page_title: Legia Warsaw
section_title: Formation and beginnings
hierarchical_section_title: Legia Warsaw / History / Formation and beginnings
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Oryginalny opis fotografii: Drużyna piłki nożnej dywizyjnego Zakładu Sanitarnego (biali) i "Legja" (oznaczeni lit. "L"). Ta ostatnia, założona w kwietniu 1916 roku przez dr. Stanisława Mielecha, najlepszy legjonowy zespół piłkarski, zaczątek dzisiejszego potężnego klubu sportowego "Legja". Zdjęcie dokonane po zwycięstwie "Legji" 7:0. Gracze "Legji", oznaczeni literą "L", stoją od lewej: Jasiński, Tyrowicz, Bednarski, Jamka, Hrabik i Smoleński. Klęczą: Knapik, Tarnawski i Uchacz. Siedzą: Mielech i Stojek (w swetrze, ostatni z prawej).
context_page_description: Legia Warszawa, known in English as Legia Warsaw, is a professional football club based in Warsaw, Poland. Legia is one of the most successful Polish football clubs in history winning 14 Ekstraklasa Champions titles, a record 19 Polish Cup trophies and four Polish SuperCup matches. The club's home venue is the Polish Army Stadium.
  Legia was formed between 5 and 15 March 1916 during military operations in World War I on the Eastern Front in the neighborhood of Maniewicze in Volhynia, as the main football club of the Polish Legions. After the war, the club was reactivated on 14 March 1920 in an officer casino in Warsaw as Wojskowy Klub Sportowy Warszawa, renamed Legia in 1923 after merger with another local club, Korona. It became the main official football club of the Polish Army – Wojskowy Klub Sportowy Legia Warszawa. From 1949 to 1957, Legia was known as CWKS Warszawa.
  Before 8 April 2004 it was owned by Pol-Mot and from 8 April 2004 until 9 January 2014, it was owned by media conglomerate ITI Group.
  Currently the club is owned by Dariusz Mioduski who serves as the club's chairman.
context_section_description: Legia was formed between 5 and 15 March 1916 during military operations in World War I on the Eastern Front in the neighborhood of Maniewicze in Wołyń, as the main football club of the Polish Legions. The formation of the club in 1916 was greatly influenced by the outbreak of the First World War, because many Polish soldiers were involved in the formation of the Polish Legions before the war. Soldiers, often young men from the south of Poland (mainly from Kraków and Lwów) played football before the war, and therefore, after the formation of the team, they soon became successful. Football was a good way of spending free time, in the calm moments at the front, football matches were organized, which required the ball, making provisional goals, and finding a dozen or so players.
  The first team training began in the spring of 1915 in Piotrków, between 5 and 15 March 1916 – at the request of then Master Sergeant Zygmunt Wasserab (pre-war player of Pogoń Stryj ) – who was a part of the Polish Legion's Commanding Staff in Kostiuchnówka (near Maniewicze in Wołyń) to create a football club. The president of the organization was Władysław Groele, and corporal Stanislaw Mielech proposed the name "Sporting Team Legia", which was adopted (more commonly used term of the team later became Legionowa). Other names were: "Legion Command Squad" and "Styr". White-black colors and arms were also shown, showing the white letter "L" (symbol of the Legions) on the black dial. The players were dressed in white clothes with sloping black belts, which was a reference to Czarni Lwów.
  In the spring of 1916, the team played a number of matches with other teams, most of which ended with Legia victorious. The oldest recorded matches are: 7–0 with the Divisional Sanitary Division, 3–3 with the 6th Infantry Regiment and two victories (6–4 and 3–1) with the 4th Infantry Regiment. In July 1916 – because of the Brusilov Offensive – the Legions began to retreat west and the club relocated to Warsaw. The first match in which Polonia Warsaw was the rival was held on 29 April 1917 at Agrykola Park and ended with a 1–1 draw. Of the nine games played in Warsaw, Legia won six and drew three. At the first away game the team won a 2–1 victory over the then Polish champion KS Cracovia in Kraków, so Legia became an unofficial champion of the country. In 1918 the war ended, but the team continued to play only amateur-friendly matched.
caption: Legia and the Division of Sanitary team after a 7–0 win by Legia. Spring 1916
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