our club can be BIG again.

Socios want to be the platform to attract fans back to the stands (after completing the modernisation of the stadium), and those who will not be able to take active part in fans’ life, will be encouraged to participate in other ways of supporting the club.

Socios want to support the club by providing it with funds arising from premiums and donations of their members, companies and organisations cooperating with the association. The acquisition of new shares in the club will mean that the entire collected sum will be provided for the club, will help it pay the debts to its former and current players and other employees of the club, public institutions or sports organisations.

We also want to support the activity of the club consisting in the development of the football academy, so that the youth attending it could have decent training conditions and join the first team in the future. Who knows, perhaps there are already new stars playing on our pitches, who will make our clubs famous by achieving success in the national team, just like Oślizło, Pohl, Lubański, Gorgoń, Urban, Wałdoch, or many others in the past ?

Socios are also going to cooperate with the club on many other marketing and business levels. To come back to the position it deserves, the club has to remember about its fans. Those who want to watch and be excited about the great Górnik again have to unite and help the club restore its financial stabilisation. We owe it to the club for all the great years , success, moments of joy and pride to be its supporters.

By being a member of Socios, each supporter will have a real impact on the activity of the club through our representative in the Supervisory Board (in talks with the shareholders of the club, we are intending to get the guarantee of having our own representative in the above-mentioned body). By submitting applications and voting during General Meetings of Members, each member of Socios will have the possibility of sharing their opinion on any subject related to the activity of the association and club.

Each of the members will receive a card which will prove their attachment with the club, and in the future will entitle them to get discounts in many institutions, as well as commercial or service companies.

Companies and other organisations, who are the members supporting our association, and therefore the club, will also possess identification cards, just like the common members. They will get from us special certificates confirming the fact of being our partner, friend of Górnik. We hope that displaying the certificate in the office or other prominent location will allow its owner to get due recognition in the local environment, as well as gain many new customers. The labels informing about our cooperation, placed on shop windows or near the entrance will immediately show that a particular institution supports us and that by buying products or services there you support the club and save your own money. We will inform about it and encourage to use their services on our website.

We want to establish a bond between the fans, supporting members, Socios association and Górnik Zabrze. We want to lay foundations for something we might be able to call “great Górnik family” in a couple of years.

Therefore, one more time let us encourage the fans, companies and institutions to join our association, and therefore to help our beloved club, so that Górnik Zabrze was GREAT again.