Foundation and rise The history of SSA Amica Sport goes back to 1992 when the "
Amica company" (a
white goods manufacturer) wanted to sponsor a football team in the town of
Wronki where their factory was located. The Amica company's increasing profits gave the new team financial clout in the Polish leagues. The club was formed when two clubs were joined,
Błękitni Wronki and
LZS Czarni Wromet Wróblewo. In the 1993–1994 season Amica Wronki were promoted to the
third division. The next season the team, led by Jarosław Szuby, won promotion to the second tier. Amica didn't stay in the
second division for long, because the following season they again won promotion, this time to the
Ekstraklasa under Marian Kurowski who took over the job started by former coaches
Bogusław Baniak and Horst Panic.
Golden era of Ryszard Forbrich The team finished 5th, 5th and 7th in successive seasons to cement themselves as an
Ekstraklasa side. On 13 June 1998, Amica Wronki beat
Aluminium Konin 5–3 to win their first
Polish Cup and first trophy in their history. Despite the team from Konin being by far the better team, Amica Wronki won in controversial circumstances, with the help of the referee Marek Kowalczyk so obvious that he was given a three-month ban, but the
PZPN match observer Alojzy Jarguz inexplicably gave the referee a high note. Impartial observers, such the manager of
Lech Poznań Adam Topolski, chairman of
Olimpia Poznań (a
top flight club at the time) Bolesław Krzyżostaniak, the chief of
Zawisza Bydgoszcz Edward Potok and former
Górnik Konin manager
Janusz Białek were all highly critical of the match they have witnessed. The director of Amica Wronki at the time, Ryszard Forbrich, known as "Fryzjer", was later revealed to be the leader of an organised crime group,
fixing matches all around the country, instrumental to a huge
corruption scandal in Polish football. He later admitted to fixing the match in his autobiography. The 1998 cup final however was never investigated, with trophy still belonging to Amica, and remains a sore point for Górnik fans to this day. On 18 July 1998, Amica Wronki won the
Polish Super Cup, contested by the previous season's league and cup champions, by beating
ŁKS Łódź after a goal by
Radosław Biliński. Amica qualified for the last edition of the now defunct
European Cup Winners Cup in the 1998–99 season, playing for the first time against European opposition. They beat
Hibernians FC 5–0 in the qualifying round before losing to
SC Heerenveen 4–1 on aggregate in the first round. After a disappointing
1998–99 league campaign where they finished in 12th place, they managed to end the season well by winning their second Polish Cup by beating
GKS Bełchatów on 13 June 1999. Once more they had the opportunity of playing in Europe through the
UEFA Cup, and surprisingly beat
Brøndby IF of
Denmark 5–4 on aggregate in the first round. They followed up that success by beating league champions
Wisła Kraków to win their second Polish Super Cup on 22 September 1999. They were drawn against Spanish team
Atlético Madrid in the second round of the Uefa Cup and lost 5–1 on aggregate, before ending the
1999–2000 season in sixth place. Amica won their third Polish Cup on 9 June 2000 in a rematch of the Super Cup game against Wisła Kraków. They appeared in a European competition for the third season in a row and made it to the second round beating
FC Vaduz 6–3,
FC Alania Vladikavkaz 5–0 and finally losing to
Hertha 2–4 and finished the
2000–01 season in 7th place. In the
2001–02 season, a reshuffle of the Ekstraklasa occurred to lower the number of teams from 18 to 16. Two groups of nine teams were created for the fall season. The spring season consisted of a Championship group consisting of the top five teams in both fall season groups, and a relegation group consisting of the bottom four teams from both fall season groups. Amica finished in fifth place in their group during the fall season with 12 points to qualify for the Championship group and ended the spring season in third. Amica made it to the Polish Cup final for the fourth time but were beaten by Wisła Kraków 8–2 on aggregate. Qualification for the
2002–03 UEFA Cup was accomplished as Polish Cup runners-up because Wisła had won the league title and therefore qualification for the
UEFA Champions League. Amica beat
Servette FC on the away goals rule after a 4–4 aggregate tie in the first round, before extending their streak of never having qualified past the second round by losing to
Málaga CF 4–2 on aggregate and finishing the season in sixth place. The
following campaign fared much better, as a good run of games propelled them to third place in the league and therefore UEFA Cup qualification, the only downside being their elimination from the Polish Cup in the quarter finals. A penalty shoot-out was needed for Amica to beat Hungarians
Budapest Honvéd FC 5–4 after a 1–1 aggregate tie in the second qualifying round of the
2004–05 UEFA Cup. A 2–1 victory in the first round against Latvians
FK Ventspils was followed by their first appearance in the revamped UEFA Cup group stage. They lost all 4 group games to finish bottom of Group F. They finished in sixth place in the league, thus failing to get into European competition the following season.
Merger and disbandment The
season was their last as Amica Wronki announced that they would merge with
Lech Poznań to form a new team called KKS Lech Poznań for the 2006–2007 season. They played their last game in the Ekstraklasa on 13 May 2006 with a 2–1 win over GKS Bełchatów and finished in 4th place in the final league standings. Amica would still function as a lower-league team for the 2006–07 season but the bulk of players and staff had either joined new clubs or transferred to Lech Poznań which represented the newly merged team in the Ekstraklasa. The roster consisted mostly of youth players; the oldest player in the new squad being 22 years old. This would have gave them an opportunity to showcase their talents before they are transferred either to Lech Poznań, who have the right of first refusal, or to other clubs. Allegedly, one of the main reasons that the merger was finalised was the Amica company wanting to invest in a team with a larger fanbase. At the time,
Wronki has a population of 12,000 while
Poznań has over 578,900 inhabitants.. Another reason was that Lech Poznań were looking for a new sponsor to inject funds into the team and Amica fit the bill perfectly since they were so close. Both cities are in the
Greater Poland voivodeship of Poland and are barely apart. The 2006–07 season didn't start well for the new-look Lech Poznań as they lost their chance to get into Europe, a benefit that Amica Wronki fought for last season by finishing fourth while Lech Poznań was placed sixth. They lost 4–1 on aggregate against Moldovan team
FC Tiraspol in the UEFA Intertoto Cup and had to contend with a season without European football in Poznań. The reserve team then became its first team but only lasted one season before it was finally disbanded. In 2007, one of the clubs that was merged that created Amica,
Błękitni Wronki, was re-founded and is considered to be a
phoenix club. == Stadium ==