Fiorentina

Fiorentina is a football (soccer) club from Italy.

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ACF Fiorentina,, who initiated the merger of two older Florentine clubs, C.S. Firenze and P.G. 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 Northern 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 Stadio Artemio Franchi (Florence). 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 Fiorentina 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 Júlio Botelho and Argentinian Miguel Montuori. This team won Fiorentina's first scudetto (Italian championship) in Serie A 1955-56, 12 points ahead of second-place AC Milan. AC Milan beat Fiorentina to top spot the following year, but more significantly Fiorentina became the first Italian team to play in a UEFA Champions League final, when a disputed penalty led to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of by Alfredo di Stéfano's Real Madrid C.F..
Fiorentina were runners-up again in the three subsequent seasons. In the Serie A 1960-61 season Fiorentina won the Coppa Italia again and was also successful in Europe, winning the first Cup Winners' Cup against Rangers F.C..

After several years of runner-up finishes, Fiorentina dropped away slightly in the 1960s, bouncing from 4th to 6th place, although Fiorentina 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 Fiorentina could challenge for the title. The Serie A 1968-69 started with AC Milan as frontrunners, but on match day 7 they lost to Bologna FC 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 Calcio, 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. AC Milan fell away, instead focusing their efforts on the UEFA Champions League, 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 FC.

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 Fiorentina 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 Calcio, Daniel Bertoni from Seville FC, Daniele Massaro from AC 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 Fiorentina after serious riots in Florence's streets. Fiorentina 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 Fiorentina 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 Atalnata B.C, 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 Manuel Rui Costa from S.L. 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. Fiorentina again proved its mettle in cup competitions, winning the Coppa Italia against Atalanta B.C., and finished joint 3rd in Serie A. In the summer, Fiorentina was the first non-national champion to win the Supercoppa Italiana, defeating A.C. 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 Luis 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 Serie A 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 F.C. 1-0 at the old Wembley Stadium (1923) and Manchester United F.C. 2-0 in Florence. They were ultimately eliminated in the second group stage.

At the end of the season Trapattoni left Fiorentina and was replaced by Turkish coach Fatih Terim. More significantly, however, Batistuta was sold to A.S. Roma, who eventually won the title the following year. Fiorentina played well in Serie A 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 Fiorentina'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 Serie A 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 Fiorentina was refused a place in Serie B for the Serie A 2002-03 season, and as a result effectively ceased to exist.

Della Valle era

Fiorentina 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 Fiorentina 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, Fiorentina won its Serie C2 group with considerable ease, which would normally have led to a promotion to Serie C1. However, due to the bizarre Calcio_Catania Decline_and_revival (Catania Case) Fiorentina 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". In the 2003 off-season, Fiorentina 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, Fiorentina remained in Serie B and managed to finish the Serie B 2003-04 season in sixth place. This put the Viola in a two-legged Playoff Playoffs in Association football against Perugia Calcio (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 Fiorentina 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 F.C. 1909 and Parma F.C.. In 2005, Della Valle decided to appoint Pantaleo Corvino as new sports director.

In Serie A 2005-06, Fiorentina hired Cesare Prandelli as their new head coach and made several signings during the summer transfer market, most notably U.S. Città di Palermo's 20-goal striker Luca Toni and France goalkeeper Sébastien Frey. The combination of captain Dario Dainelli and Czech national football team 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 Fiorentina for the third qualifying round of the UEFA 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 Serie A 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 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 2006-07 place was also rescinded. 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 Serie A 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. 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. Fiorentina reached the semi-final of the UEFA Cup 2007-08, where they were ultimately defeated by Rangers F.C. 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 A.C. Milan. That campaign ended in the group stages, however, with Fiorentina 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

As of 2009-02-10

Out on loan

Notable players

Managerial history

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

Name: Associazione Calcio Fiorentina

President: Gino Salica

Manager: Cesare Prandelli

Founded: 26-Aug-1926

Address: Vale Manfredo Fanti, 4 - 50137 FIRENZE

Telephone/Faxnumber: 055/50.30.11/055/57.95.72

Email: n/a

Website: www.acffiorentina.it

Country:   Italy

Confederation: UEFA

Stadium

Name: Artemio Franchi

Capacity: 47,284