Piotr Rutkowski, Lech Poznan Owner. Exclusive Interview

Juan Carlos Quiñonez Bonilla • 19 de octubre de 2023

Piotr Rutkowski has taken over the presidency of Lech Poznan. He spoke with Manos Staramopoulos in Berlín about various items of his club and of european football

Piotr Rutkowski and Manos Staramopoulos of Discoveryfootball.com

For 5 years now, Piotr Rutkowski has taken over the presidency of Lech Poznan. A team that was founded in 1922. It is based at the Poznań Stadium, with a capacity of 41,609 spectators. It participates in the Polish championship which it has won 7 times (1983, 1984, 1990, 1992, 1993, 2010, 2015), 5 times it has won the cup (: 1982, 1984, 1988, 2004, 2009) and 6 times the Super cup (1990, 1992, 2004, 2009, 2015, 2016) of her country. One understands that this is one of the most powerful forces in Poland. Apart from the fact that it has featured many important footballers such as the forward Robert Lewandowski (now of Barcelona), the forward Andrej Juskowiak (also played for Olympiakos). The attacking midfielder, Miroslav Okonski (also distinguished himself in AEK).

The strong man of Lech Poznan was met by Chief Editor of Discoveryfootball.com Manos Staramopoulos in Berlin at the Intercontinental Hotel, where the 40th General Assembly of ECA was held and they talked about many interesting football issues...

Piotr Rutkowski – president and owner of Lech Poznań. Studied at two universities - University Maastricht and the University of Economics in Poznań. He has a bachelor's degree in economics. He has been working for Lech Poznań since 2006, when his father Jacek Rutkowski - the owner of Amica Wronki - merged his club with Kolejorz under a common flag. Piotr started working in the Poznań team in the sports department, but managed to go through virtually all levels of the club's infrastructure.

Already in 2019, Jacek Rutkowski divided the club's shares among his two children - Paweł Piotr and Maja. In 2021, Piotr officially became the majority shareholder, becoming the owner and president of Kolejorz. Under his leadership, the team won its eighth Polish championship title in 2022, and at the beginning of the next season it qualified for the group stage of the UEFA Conference League.

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DF: Mr. Rutkowski, when did you first get involved with Lech's administration?

R/: "Since I was little, I liked football. I played football and I really liked it. But I preferred to focus on my studies, without leaving football out of my mind and as soon as I completed them I starting working for the Club in 2006. My first responsibility was to create a scouting department. Then I assumed the position of the Vice President (March 1, 2012) and then in 2015 (July 1) the presidency of the team, which I maintain until today".

DF: Last season Lech Poznan took 3rd place, but you didn't manage to get into Conference league groups, why what happened?

R/: “Look, we didn't do well in the qualifiers. We shut out Kauno Zalgiris (3-1,2-1), but then we didn't succeed against Spartak Trnava (2-1. 1-3). Now we will try to do better in the league and appear stronger in the new season".

DF: Which teams besides yours will claim the new championship?

R/: "Legia Warsaw and Rakov together with us will be the main contenders for this year's title in Poland.."

DF: From a financial point of view, how is Lech Poznan doing?.

R/: "First of all we have 10,000 season tickets as our fans love the team and support it. Then there is the central management of television rights and we all share the amount of 70 – 80 million euros (TV Rights in Poland – we as a club expect between 5-7 mln eur). So these two help us quite a bit..”

DF: This year what was your most important transfer and how much did you pay?.

R/: "We were able to attract two players from the Belgium league, Ali Gholizadeh and Dino Hotic. But our biggest talent right now is Filip Marchwinski, a 21-year-old kid who has great talent and great perspective. He went though out the whole academy teams. He is already a key member of the Hope national team (-21) and will soon wear the Men's shirt as well." (is called up now).

DF: Who is currently the first name in your team?

R/: "He is the Swede of Syrian origin, Mikael Ishak, a very interesting and important football player who we took 3 years ago from Nuremberg and he has helped us a lot.."