Zawisza was relegated from the Second Level to Fourth Level in the 1997–98 season. In 2001, they controversially merged with Chemik Bydgoszcz, and played as Chemik-Zawisza, whilst the reserve team was initially meant to be called Zawisza-Chemik, although ultimately the reserved team remained as simply "Zawisza". The merger turned out to be very unsuccessful, and the senior side started anew from the bottom of the league pyramid reverting to "Chemik", leaving the reserve team in the fifth division, which subsequently became Zawisza's senior team.