Polish Sport Becomes More Professional

The number of Polish sports federations remained unchanged in 2025 at 70, the same as a year earlier, as did the number of regional sports associations, which stood at 551. From a management perspective, this points to a mature and stable industry structure: growth is not being achieved by multiplying the number of entities, but by expanding the scale of operations within existing organisations. The number of licensed athletes increased to 949,800, from 857,700 in 2024, representing growth of 10.8% year on year. The share of women remained unchanged at 20.1%, while the proportion of senior athletes declined slightly to 32.1% from 32.6%, indicating that the licensed athlete base is gradually becoming younger.

The athlete market remains highly concentrated: football accounts for 48.8% of all licences, followed by sports shooting with 10.8% and volleyball with 6.0%. The remaining several dozen federations share the other 34.4% of athletes, representing a typical industry structure with one dominant segment and a long tail of smaller organisations.

The direction of workforce growth is particularly interesting from a labour-market perspective. The number of coaches increased by 5.9% year on year to 40,700, while the number of instructors rose by 7.8% to 14,400. The number of sports officials, however, increased by as much as 19.1% to 42,400, more than three times faster than the number of coaches. This indicates that organised sport in Poland is investing relatively more in supervisory and control functions than in the direct training of athletes. Women account for 21.3% of sports officials, while 4.2% hold international qualifications. The highest numbers of officiating licences were issued in sports shooting, which accounted for 28.1%, and football, with 18.8%.

An even clearer sign of professionalisation can be seen in employment directly within sports federations. The number of coaching staff employed by the federations increased to 685, up by 17 from the previous year, while medical personnel rose to 433 from 304 a year earlier, an increase of 42.4%. For organisations managing the infrastructure of competitive sport, this growth is comparable to the scale of investment in compliance and risk management in the corporate sector, reflecting a response to increasing requirements concerning athlete safety and institutional responsibility.

Investment in professional staff has not yet translated into improved medal results at the highest level. At the 2025 World Championships, Polish athletes won 239 medals, including 66 gold, 81 silver and 92 bronze, compared with 311 medals a year earlier. This decline should be monitored as an indicator of the effectiveness of investment in support structures. At the European Championships, the result remained virtually unchanged at 509 medals, including 132 gold, 163 silver and 214 bronze, exactly the same total as in 2024. The highest numbers of World Championship medals were won in air sports, with 43 medals including 11 gold, kickboxing with 26, and freediving with 17. At the European Championships, kickboxing was the most successful discipline with 68 medals, followed by sumo with 41.

Athletes with disabilities recorded the opposite trend, winning 99 World Championship medals compared with 56 in 2024, and 80 European Championship medals compared with 86 a year earlier. This represents an almost twofold increase in the World Championship result, accompanied by a slight decline in Europe. Athletics delivered the best World Championship results, with 41 medals including 21 gold, while table tennis produced the strongest European Championship performance, with 16 medals including five gold.

The four main physical culture organisations — the University Sports Association, or AZS; the National Association of Rural Sports Clubs, or LZS; the Polish Sports Association for Persons with Disabilities “Start”; and the Society for the Promotion of Physical Culture, or TKKF — reported a combined total of 6,600 organisational units, up 2.7% year on year, and 341,900 members, an increase of 14,300. At the same time, the number of people actively participating in sport declined to 303,500, down by 5,500. This is a classic problem for membership-based organisations: a widening gap between formal growth in the membership base and actual participant engagement, a challenge also familiar to managers of subscription businesses and industry associations.

The National Association of Rural Sports Clubs had the largest scale of operations, with 206,700 members and 178,300 active participants, followed by AZS with 90,400 members and 50,000 active participants. TKKF remains an exception to the general pattern of having fewer active participants than members: its 42,900 members generate as many as 73,900 active participants. This organisational model may be worth analysing by other federations looking for ways to increase actual participation.

Men continue to dominate the participation structure, accounting for 68.4% of active participants, compared with 69.2% in 2024. People aged 18 or under represented 50.4%, compared with 50.6% a year earlier, which means that grassroots participation in sport remains largely youth-based. The highest number of members was recorded in Lubelskie Voivodeship, with 11.7% of the total, while the highest number of active participants was reported in Wielkopolskie Voivodeship, with 12.2%. The number of organised events declined to 77,800 from 80,400, but the number of participants increased to 3.6 million from 3.4 million. In other words, fewer events were held, but each attracted more people.