ACF Fiorentina , commonly referred to as simply Fiorentina , is a professional Italian football club from Florence, Tuscany. Founded by a merger in 1926, Fiorentina have played at the top level of Italian football for the majority of their existence; only four clubs have played in more Serie A seasons. After climbing back up the Italian football system in the early 2000s, Fiorentina are currently competing in the 2009-10 Serie A season. Fiorentina have won Serie A twice, in 1955-56 and again in 1968-69, as well as winning six Coppa Italia trophies. On the European stage Fiorentina won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1960-61, they finished runners-up in the UEFA Cup 1989/90 and also came close to winning the biggest European prize, finishing as runners-up in the European Cup during 1956-57. Since 1931 the club have played at the Stadio Artemio Franchi , which currently has a capacity of 47,282. The stadium has used several names over the years and has undergone several renovations. Fiorentina are known widely by the nickname Viola , a reference to their distinctive purple colours.

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History

Foundation to World War II

Associazione Calcio Fiorentina was founded in the autumn of 1926 by local noble and National Fascist Party member Luigi Ridolfi ^[1], who initiated the merger of two older Florentine clubs, CS Firenze and PG Libertas. The aim of the merger was to give Florence a strong club to rival those of the more dominant Italian Football Championship sides of the time from North-West Italy. Also influential was the cultural revival and rediscovery of Calcio Fiorentino , an ancestor of modern football that was played by members of the Medici family.

After a rough start and three seasons in lower leagues, Fiorentina reached Serie A in 1931. That same year saw the opening of the new stadium, originally named Giovanni Berta, after a prominent fascist but now known as Franchi . At the time the stadium was a masterpiece of engineering, and its inauguration was monumental. In order to be able to compete with the best teams in Italy, Fiorentina strengthened their team with some new players, notably the Uruguayan Pedro Petrone, nicknamed el Artillero . Despite enjoying a good season and finishing in fourth place, Fiorentina were relegated the following year, although they would return quickly to Serie A. In 1941 they won their first Coppa Italia, but the team were unable to build on their success during the 1940s because of World War II and other troubles.

First scudetto and '50-'60s

In 1950 Fiorentina started to achieve consistent top-five finishes in the domestic league. The team consisted of great players such as well-known goalkeeper Giuliano Sarti, Sergio Cervato, Francesco Rosella, Guido Gratton, Giuseppe Chiappella and Aldo Scaramucci, but above all the attacking duo of Brazilian Julinho and Argentinian Miguel Montuori. This team won Fiorentina's first scudetto (Italian championship) in 1955-56, 12 points ahead of second-place Milan. Milan beat Fiorentina to top spot the following year, but more significantly Fiorentina became the first Italian team to play in a European Cup final, when a disputed penalty led to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of by Alfredo di Stéfano's Real Madrid. Fiorentina were runners-up again in the three subsequent seasons. In the 1960-61 season the club won the Coppa Italia again and was also successful in Europe, winning the first Cup Winners' Cup against Rangers.

After several years of runner-up finishes, Fiorentina dropped away slightly in the 1960s, bouncing from 4th to 6th place, although the club won the Coppa Italia and the Mitropa Cup in 1966.

Second scudetto and '70s

While the 1960s did result in some trophies and good Serie A finishes for Fiorentina, nobody believed that the club could challenge for the title. The 1968-69 season started with Milan as frontrunners, but on match day 7 they lost to Bologna and were overtaken by Gigi Riva's Cagliari Calcio. Fiorentina, after an unimpressive start, then moved to the top of the Serie A, but the first half of their season finished with a 2-2 draw against Varese, leaving Cagliari as outright league leader. The second half of the season was a three-way battle between the three contending teams, Milan, Cagliari and Fiorentina. Milan fell away, instead focusing their efforts on the European Cup, and it seemed that Cagliari would retain top spot, but after losing against Juventus, Fiorentina took over at the top. The team then won all of their remaining matches, beating rivals Juventus in Turin on the penultimate matchday to seal their second, and last, national title. In the European Cup competition the following year Fiorentina had some good results, including a win in the USSR against Dynamo Kyiv, but they were eventually knocked out in the quarter finals after a 3-0 defeat in Glasgow to Celtic.

Viola players began the 1970s decade with Scudetto sewed on their breast, but the period was not especially fruitful for the team. After a 5th place finish in 1971, they finished in mid-table almost every year, even flirting with relegation in 1972 and 1978. The Viola did win the Anglo-Italian League Cup in 1974 and won the Coppa Italia again in 1975. The team consisted of young talents like Vincenzo Guerini and Moreno Roggi, who had the misfortune to suffer bad injuries, and above all Giancarlo Antognoni, who would later become an idol to Fiorentina's fans. The young average age of the players led to the team being called Fiorentina Ye-Ye .

Pontello era

In 1980 Fiorentina was bought by Flavio Pontello, from a rich house-builder family. He quickly changed the team's anthem and logo, leading to some complaints by the fans, but he started to bring in high-quality players such as Francesco Graziani and Eraldo Pecci from Torino, Daniel Bertoni from Seville, Daniele Massaro from Monza and a young Pietro Vierchowod from Sampdoria. The team was built around Giancarlo Antognoni, and in Serie A 1981-82 Fiorentina were involved in an exciting duel with rival Juventus. After a bad injury to Antognoni, the league title was decided on the final day of the season, when Fiorentina were denied a goal against Cagliari and were unable to win. Juventus won the title with a disputed penalty, and the rivalry between the two teams erupted.

The following years were strange for Fiorentina, who vacillated between high finishes and relegation battles. Fiorentina also bought two interesting players, El Puntero Ramón Díaz and, most significantly, the young Roberto Baggio.

In 1990 Fiorentina fought to avoid relegation right up until the final day of the season, but did reach the UEFA Cup final, where they again faced Juventus. The Turin team won the trophy, but Fiorentina's tifosi once again had real cause for complaint: the second leg of the final was played in Avellino (Fiorentina's home ground was suspended), a city with a lot of Juventus' fans, and Roberto Baggio was sold to the rival team on the day of the final. Pontello, suffering from economic difficulties, was selling all the players and was forced to leave the club after serious riots in Florence's streets. The club was then acquired by the famous filmmaker Mario Cecchi Gori.

Cecchi Gori era

The first season under Cecchi Gori's ownership was one of settling, after which the new chairman started to sign some good players like Brian Laudrup, Stefan Effenberg, Francesco Baiano and, most importantly, Gabriel Batistuta, who became an iconic player for the team during the 1990s. In 1993, however, Mario Cecchi Gori died and was succeeded as chairman by his son Vittorio Cecchi Gori. Despite a good start to the season, the Vittorio Cecchi Gori fired the coach after the defeat against Atalanta ^[2], Luigi Radice, and replaced him with Aldo Agroppi. The results were dreadful: Fiorentina fell into the bottom half of the standings and were relegated on the last day of the season.

Claudio Ranieri was brought in as coach for the 93-94 season, and that year Fiorentina dominated Serie B (second division). Upon their return to Serie A, Ranieri put together a good team centred around new top scorer Batistuta, signing the young talent Rui Costa from Benfica and the new world champion Brazilian defender Marcio Santos. The former became an idol to Fiorentina fans, while the second disappointed and was sold after only a season. Viola finished the season in 10th.

The following season Cecchi Gori bought other important players like Stefan Schwarz. The club again proved its mettle in cup competitions, winning the Coppa Italia against Atalanta, and finished joint 3rd in Serie A. In the summer, Fiorentina was the first non-national champion to win the Supercoppa Italiana, defeating AC Milan 2-1 at the San Siro.

Fiorentina's 95-96 season was disappointing in the league, but they did reach the Cups Winners' Cup semi-final by beating Gloria Bistrita (Away 1-1, Home 1-0) Sparta Prague (Home 2-1, Away 1-1), Benfica (Away 2-0, Home 0-1). The team lost the semi-final to the eventual winner of the competition, FC Barcelona (Away 1-1, Home 0-2). The season's main signings were Luís Oliveira and Andrei Kanchelskis, the latter of whom suffered a lot of injuries.

At the end of the season, Ranieri left Fiorentina for Valencia CF, and Cecchi Gori appointed Alberto Malesani. Fiorentina played well but struggled against smaller teams, although they did manage to qualify for the UEFA Cup. Malesani left Fiorentina after only a season and was succeeded by Giovanni Trapattoni. With Trapattoni's expert guidance and Batistuta's goals, Fiorentina challenged for the title in 1998-99 but finished the season in third, earning them qualification for the UEFA Champions League. The following year was disappointing in Serie A, but Viola played some historical matches in Champions League, beating Arsenal 1-0 at the old Wembley Stadium and Manchester United 2-0 in Florence. They were ultimately eliminated in the second group stage.

At the end of the season Trapattoni left the club and was replaced by Turkish coach Fatih Terim. More significantly, however, Batistuta was sold to Roma, who eventually won the title the following year. Fiorentina played well in 2000-01 and stayed in the top half of Serie A, despite the resignation of Terim and the arrival of Roberto Mancini. They also won the Coppa Italia for the sixth and last time.

2001 heralded major changes for Fiorentina, as the terrible state of the club's finances was revealed: they were unable to pay wages and had debts of around USD 50 million. The club's owner, Vittorio Cecchi Gori, was able to raise some more money, but even this soon proved to be insufficient resources to sustain the club. Fiorentina were relegated at the end of the 2001-02 season and went into judicially controlled administration in June 2002. This form of bankruptcy (sports companies cannot exactly fail in this way in Italy, but they can suffer a similar procedure) meant that the club was refused a place in Serie B for the 2002-03 season, and as a result effectively ceased to exist.

Della Valle era

The club was promptly re-established in August 2002 as Associazione Calcio Fiorentina e Florentia Viola with shoe and leather entrepreneur Diego Della Valle as new owner, and was admitted into Serie C2, the fourth tier of Italian football. The only player to remain at the club in its new incarnation was Angelo Di Livio, whose commitment to club's cause further endeared him to the fans. Helped by Di Livio and 30-goal striker Christian Riganò, the club won its Serie C2 group with considerable ease, which would normally have led to a promotion to Serie C1. However, due to the bizarre Caso Catania (Catania Case) the club skipped Serie C1 and was admitted into Serie B, something that was only made possible by the Italian Football Federation's decision to resolve the Catania situation by increasing the number of teams in Serie B from 20 to 24 and promoting Fiorentina for "sports merits" ^[3]. In the 2003 off-season, the club also bought back the right to use the Fiorentina name and the famous shirt design, and re-incorporated itself as ACF Fiorentina .

The club's unusual double promotion was controversial, with some suggesting that Fiorentina did not deserve it. However, the club remained in Serie B and managed to finish the 2003-04 season in sixth place. This put the Viola in a two-legged playoff against Perugia (the 15th-place finisher in Serie A) for a top-flight place during the next season. Fiorentina completed their remarkable comeback by winning the match 2–1 on aggregate, with both goals scored by Enrico Fantini, to gain promotion back to Serie A. In their first season back in Italian football's top flight the club struggled to avoid relegation, only securing survival on the last day of the season and only avoiding a relegation playoff based on their head-to-head record against Bologna and Parma. In 2005, Della Valle decided to appoint Pantaleo Corvino as new sports director.

In 2005-06, Fiorentina hired Cesare Prandelli as their new head coach and made several signings during the summer transfer market, most notably Palermo's 20-goal striker Luca Toni and French goalkeeper Sébastien Frey. The combination of captain Dario Dainelli and Czech international regular Tomáš Ujfaluši in defence, Cristian Brocchi in midfield, Martin Jorgensen on the wing, Stefano Fiore as playmaker and key marksman Toni, with Frey in goal, proved to be an outstanding force in Serie A, giving them a fourth place finish with 74 points and qualifying the team for the third qualifying round of the Champions League. This cemented Fiorentina's status as a member of the Italian élite. Toni scored an amazing 31 goals in just 34 appearances, the first player to pass the 30-goal mark since Antonio Valentin Angelillo in the 1958-59 season, for which he was awarded the European Golden Boot.

On 14 July 2006, however, Fiorentina were relegated to Serie B due to their involvement in the 2006 Serie A match fixing scandal and given a 12-point penalty. The team was reinstated to the Serie A on appeal, but with a 19-point penalty for the 2006-07 season. The team's UEFA Champions League place was also rescinded. ^[4] After the start of the season Fiorentina's penalization was reduced from 19 points to 15 on appeal to the Italian courts.

Despite starting the 2006-07 season with a 15-point penalty, Fiorentina nevertheless managed to secure a place in the 2007-08 edition of the UEFA Cup. The combination of Toni and Adrian Mutu proved to be one of Serie A's most proficient strike partnerships, scoring 31 goals between them.

While many doubted the potential of the Viola in the 2007-08 season due to Toni's departure, Fiorentina had a sensational start to the season and were tipped by Marcello Lippi and other prominent names in football as a surprise challenger for the Scudetto ^[5]. However, this form tailed off towards the middle of the season, with several disappointing losses in connection with a grievous family loss suffered by club manager Prandelli. The club reached the semi-final of the UEFA Cup, where they were ultimately defeated by Rangers on penalties after two 0–0 ties. The season ended on a high note as Fiorentina defeated Torino 1-0 on the final day of the season to secure a UEFA Champions League spot at the expense of AC Milan. That campaign ended in the group stages, however, with the club finishing third and securing a path to the UEFA Cup instead. The 2008-09 season continued this success, a fourth place finish assuring Fiorentina's spot in 2010's Champions League playoffs. Hopes are high for a better placing in the next Champions league round and the 2009-2010 season.

In contrast to their Champions League campaign, La Viola remained in the top tier of the domestic league.

Players

For transfers, see 2009-10 Transfers.

Current squad

As of 2009-08-26 ^{[6] [7]}

No. Position Player 1 {{flagicon Sébastien Frey 2 {{flagicon Per Krøldrup 3 {{flagicon Dario Dainelli (Captain (football)) 4 {{flagicon Marco Donadel 5 {{flagicon Alessandro Gamberini 6 {{flagicon Juan Manuel Vargas 7 {{flagicon Savio Nsereko 8 {{flagicon Stevan Jovetic 9 {{flagicon José Ignacio Castillo 10 {{flagicon Adrian Mutu 11 {{flagicon Alberto Gilardino 14 {{flagicon Cesare Natali

No. Position Player 15 {{flagicon Cristiano Zanetti 18 {{flagicon Riccardo Montolivo 19 {{flagicon Massimo Gobbi 20 {{flagicon Martin Jørgensen (Captain (football)) 23 {{flagicon Manuel Pasqual 24 {{flagicon Mario Alberto Santana 25 {{flagicon Gianluca Comotto 29 {{flagicon Lorenzo De Silvestri 32 {{flagicon Marco Marchionni 35 {{flagicon Vlada Avramov 90 {{flagicon Andrea Seculin

Out on loan

No. Position Player {{flagicon Papa Waigo N'Diaye (on loan at Southampton F.C.) {{flagicon Samuel Di Carmine (on loan at Gallipoli Calcio) {{flagicon Nikola Gulan (on loan at Empoli F.C.) {{flagicon Edoardo Pazzagli (on loan at A.S. Andria BAT) {{flagicon David Enrique Mateo (on loan at Calcio Lecco 1912) {{flagicon Ondrej Mazuch (on loan at R.S.C. Anderlecht) {{flagicon Massimiliano Tagliani (on loan at Gallipoli Calcio) {{flagicon Pape Moussa Diakhatè (on loan at K.A.S. Eupen)

No. Position Player {{flagicon Jan Hable (on loan at Banik Ostrava) {{flagicon Lorenzo Lollo (on loan at A.S.D. Spezia Calcio 2008) {{flagicon Max Taddei (on loan at A.S. Gubbio 1910) {{flagicon Giacomo Casoli (on loan at A.S. Gubbio 1910) {{flagicon Matthias Lepiller (on loan at K.A.S. Eupen) {{flagicon Jefferson Andrade Siqueira (on loan at Frosinone Calcio) {{flagicon Piergiuseppe Maritato (on loan at Gallipoli Calcio)

Notable players

Managerial history

Fiorentina have had many managers and head coaches throughout their history. Below is a chronological list from the club's foundation in 1926 to the present day. ^[8]

Name Nationality Years Károly Csapkay 1926–1928 Károly Csapkay Gyula Feldmann 1928–1930 Gyula Feldmann 1930–1931 Hermann Felsner 1931–1933 William Rady 1933 Ferenc Ging 1933–1934 Guido Ara 1934–1937 Ottavio Baccani 1937–1938 Ferenc Molnar 1938 Rudolf Soutschek 1938–1939 Giuseppe Galluzzi 1939–1945 Guido Ara 1946 Renzo Magli 1946–1947 Imre Senkey 1947 Luigi Ferrero 1947–1951 Renzo Magli 1951–1953 Fulvio Bernardini 1953–1958 Lajos Czeizler 1958–1959 Luigi Ferrero 1959 Luis Carniglia 1959–1960 Giuseppe Chiappella 1960 Nándor Hidegkuti 1960–1962 Ferruccio Valcareggi 1962–1964 Giuseppe Chiappella 1964–1967 Luigi Ferrero 1967–1968 Andrea Bassi 1968 Bruno Pesaola 1968–1971 Oronzo Pugliese 1971 Nils Liedholm 1971–1973 Luigi Radice 1973–1974

Name Nationality Years Nereo Rocco 1974–1975 Carlo Mazzone 1975–1977 Mario Mazzoni 1977–1978 Giuseppe Chiappella 1978 Paolo Carosi 1978–1981 Giancarlo De Sisti 1981–1985 Ferruccio Valcareggi 1985 Aldo Agroppi 1985–1986 Eugenio Bersellini 1986–1987 Sven-Göran Eriksson 1987–1989 Bruno Giorgi 1989–1990 Francesco Graziani 1990 Sebastião Lazaroni 1990–1991 Luigi Radice 1991–1993 Aldo Agroppi 1993 Luciano Chiarugi 1993 Claudio Ranieri 1993–1997 Alberto Malesani 1997–1998 Giovanni Trapattoni 1998–2000 Fatih Terim 2000–2001 Luciano Chiarugi 2001 Roberto Mancini 2001 Ottavio Bianchi 2001–2002 Luciano Chiarugi 2002 Eugenio Fascetti 2002 Pietro Vierchowod 2002 Alberto Cavasin 2002–2003 Emiliano Mondonico 2003–2004 Sergio Buso 2004–2005 Dino Zoff 2005 Cesare Prandelli 2005–present

Social identity

Badge

The official emblem of the city of Florence, a red fleur-de-lis on a white field, has been pivotal in the all-round symbolism of the club.

Over the course of the club's history they have had several badge changes, all of which incorporated Florence's fleur-de-lis in some way. ^[9] The first one was nothing more than the city's coat of arms, a white shield with the red fleur-de-lis inside. It was soon changed to a very stylized fleur-de-lis, always red, and sometimes even without the white field. The most common symbol, adopted for about twenty years, had been a white lozenge with the flower inside. During the season they were Italian champions, the lozenge disappeared and the flower was overlapped with the scudetto.

The logo introduced by owner Flavio Pontello in 1980 was particularly distinct, consisting of one half of the city of Florence's emblem and one half of the letter "F", for Fiorentina. People disliked it when it was introduced, believing it was a commercial decision and, above all, because the symbol bore more of a resemblance to a halberd than a fleur-de-lis.

Today's logo is a kite shaped double lozenge bordered in gold. The outer lozenge has a purple background with the letters "AC" in white and the letter "F" in red, standing for the club's name. The inner lozenge is white with a gold border and the red fleur-de-lis of Florence. ^[10] This logo had been in use from 1992 to 2002, but after the financial crisis and resurrection of the club the new one couldn't use the same logo. Florence's comune instead granted Florentia Viola use of the stylized coat of arms used in other city documents. Diego Della Valle acquired the current logo the following year in a judicial auction for a fee of €2.5 million, making it the most expensive logo in Italian football.

Kit and colours

When Fiorentina was founded in 1926, the players wore red and white halved shirts derived from the colour of the city emblem. ^[11] The more well-known and highly distinctive purple kit was adopted in 1928 and has been used ever since, giving rise to the nickname La Viola ("The Purple (team)"). Tradition has it that Fiorentina got their purple kit by mistake after an accident washing the old red and white coloured kits in the river. ^[12]

The away kit has always been predominantly white, sometimes with purple and red elements, sometimes all-white. The shorts had been purple when the home kit was with white shorts. Fiorentina's third kit was first one in the 1995-96 season and it was all-red with purple borders and two lilies on the shoulders. The red shirt has been the most worn 3rd shirt by Fiorentina, although they also wore rare yellow shirts ('97-'98 and '99-'00) and a sterling version, mostly in the Coppa Italia, in 2000-01.

Kit evolution

World Cup winners

• Mario Pizziolo (Italy 1934)
• Daniel Passarella (Argentina 1978)
• Daniel Bertoni (Argentina 1978)
• Giancarlo Antognoni (Spain 1982)
• Francesco Graziani (Spain 1982)
• Giovanni Galli (Spain 1982)
• Pietro Vierchowod (Spain 1982)
• Daniele Massaro (Spain 1982)
• Luca Toni (Germany 2006)

Honours

National titles

Serie A: 2

*Champions : 1955–56; 1968–69

Coppa Italia: 6

*Winners : 1939–40; 1960–61; 1965–66; 1974–75; 1995–96; 2000–01

Supercoppa Italiana: 1

*Winners : 1996

*Runners up : 2001

Europeans titles

European Cup / UEFA Champions League:

*Runners-up (1) : 1956–57

UEFA Cup:

*Runners-up (1) : 1989–90

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1

*Champions : 1960–61 ^[13]

*Runners-up (1) : 1961-62

Minor titles

Mitropa Cup:

*Winners: 1966

Anglo-Italian League Cup: 1

*Winners : 1975

Serie C2 B

*Winners : 2003

References

1. Football and Fascism: The National Game Under Mussolini
2. From Corriere della Sera of 5 th of january 1993
3. Serie B a 24 squadre. C'è anche la Fiorentina
4. Title Unavailable
5. Lippi Tips Fiorentina For Surprise Scudetto Challenge
6. ViolaChannel — Players
7. Numeri di maglia
8. Gli allenatori della Fiorentina
9. ACF Fiorentina
10. ACF Fiorentina
11. Stemma Comune di Firenze
12. Perchè a Firenze hanno una maglia color viola, che in tutta Italia è il colore del lutto?
13. Title Unavailable