Alex Băcica is originally from Romania and founded the Polish community-focused team Krakow Dragoons. He also runs the Krakow Football Live Podcast on which he regularly discusses grassroots and fan-owned football with a range of guests. In this interview, he talks about the origins of Krakow Dragoons as well as the importance of community and fan-ownership in football.

How Alex’s team team Krakow Dragoons were founded
“Back in 2015 a handful of us met for a kickabout on a Sunday afternoon. By chance, almost everyone there was an expat. Some were new, some had been there longer but we all missed playing football so much that it quickly became a weekly thing for about three months before we had to take a break for the winter. In February pretty much the same crowd showed up and we moved our regular meetings to a 3G pitch in the city centre and the group started growing. By the summer, having a core group of about 15 people, we formed a team, picked a colour and gave it a name and started playing in what's called Cracow Sunday Football League. Two years later we organized ourselves as a legal entity - sports association - and signed up for B Klasa, the 8th (and lowest) tier of the Polish FA league system.”

Where Krakow Dragoos are playing now.
“We are actually a member-owned and run club at the moment. We're a brand-new club, we are working towards building a fanbase, and ultimately getting everyone around the club involved in some capacity. In fact we want to become a fan owned club that can hold its own in the official league system. 2019/2020 was our first season or rather half season, as lower leagues football in Poland was officially cancelled last Thursday with us just one point shy of promotion and a whole half season to go. The team who was top of the table gained promotion but there were no relegations so it will be a weird set-up for next season. This was a blow for us and everyone felt disappointed, but to be fair, all we ever wanted is to play competitive football.”

A club that stands out in Poland and is forming international links
“We are unique in Poland in the sense that we're the only club competing in the league system that was formed, founded and run by foreigners. Obviously, we have a number of Polish players - some joined us back in 2016, some as recent as February - but the vast majority of the players/members are expats. And because of that we're trying to extend our reach beyond football and act like a social platform for expats to get to know people, be a part of a social group and make it easier to adapt in a new environment. Humans are naturally social beings but it's not always easy to get to know people when moving to a different country, as I know from experience. And this is where our club comes in, as it is much easier when you start relationships by having some common ground or interests, football in this case.

Another thing that we were trying to do for the local football scene was organizing annual international events with visiting teams (mostly from the UK so far). In 2017, shortly after we were formed, we hosted a touring team from Leeds. It was a lot of fun and saw that as an opportunity to grow and gain experience in all aspects of grassroots football. In 2018 we've organized GOAL! Festival together with our guests Wanderers FC of London. We've had 3 football games (including a women's game) in a sort of festival atmosphere with over 100 people in total coming to watch the games. In 2019 we organized GOAL! Festival II hosting South Bank Cuaco FC (London).”

When and how did you become interested in community-focused football and fan ownership in football?
“By accident, really. When I growing up in my town we didn't really have a football team and the interest in non-first league football was really low so I've never really had contact with this kind of approach to football. When I moved to Bucharest aged 18-19 I started going to matches weekly following Steaua Bucharest. three times a week sometimes and often having a two and a half hour walk back home as there was no public transport after 11:30pm back then. But then in 2011 all the problems at the club started happening, in 2012 I moved to Poland and by the end of the year I lost interest altogether. And then I started to notice all the small local teams a couple of years later and started following English Sunday league / non-league football and YouTube teams as much as the internet would allow me. At first, I didn’t take a particular interest in one club or another but I then settled on Palmers FC in 2016. And that 2015 kickabout here Krakow was the spark. So after forming our team, I started trying to apply on the local scene whatever I've learned from watching these clubs online.”

As you are originally from Romania, could you tell us about attitudes to fan ownership there. We've heard that a former top division team that went out of business in 2018 and has been re-created as a fan owned club.
“I think it's picking up. With the advances in technology and people being able to communicate easily regardless of distance or other aspects, it's easier to get organised. There were some Romanian (artificial) clubs that played first tier football, even doing well in European football (e.g Unirea Urziceni) that disappeared altogether. Some more traditional clubs that were formed 40, 50 or even 70 years ago and played top level football in the country were failing as well because of the financial issues but luckily they've had a well-established fanbase that managed to reorganise the clubs as fan-owned (Petrolul Ploiesti, Otelul Galati, Poli Timisoara).

It was always weird; I watched Galati live playing Manchester United in the Champions League in 2011 only for them to disappear one year later citing money problems despite the €20 million just received from UEFA (for a Romanian club that's a few season's budget easily). They were reformed as a fan owned club in 2016 and I think they’re currently playing in the third division.

But the club you you're referring to is Olimpia Satu Mare. They're actually turning 100 next year and we're looking forward to an invitation to play them next summer while celebrating. They used to play top tier football and later were regulars in second division in Romania. They were actually dissolved a couple of times, but the second time, in 2018, the fans took action straight away and reformed the club as fan-owned the same year. I've been following them as we were starting our journey around the same time (we were actually established as an association in 2018 but had to wait one more season to compete because of some legal procedures) I I've always liked their project. Compared to us, they are properly fan owned, they have a bigger community around the club and everyone is doing a fantastic job in running and supporting the club.

I had the pleasure of meeting a couple of the people involved back in February at the Supporters Direct AGM in Beveren, Belgium and they're great people. They run both the Club daily operations and a supporters’ community (Volutari Olimpisti - Olimpia Volunteers) and they're trying, I think, to bring the club back to its former glory, in the first division. YB SK Beveren, who were hosting the event, are a fantastic fan-owned club just outside Antwerp.

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