Venezia F.C.

Venezia
Full name Venezia F.C. Srld
Nickname(s) Arancioneroverdi (Orange-Black-Greens)
Lagunari (Lagoonal Ones)
Leoni Alati (Winged Lions)
Founded 1907 (as Venezia Foot Ball Club)
2005 (as SSC Venezia)
2009 (as FBC Unione Venezia)
2015 (as Venezia FC srld)
Dissolved 2005 (AC Venezia)
2009 (SSC Venezia)
2015 (FBC Unione Venezia)
Ground Stadio Pierluigi Penzo,
Sant'Elena, Italy
Ground Capacity 7,450
Chairman Joe Tacopina
Manager Giancarlo Favarin
League Serie D
2014-15 Lega Pro/A, 13th (relegated)

Venezia F.C., legally Venezia F.C. Srld and commonly referred to as Venezia for short, is an Italian football club from Venice, Veneto, currently playing in Serie D (fourth tier of Italian league system).

Founded by a merger in 1907 as Venezia Foot Ball Club, Venezia have spent a large part of their history bouncing between the top-two tiers of Italian football. In 1941, Venezia won the Coppa Italia. However, in recent years the clubs faced three bankruptcy, namely A.C. Venezia in 2005, S.S.C. Venezia in 2009 and most recently Foot Ball Club Unione Venezia in 2015. A phoenix club Venezia F.C. Srld was admitted to 2015–16 Serie D on 6 August 2015.

Stadium

Venezia's original home stadium, the Pierluigi Penzo, is the only ground in Italy's top flights that must be reached by boat. Problems with the security of the aging stadium forced the club to move to Stadio Piergiovanni Mecchia in Portogruaro.

History

The club was founded as Venezia Foot Ball Club on 14 December 1907,[1] by members of two local sports clubs coming together; Palestra Marziale and Costantino Reyer. It was originally based at Campo San Bartolomeo in the city of Venice; fifteen men including the first president Davide Fano were involved in the club's founding;.[1] In 1919, the name was translated into Italian as Associazione Calcio Venezia.

A closeup of Valentino Mazzola.

The most notable trophy success in the history of Venezia was winning the Coppa Italia during the 1940–41 season. The early 1940s was the pinnacle of the club's footballing prominence so far, as they also recorded their highest ever Serie A league finishing during that period with a 3rd place in 1941–42.

Venezia won the Coppa Italia in 1941. That team contained some of the players who went on to form part of the Torino F.C. side of the 1940s who died in the Superga air disaster in 1949, such as Ezio Loik and Valentino Mazzola.

A.C. Venezia 1907

Since the summer 1990 the club was renamed Associazione Calcio Venezia 1907.

In its history, Venezia has spent a large part of recent years bouncing between Italy's two top divisions (they were last relegated from Serie A in 2002). It was this last season in Serie A which signalled the beginning of the end for the old club. Frustrated with the team and the inability to agree plans for a larger stadium with the council, then President, Maurizio Zamparini, decided to purchase U.S. Città di Palermo, and took with him a large portion of the squad.

Álvaro Recoba played for Venezia.

Notable recent former players include Álvaro Recoba, Filippo Maniero and Christian Vieri.

In 2005 the club was relegated to Serie B and declared insolvent because of bankruptcy.

S.S.C. Venezia

In the summer 2005 the club was refounded as Società Sportiva Calcio Venezia and was admitted in Serie C2 due to Lodo Petrucci.

In this season 2005-06 it was immediately promoted to serie C1.

At the end of the 2008–09 Lega Pro Prima Divisione season, the club was declared bankrupt.

Foot Ball Club Unione Venezia

The club was refounded again, changing its name to Foot Ball Club Unione Venezia, and starting in Serie D – the top level non-professional league in Italian football. The club has also designed a new logo. Serie D ranks just below Lega Pro Seconda Divisione (the 4th and last professional league), and is thus considered the 5th ranked league in the country. Since the early 1990s, Serie D has been split into 9 regional divisions (Gironi), labelled A to I. For the 2009–2010 season, F.B.C. Unione Venezia will be playing in Girone C. The chairman is Mauro Pizzigati, president of the Venice Casino, and the manager is Paolo Favaretto.

After getting into financially difficulties in recent years, the club was competing in Serie D for the 2009–10 season.

On 15 February 2011 the former Russian major of Khimki Yuri Korablin, paid the club rights.[2]

Venezia ranked 2nd in the group C of Serie D, but losing 3-2 with SandonàJesolo it didn't access to the national play-off finals and so will remain also for the next season in this league.

Scudetto Dilettanti 2011-12

On 29 April 2012, after 3 years in Serie D, Venezia clinched automatic promotion to Lega Pro Seconda Divisione after a 5-2 victory over Gradisca. This left them with an unassailable 6 point lead over their nearest challengers Delta Porto Tolle in group C with just one game remaining.[3]

Venezia has won also the Scudetto Dilettanti.

Venezia Football Club

The club was founded as the successor to Foot Ball Club Unione Venezia, which existed between 2009 and 2015. The new club secure a placed place for the 2015–16 Serie D season. On October, New York lawyer Joe Tacopina and a group of American investors announced the purchase Venezia FC after he resigned as president of Bologna.[4]

Colours, badge and nicknames

Venezia's original kit.

Originally Venezia's colours were blue and red and the shirt features halves in those colours, the kit was very similar to that of Genoa.[5] However just a year after the club founded, it changed colours to black and green in 1908.[5]

Much later, in 1987 when the club merged with a local side Associazione Calcio Mestre from Mestre who wore orange and black,[6] orange would also become one of Venezia's official colours, giving them the nickname arancioneroverdi ("orange-black-greens").[7] Venezia's colours and kit are very distinctive; the shirt, shorts and socks are usually black with the shirt having a green and orange trim.

The symbol of the Venetian club is a winged-lion, commonly mistaken for a griffin. The golden winged-lion is the official symbol carries by the city of province of Venice;[8] the symbol has led to one of the club's most popular nicknames in the form of leoni alati ("winged-lions").[7]

As the club has been renamed numerous times during its history, the badge has also changed several times; the most common one features the golden winged lion, along with the green and orange club colours with a golden border.[9] As the city of Venice is situated on the Venetian Lagoon, the club is also nicknamed lagunari ("Lagoonal ones").[10]

Rivalries

Honours

Coppa Italia:

  • Winners (1): 1940–41

Serie B:

  • Champions (2): 1960–61; 1965–66
  • Runners-up (3): 1938–39; 1948–49; 1997–98
  • Promoted (1): 2000–01

Serie C / Serie C1:

  • Champions (2): 1935–36; 1955–56
  • Runners-up (1): 1990–91

Serie C2:

  • Champions (1): 2005–06
  • Runners-up (1): 1987–88

Serie D:

  • Scudetto Dilettanti: Winners 1: 2011-12
  • Winners (2): 1982–83, 2011-12
  • Runners-up (1): 1978–79

References

External links

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