Fulham Announce Pre-Season Poland Matches

The Whites are set to play two pre-season friendlies in Poland this summer, after Fulham’s initial pre-season schedule was released on the club website Friday afternoon.

Fulham travel to Poznan, Poland’s fourth largest city, on Monday July 3rd, and will play its first match against Polish side Piast Gliwice on Wednesday July 5th. Fulham’s other pre-season fixture is against Czech team FC Zlin on Saturday July 8th.

Piast Gliwice, Fulham’s first opponents, are far from household names in England, and currently play in the Ekstraklasa (Poland’s top flight). The Polish side (known as the Piastunki) finished 2nd in the Ekstraklasa in 2015/16, their highest-ever finish in the league; this earned them a place in the third-qualifying round of the Europa League. Piast Gliwice would go on to lose to IFK Goteborg and attained a tenth-placed finish in the Ekstraklasa in 2016/17. Fulham’s match against the Piastunki will take place at the Remes Hotel in Opalenica, a half hour outside of Poznan.

Fulham’s other fixture will be played against FC Zlin of the Czech Republic. FC Zlin play in the Czech top division and finished sixth and won the Czech Cup last season. As a result of their domestic cup triumph, Zlin will take part in the 2017/18 Europa League directly from the group stage. The match will be played at Stadium Groklin, a small stadium situated inside the Hotel Rodan Groklin, around an hour west of Poznan.

According to the club website, tickets will be available to purchase on the gate at each fixture. Fulham also confirmed they will play Queens Park Rangers in a behind-closed-doors friendly at Motspur Park this summer.

Further pre-season plans will be released in the coming weeks, and it already seems as if Fulham have some diverse opposition ahead of them during the summer.