ACF Fiorentina

Fiorentina

Full name	A.C.F. Fiorentina SpA[1][2]
Nickname(s)	Viola (Violet), Gigliati (Lilies)
Founded	1926 (AC Fiorentina) 2002 (ACF Fiorentina)
Ground	Stadio Artemio Franchi (Capacity: 47,290)
Owners	Diego and Andrea Della Valle
President	Mario Cognigni
Head coach	Vincenzo Guerini (caretaker)
League	Serie A
2011–12	Serie A, 13th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours Third colours

ACF Fiorentina,^[1][2] commonly referred to as simply Fiorentina, is a professional Italian football club from Florence, Tuscany. Founded by a merger in 1926 (refounded in 2002), 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.
Fiorentina have won two Italian Championships, in 1955–56 and again in 1968–69, as well as winning six Coppa Italia trophies and one Italian Super Cup. On the European stage, Fiorentina won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1960–61 and lost the final one year later. They finished runners-up in the 1956–57 European Cup, losing against Real Madrid, and also came close to winning the UEFA Cup, finishing as runners-up in the 1989–90 season.
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.

History

Foundation to World War II

The monumental entrance of the stadium, the same as in 1931 except for the inscription

Associazione Calcio Fiorentina was founded in the autumn of 1926 by local noble and National Fascist Party member Luigi Ridolfi,^[3] 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 Northwest 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.^[3]
After a rough start and three seasons in lower leagues, Fiorentina reached the 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. 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.

[edit] First scudetto and '50–'60s

The first Italian champion Fiorentina

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.

[edit] Second scudetto and '70s

Giancarlo Antognoni, former captain of Fiorentina

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. 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 Juve 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 Soviet Union 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 fifth 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.

[edit] Pontello era

The new team logo of the period

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 Sevilla, Daniele Massaro from Monza and a young Pietro Vierchowod from Sampdoria. The team was built around Giancarlo Antognoni, and in 1982, Fiorentina were involved in an exciting duel with rivals 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 emerging star 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.

[edit] Cecchi Gori era: from Champions League to bankruptcy

Rui Costa, one of the most prominent Fiorentina players of the 1990s

The first season under Cecchi Gori's ownership was one of stabilization, 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, Cecchi Gori died and was succeeded as chairman by his son, Vittorio. Despite a good start to the season, Cecchi Gori fired the coach, Luigi Radice, after a defeat against Atalanta,^[4] 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 1993–94 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 Márcio Santos. The former became an idol to Fiorentina fans, while the second disappointed and was sold after only a season. The 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 third in Serie A. In the summer, Fiorentina was the first non-national champion to win the Supercoppa Italiana,
defeating Milan 2–1 at the San Siro.
Fiorentina's 1995–96 season was disappointing in the league, but they did reach the Cup Winners' Cup semi-final by beating Gloria Bistrita, Sparta Prague, and Benfica. The team lost the semi-final to the eventual winner of the competition, 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, 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 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.
The year 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."^[5] 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.

Cesare Prandelli, the club's longest-serving manager (2005–2010)

The club's unusual double promotion was controversial, with some suggesting that Fiorentina did not deserve it. The club, however, 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.

Alberto Gilardino served as the prima punta of the Tuscany-based outfit for the last few years.

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 as midfield ball winner, 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. Toni scored 31 goals in 38 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.^[6] 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.^[7] This form tailed off towards the middle of the season, however, 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 Champions League spot at the expense of 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. The Viola also took part to the 2008–09 UEFA Champions League, reaching the group phase after defeating Slavia Prague in the third qualifying round, but the club did not manage to qualify to the knockout rounds and was successively eliminated from the 2008–09 UEFA Cup by Ajax. In contrast to their Champions League campaign, La Viola remained in the top tier of the domestic league.

Stevan Jovetić, the Viola's emerging young talent

A reversal of trends took place in the ongoing 2009–10 season, as the club saw a dip in their Serie A form, yet proved itself to be a surprise dark horse in Europe. Fiorentina started their domestic campaign strongly, trailing leaders Internazionale along with Juventus and Sampdoria earlier in the season, but steadily lost momentum and slipped to mid-table positions at the latter half of the season. In Europe, the team got past Sporting Clube de Portugal in the qualifying rounds and drawn a tight group consisting of Olympique Lyonnais, Liverpool and Debrecen. Losing their first away fixture against Lyon, many dismissed their chances of getting through, but the Italians staged a comeback with winning all their remaining matches, which included defeating Liverpool home and away. The Viola qualified as group champions, but eventually succumbed to Bayern Munich due to away goals, in a controversial double encounter involving what was considered as poor refereeing. Tom Henning Øvrebø, who led the first leg in Germany, was then lambasted by journalists and Italian footballing figures for his decisions, most notably allowing a Miroslav Klose offside goal (that eventually fired Bayern through the next round), calling into attention the possible implementation of video replays in football. Fiorentina also maintained a strong Coppa Italia campaign, reaching the semi-final before being defeated by the eventual winner
Internazionale. The domestic season ended on a sour note as the Viola failed to reach a European position. During this period, on 24 September 2009, Andrea Della Valle resigned from his position as chairman of Fiorentina, and announced all duties would be temporarily transferred to Mario Cognini, Fiorentina's vice president until a permanent position could be filled.^[8] On 26 October 2009, Andrea Della Valle stepped down as chairman. The position is now vacant.
In June 2010, the Viola bid farewell to long-time manager Prandelli (by then the longest-serving coach in the team's history), who was departing to coach the Italian national team, with Catania's young Siniša Mihajlović replacing him.