Tauron Liga opens Friday with defending champions Zawiercie and 14 teams

Favourites and the opening fixture

The Tauron Liga men's volleyball season opens on Friday, 16 October 2026, with 14 teams in the field, including GKS Katowice, which returns to the top flight after a year away. Defending champions Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie are the clear favourites and begin against GKS Katowice. This summer the club added Tomasz Fornal and Jakub Kochanowski, while Kamil Rychlicki and Bartłomiej Bołądź were already in the squad. Coach Michał Winiarski must now fit a group of world-class players into one roster. Bołądź addressed the issue on the podcast W cieniu sportu with Łukasz Kadziewicz:

If you have the money, you go and bring in the best players. I can only be glad we will have such a band next season.

Bołądź expects the training sessions, where every player fights for a place in the next match, to be the most interesting part of the season.

Schedule and playoff format

The regular season runs from 16 October 2026 to 28 March 2027, and each team plays 13 home matches and the same number away. The eight best teams advance to the play-offs, which will be played in April and May 2027. Quarterfinals and semifinals run to two wins, while the medal series run to three. As in the previous season, clubs outside the top eight will not play for places 9 to 14, and the last-placed team will be relegated to the I liga. For the first time since 2008 the competition no longer carries the PlusLiga name.

1. Oct 16, 2026Season opens with 14 teams, Zawiercie meeting GKS Katowice
2. Mar 28, 2027Regular season scheduled to end
3. April 2027Play-offs begin for the top eight teams
4. May 2027Play-off series continue, with medal series run to three wins

Jastrzębie's absence and a merged club

For the first time since 1997, no club from Jastrzębie-Zdrój will play in the top flight. The local club collapsed after long-running financial problems and was forced to withdraw from the competition. Volleyball stays in the city through a merger of JSW Jastrzębski Węgiel with Ukraine's Barkom Każany Lwów. The new side, Jastrzębie Barkom, will play its home matches in Jastrzębie-Zdrój under president Adam Gorol, previously head of JSW Jastrzębski Węgiel. Oleh Baran, owner of Barkom, will continue to back the project financially.

Transfers and star names

Wilfredo Leon remains with Bogdanka LUK Lublin, which has also signed Japanese outside hitter Ran Takahashi, 25, one of the leaders of his national team last season. Takahashi is expected to form one of the strongest hitting pairs in the league alongside Leon. Aleksander Śliwka joins PGE Projekt Warszawa but will not play at the start, as he is still recovering from a foot injury. Fabian Drzyzga, a two-time world champion aged 36, arrives at Cuprum Stilon Gorzów to lead the team after a spell at Fenerbahce Istanbul. Fornal, who returns after a year in Turkey, said:

It is fantastic to return to Poland, and phenomenal to play in front of a Polish crowd.

Italian world champion Yuri Romano also plays for Projekt Warszawa, while French 2024 Olympic champions Kevin Tillie and Yacine Louati play in Warsaw and Chełm.

League ambitions and the wider calendar

Artur Popko, president of the Polish Volleyball League (PLS), says the league still has room to grow in several areas:

There is absolutely room for improvement, in youth development, academies, attendance and match presentation.

Popko said the league has started a project, supported by the Ministry of Sport and Tourism, to certify volleyball academies. The national team retained the European title in late September and secured its Olympic qualification for Los Angeles. Poland hosts the world championship next year, and fans can follow the league on Polsat Sport channels and the Polsat Box Go streaming service.