Gruppo Sportivo Mazara 1946 is an Italian football team from Mazara del Vallo, Sicily, which currently plays in the Sicilian Round A of Eccellenza division.

The official team colours are canary yellow and blue. The team is nicknamed gialloblù (referring to the team colours) or, more commonly, canarini (canaries, referring to the sole shade of yellow).

History

Foundation and early years

First traces about football in Mazara are dated 1946. However, a team to represent the city of Mazara del Vallo, Unione Sportiva Mazara, was founded only in 1957–1958, and took initially part in the Promozione league. Mazara played Serie D in 1960–1961, but were relegated three years later. Successively, Mazara played a one-year Serie D stint in 1971–1972 before finally returning to play in the then-fourth highest national division in 1976–1977, after winning 1-0 a promotion playoff to Canicattì. The single playoff match, played at Stadio Renzo Barbera, Palermo, featured an attendance of 12,000, the majority being Mazara supporters. Following this promotion, the club played Serie D for 19 consecutive seasons.

Promotion attempts

During the 1980s and the early 1990s, Mazara often shown itself as serious candidate to win the Serie D league, but always missing their goal. In 1985 Mazara, under coach Ignazio Arcoleo, won Serie D gaining a potentially historical first Serie C2 promotion; however, this was then cancelled by the Football Federation because of alleged matchfixing, with bitter rivals Trapani being promoted at canarini's place. Successively, Mazara narrowly missed promotion on several occasions: the club placed second in 1988–1989, just one point behind winners Acireale; in 1990–1991, third behind Gangi (who then lost playoff to Matera); in 1993–1994, seventh-placed after having led the table for almost the whole first half of the season.

Relegation, decline and merger

After nineteen Serie D seasons, in 1994–1995 Mazara, under serious financial troubles, were relegated to Eccellenza, where another local team, S.C. Mazara 2000, was already playing. Mazara 2000 was a minor, young team who quickly climbed the football pyramid up to Eccellenza, whereas US Mazara appeared to be an old team under decline. Both teams played Eccellenza in 1995–1996, challenging each other in a new, yet somewhat strange, local derby. US Mazara classified fourth in the end, whereas Mazara 2000 obtained a good seventh place. US Mazara, who was under growing economic difficulties, agreed for a merge with Mazara 2000, and Gruppo Sportivo Mazara 1946 (Mazara 1946 Sports Group) were founded.

The newly-founded football team included almost all the best players from the two former local clubs; this brought the first appearance for Mazara 1946, in 1996–1997, to be very successful, as the team managed to win hands down the Eccellenza league and return to Serie D. The first season for the new club in the Italian fifth-ranked division ended in a hard saving, just one point above the relegation places. The 1998–1999 campaign showed itself to be even harder, with Mazara ending the season with the same points as Sancataldese, therefore being forced to play a single-legged relegation playoff. The match, played in Termini Imerese, ended in a 1-0 win for the canarini, that so escaped relegation once again.

Affected by heavy financial struggles, Mazara however played their 1999–2000 Serie D season with a team mostly composed of young and unexperienced players, and were humiliatingly relegated to Eccellenza with just 8 points in 34 matches, obviously last-placed in the table.

Since then, Mazara experienced a declining time, even relegating to Promozione (7th-ranked division) in 2003–2004 after losing relegation playoffs to Licata. The club, with a new property, successfully returned to Eccellenza in 2005–2006 under coach Filippo Cavataio, a native of Mazara and a former centre back of several Serie C teams, most notably Trapani. In 2006–2007 the club, again coached by Cavataio, ended the regular season phase in an impressive third place, behind Alcamo and Carini, and were therefore admitted to the promotion playoff semifinal, where they eliminated Kamarat (from Cammarata) in a one-legged semifinal after a 0-0 tie, with Mazara moving to the next round because of their best placement in the regular season; another tie with second-placed Carini in the final however caused elimination for the canarini, who failed to achieve promotion also in the following season, finishing in fifth place after a long battle with Nissa and bitter rivals Trapani, who then defeated and eliminated Mazara in the following promotion play-off tournament, with all three matches (two in the regular season, plus a one-legged play-off match) being played behind closed doors.

Colours and badge

The official team colours for GS Mazara 1946, as well as all the other major sports teams in Mazara, are canary yellow and blue, which are also the official colours of the city of Mazara del Vallo.

The official team badge is instead reminiscent of the 1996 merge between the two local and rival clubs U.S. Mazara and S.C. Mazara 2000: both two characteristic elements of the respective original crests, respectively the canary bird and the seahorse, are present on it, along with the words "GS MAZARA 1946".

Stadium

Mazara plays its home matches at Stadio Nino Vaccara, a small stadium located right along the local Mazaro river. Originally a dirt floor stadium without seats, Stadio Nino Vaccara undertook a massive restructuring in the early 2000s, with the implementation of a synthetic field and a numbered seats-only grandstand with a roof.

The stadium is divided into three sectors: the numbered grandstand, or tribuna centrale, with a capacity of 1,086; the curva (not really a curved sector, by the way), where the organized supporters sit down, with a capacity of 800; and the gradinata, in front of the grandstand, with a capacity of 1,380, usually opened only in exceptional cases.

Outside the stadium, right aside the main entrance, a number of murals are pictured depicting fishermen and fishing boats characteristic of Mazara del Vallo are also pictured.

Current squad

''As of September 20, 2008.

List of seasons

Season	League	Placement	Other
1956-57	Prima Divisione	5th
1957-58	Prima Divisione	1st	promoted
1958-59	Prima Categoria	7th
1959-60	Prima Categoria	1st	promoted after playoff against Milazzo
1960-61	Serie D	10th
1961-62	Serie D	7th
1962-63	Serie D	8th
1963-64	Serie D	17th	relegated
1964-65	Prima Categoria	7th
1965-66	Prima Categoria	11th
1966-67	Prima Categoria	15th
1967-68	Prima Categoria	7th
1968-69	Prima Categoria	2nd
1969-70	Prima Categoria	1st	6 points later deducted because of match fixing, AMAT Palermo promoted at its place
1970-71	Promozione	1st	promoted
1971-72	Serie D	17th	relegated
1972-73	Promozione	2nd
1973-74	Promozione	3rd
1974-75	Promozione	3rd
1975-76	Promozione	1st	promoted after playoff against Canicattì
1976-77	Serie D	7th
1977-78	Serie D	10th
1978-79	Serie D	12th
1979-80	Serie D	8th
1980-81	Serie D	18th	2 points deducted; no relegations in that season
1981-82	Serie D	14th
1982-83	Interregionale	12th
1983-84	Interregionale	8th
1984-85	Interregionale	1st	5 points later deducted because of match fixing, Trapani promoted at its place
1985-86	Interregionale	11th
1986-87	Interregionale	7th
1987-88	Interregionale	12th
1988-89	Interregionale	2nd
1989-90	Interregionale	6th
1990-91	Interregionale	3rd
1991-92	Interregionale	4th
1992-93	Campionato Nazionale Dilettanti	14th
1993-94	Campionato Nazionale Dilettanti	7th
1994-95	Campionato Nazionale Dilettanti	17th	relegated
1995-96	Eccellenza	4th	merged with Mazara 2000 at the end of the season
1996-97	Eccellenza	1st	promoted
1997-98	Campionato Nazionale Dilettanti	14th
1998-99	Campionato Nazionale Dilettanti	14th	saved from relegation after playoff against Sancataldese
1999-00	Campionato Nazionale Dilettanti	18th	relegated
2000-01	Eccellenza	6th
2001-02	Eccellenza	7th
2002-03	Eccellenza	3rd
2003-04	Eccellenza	13th	relegated after playoff against Licata
2004-05	Promozione	5th
2005-06	Promozione	1st	promoted
2006-07	Eccellenza	3rd
2007-08	Eccellenza	5th

Notable players

• Filippo Cavataio (Serie C1 player in the 1990s for Trapani and Atletico Catania)
• Francesco Erbini (Serie C1 player in the 1990s for Palermo and Marsala)
• Renato Greco (Serie B player in the 1990s)

Notable managers

• Ignazio Arcoleo (Palermo coach in the 1990s)
• Giuseppe Caramanno (Palermo and Foggia coach in the 1990s)
• Angelo Galfano (current Palermo Under-20 coach)
• Čestmír Vycpálek (Juventus coach in the 1970s)

Achievements

• Serie D:
• Runners-up (2): 1984–1985, 1988–1989
• Eccellenza Sicilia:
• Winners (1): 1996–1997
• Promozione Sicilia:
• Winners (3): 1970–1971, 1975–1976, 2005–2006
• Runners-up (1): 1972–1973

References

External links

• Official club website
• LND page for GS Mazara 1946
• Season-by-season historical results of Mazara
• History of US Mazara with some photos