Reference.com

U.S. Avellino

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

Unione Sportiva Avellino is an Italian football club, based in Avellino, Campania. The club was founded in 1912. Its colours are white and green.

The club is currently playing Serie B in the season 2007-08 after having achieved promotion via the Serie C1 playoffs.

History

The club was founded during 1912 to give the town of Avellino a footballing representative. The early history of the club is quite obscure as they only competed at a lower level against regional sides. Avellino competed in IV Divisione from 1913 until after the Second World War; today's equivalent of that level is Serie D.

Post-War emergence

For the earlier part of their history the club did not achieve anything of note, until being placed in Serie C for the 1945–46 post-War season. In the 1946–47 season they narrowly missed out on getting through to the interregional final, after finishing third in their group.

Avellino beat out the likes of Catania, Reggina and Messina to win promotion to Serie B at the end of the 1940s. However, the club were accused of match fixing and the federation decided to strip them of their promotion, instead relegating them down to Serie D. Although they were able to return to Serie C after one season, Avellino were relegated back down to spend six seasons in a row at Serie D level.

Eventually Avellino returned, but they were very much a yo-yo club during the early part of the 1960s. Evidently in the space of just six seasons, Avellino gained promotion to Serie C in three of them and were relegated back down twice.

Rise

Avellino were promoted to Serie B in 1973 and Serie A in 1978. A truly remarkable feat for a southern provincial side was a 10-year stay in Serie A between 1978 and 1988, with the club holding a mid-table place for the majority of that period. Their best finish was 8th in 1987, with a team starring Angelo Alessio, Paolo Benedetti, Franco Colomba and Dirceu. The club has tended to shift between Serie B and C1 in the years since.

More recently, the club marked a Serie B return after defeating neighbours Napoli in the Serie C1/B play-off finals. A unsuccessful 2005-06 campaign ended in a loss on relegation playoffs to Albinoleffe (0-2, 3-2). The 2006-07 season, with Giuseppe Galderisi as head coach, then replaced by Giovanni Vavassori, ended in a second place in the Serie C1/B regular season; this was then followed by a successful campaign in the promotion playoffs, in which Avellino defeated Foggia in the finals, being therefore promoted to Serie B once again. However, this was followed by Vavassori's resignations on July 16, 2007, shortly after his confirmation as Avellino boss, being then replaced by Maurizio Sarri two days later. Sarri himself resigned one month later, being replaced by Guido Carboni.

Current first team squad

As of 2008-02-01

Notable former players

Notable former coaches

Honours

*Champions: 2002–03
*Runners-up: 1994–95, 2004–05, 2006–07

*Runners-up: 1972–73

References

External links



Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Wednesday March 12, 2008 at 05:37:19 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation