F.B.C. Unione Venezia

Venezia
Full name Foot-Ball Club Unione Venezia
Nickname(s) Arancioneroverdi (Orange-Black-Greens),
Lagunari (Lagoonal Ones),
Leoni Alati (Winged Lions)
Founded 1907
2005 (as SSC Venezia)
2009 (as FBC Unione Venezia)
Dissolved 2005 (AC Venezia)
2009 (SSC Venezia)
Ground Stadio Pierluigi Penzo,
Venice, Italy
(Capacity: 9,977)
Chairman Italy Mauro Pizzigati
Manager Italy Paolo Favaretto
League Serie D/C
2009-10 Serie D/C, 3rd
Home colours
Away colours

Foot-Ball Club Unione Venezia (formerly Società Sportiva Calcio Venezia), commonly referred to as simply Venezia, is an Italian football club from Venice, Veneto. Founded by a merger in 1907, Venezia have spent a large part of their history bouncing between the top-two tiers of Italian football.

The most notable trophy success in the history of Venezia was winning the Coppa Italia during the 1940–41 season. The early 1940s was the pinnacle of the club's footballing prominence so far, as they also recorded their highest ever Serie A league finishing during that period with a 3rd place in 1941–42.

After getting into financially difficulties in recent years, the club are currently competing in Serie D for the 2009–10 season. The original club going under the name Associazione Calcio Venezia 1907 was declared insolvent because of bankruptcy and relegated from Serie B in 2005.

Contents

History

The club was founded as Venezia Football Club on 14 December 1907,[1] by members of two local sports clubs coming together; Palestra Marziale and Costantino Reyer. It was originally based at Campo San Bartolomeo in the city of Venice; fifteen men including the first president Davide Fano were involved in the club's founding;[1]

 
  • Walter Aemissiger
  • Guido Battisti
  • Antonio Borella
  • Gerardo Bortoletti
 
  • Davide Fano
  • Aldo Federici
  • Pietro Golzio
  • Silvio Lorenzetti
 
  • Pietro Piccoli
  • Primo Pitteri
  • Alessandro Santi
  • Marcello Santi
 
  • Luigi Vianello
  • Pietro Visintin
  • Mario Vivante

Recent times

In its history, Venezia has spent a large part of recent years bouncing between Italy's two top divisions (they were last relegated from Serie A in 2002). It was this last season in Serie A which signalled the beginning of the end for the old club. Frustrated with the team and the inability to agree plans for a larger stadium with the council, then President, Maurizio Zamparini, decided to purchase U.S. Città di Palermo, and took with him a large portion of the squad.

Their stadium, the Pierluigi Penzo, is the only ground in Italy's top flights to which opposing teams and fans must get a boat.

Venezia won the Coppa Italia in 1941. That team contained some of the players who went on to form part of the Torino F.C. side of the 1940s who died in the Superga air disaster in 1949, such as Ezio Loik and Valentino Mazzola.

At the end of the 2008-09 Lega Pro Prima Divisione season, the club declared bankruptcy again and was refounded, changing its name to Foot Ball Club Unione Venezia, and starting in Serie D - the top level non-professional league in Italian football. The club has also designed a new logo. Serie D ranks just below Lega Pro Seconda Divisione (the 4th and last professional league), and is thus considered the 5th ranked league in the country. Since the early 1990s, Serie D has been split into 9 regional divisions (Gironi), labelled A to I. For the 2009-2010 season, F.B.C. Unione Venezia will be playing in Girone C. The chairman is Mauro Pizzigati, president of the Venice Casino, and the manager is Paolo Favaretto.

Notable recent former players include Álvaro Recoba, Filippo Maniero and Christian Vieri.

Notable former players

  • Italy Ezio Loik
  • Italy Valentino Mazzola
  • Italy Pedro Mariani
  • Ghana Augustine Ahinful
  • France Jimmy Algerino
  • Qatar Marcone Amaral
  • Sweden Daniel Andersson
  • Turkey Can Bartu
  • Norway Runar Berg
  • Sweden Joachim Björklund
  • Italy Mauro Bressan
  • Croatia Igor Budan
  • Sierra Leone Kewullay Conteh
  • Croatia Mario Cvitanović
  • Italy Marco Delvecchio
  • Italy Maurizio Ganz
  • Uruguay Pablo García
  • Austria Michael Konsel
  • Ghana Nii Lamptey
  • Uruguay Federico Magallanes
  • Paraguay Rubén Maldonado
  • Italy Filippo Maniero
  • Italy Stefano Morrone
  • Japan Hiroshi Nanami
  • Belgium Luis Oliveira
  • Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Dejan Petković
  • Uruguay Álvaro Recoba
  • Italy Flavio Roma
  • Italy Simone Pavan
  • Croatia Tomislav Rukavina
  • Spain Juan Santisteban
  • Italy Stefan Schwoch
  • Italy Michele Serena
  • Italy Andrea Silenzi
  • Italy Massimo Taibi
  • Italy William Viali
  • Italy Christian Vieri
  • Brazil Tuta
  • Brazil Bilica

Colours, badge and nicknames

Venezia's original kit.
Old club logo.
logo since 2008-09

Originally Venezia's colours were red and blue and the shirt features halves in those colours, the kit was very similar to that of Genoa.[2] However just a year after the club founded, it changed colours to black and green in 1908.[2]

Much later, in 1987 when the club merged with a local side Associazione Calcio Mestre from Mestre who wore orange and black,[3] orange would also become one of Venezia's official colours, giving them the nickname arancioneroverdi ("orange-black-greens").[4] Venezia's colours and kit are very distinctive; the shirt, shorts and socks are usually black with the shirt having a green and orange trim.

The symbol of the Venetian club is a winged-lion, commonly mistaken for a griffin. The golden winged-lion is the official symbol carries by the city of province of Venice;[5] the symbol has led to one of the club's most popular nicknames in the form of leoni alati ("winged-lions").[4]

As the club has been renamed numerous times during its history, the badge has also changed several times; the most common one features the golden winged lion, along with the green and orange club colours with a golden border.[6] As the city of Venice is situated on the Venetian Lagoon, the club is also nicknamed lagunari ("Lagoonal ones").[7]

Honours

Coppa Italia:

  • Winners (1): 1940–41

Serie B:

  • Champions (2): 1960–61; 1965–66
  • Runners-up (3): 1938–39; 1948–49; 1997–98
  • Promoted (1): 2000–01

Serie C / Serie C1:

  • Champions (2): 1935–36; 1955–56
  • Runners-up (1): 1990–91

Serie C2:

  • Champions (1): 2005–06
  • Runners-up (1): 1987–88

Serie D:

  • Promoted (1): 1982–83
  • Runners-up (1): 1978–79

References

External links