ACF Fiorentina

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ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as simply Fiorentina, is an Italian professional football club from Florence, Tuscany. Founded by a merger in 1926, Fiorentina have participated at the top-tier 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 competing in Serie A for 2007–08.

Fiorentina have won Serie A twice, first in 1955–56 then again in 1968–69, as well as winning six Coppa Italia trophies. On the European stage Fiorentina have won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1960–61, they finished runners-up in the UEFA Cup 1989–90 and they 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.

History

The club was founded on August 26 1926 by the merger of Libertas and Club Sportivo Firenze. The club won its first trophy in 1939-40 with the Coppa Italia and its first scudetto (Italian championship) in 1955-56, the club were runners-up in the four following 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.

In the 1960s the club won the Coppa Italia and the Mitropa Cup in 1966 and were league champions again in the 1968-69 season. In 1974 the Viola won the Anglo-Italian League Cup. Success in the Coppa Italia was repeated in 1975, but from then until the late 1990s the club found itself in the doldrums, culminating in a season in Serie B (second division) in 1993-1994. Upon return to Serie A the club again proved able in the cup competitions, winning the Coppa Italia again in 1996 and 2001 and the Italian SuperCoppa. 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 owner, Vittorio Cecchi Gori, was able to raise some more money, but even this soon proved to be insufficient resources to sustain the club. Then, 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.

The club was promptly re-established in August 2002 as Florentia Viola with a new owner, Diego Della Valle, and was admitted into Serie C2, the fourth tier of Italian football. The only player to remain at the club as they began their new life was Angelo Di Livio, whose commitment to the cause of resurrecting the club further endeared him to the fans. Helped by Di Livio, the club won its regional section in Serie C2 with considerable ease at the end of the 2002-03 season, 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. This was only possible because the Italian Football Federation chose to resolve the Catania situation by increasing the number of teams in Serie B from 20 to 24. 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. Matches were still being played at the Artemio Franchi stadium.

The club's unusual double promotion was not without controversy, 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 achievement placed the Viola in a two-legged playoff against Perugia (the 15th-place finisher in Serie A) for a position in Serie A. 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, securing survival only on the last day of the season, and avoiding a relegation playoff only on head-to-head record against Bologna and Parma.

In 2005-06, their form greatly improved, and they had qualified for the 3rd Qualifying round of the Champions League by earning the 4th place in the Serie A with 74 points. The combination of defence by captain Dario Dainelli and Czech international regular Tomáš Ujfaluši, midfield by Cristian Brocchi, wing by Martin Jorgensen, playmaking by Stefano Fiore and key marksman Luca Toni with Sebastian Frey as goalkeeper proved to be an outstanding force in Serie A. Fiorentina officially regained their status as an Italian elite, especially with Toni himself having 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 - which has seen him claim the European Golden Boot.

On July 14, 2006 Fiorentina were relegated to Serie B due to their involvement in the 2006 Serie A match fixing scandal and given a 12 point penalty. However, on appeal, the team was reinstated to the Serie A, albeit with a 19 point penalty for the 2006-07 season. The team also lost their UEFA Champions League 2006-07 place. After the start of the season, upon appealing to the Italian courts, Fiorentina's penalization was reduced to 15 points from 19, which was still far heavier than club officials had hoped for.

Despite starting the 2006-2007 season with the 15 point penalty, Fiorentina managed to secure a place in the 2007-2008 edition of the UEFA Cup. The combination of World Cup winner Luca Toni and Romanian international 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 2007/2008 season due to Luca Toni's departure, Fiorentina had a sensational start to the season and had been tipped by Marcello Lippi and other prominent names in Calcio as surprise Scudetto challengers. However this form tailed off towards the middle of the season with various disappointing losses in connection with a grievous family loss suffered by the widely admired Manager Cesare Prandelli; Fiorentina are now hoping to challenge for a UEFA Champions League Spot.

Players

As of 2008-02-01

Out on loan:

Notable players

Managerial history

Fiorentina have had many managers and head coaches throughout their history, below is a cronological list of them from when they were founded in 1926 by a merger, until the present day.

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
Giuseppe Bigogno		1945–1946
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

Colours, badge and nicknames

The official emblem of the city of Florence; a red and white fleur-de-lis; has played a pivitol role in the all round symbolism of the club. Originally when Fiorentina was founded in 1926, the red and white halves shirts were derived from the colour of the city emblem. The more well known and highly distinctive purple kit was adopted in 1928 and has been their's ever since; giving them the nickname La viola ("The Purple (team)"). Traditionally it is said that the purple kit became Fiorentina's by mistake, after an accident washing the old red and white coloured kits in the river.

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. A particularly noted logo, was one which was half made up of the city of Florence's emblem and half made up of an "F" standing for Fiorentina. Today's logo is a gold bordered lozenge with a purple background, in the bottom half there is the letters "AC" in white and under it "F" in red, standing for the club's name. In the upper half, there is another gold bordered lozenge inside it, this time with a white background and the red fleur-de-lis of Florence.