A.C. Arezzo
Encyclopedia
Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica Atletico Arezzo (formerly Associazione Calcio Arezzo) is an Italian association football club
Football in Italy
Football is the most popular sport in Italy. The Italian national football team has won the FIFA World Cup 4 times , trailing only Brazil . Italy's club sides have won 27 major European trophies, making them the most successful European nation in the subject of football...

 based in Arezzo
Arezzo
Arezzo is a city and comune in Central Italy, capital of the province of the same name, located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about 80 km southeast of Florence, at an elevation of 296 m above sea level. In 2011 the population was about 100,000....

, Tuscany. The club was formed in 1923 and refounded in 2010 after going bankrupt, and currently plays in the amateur Serie D
Serie D
Serie D is the top level of the Italian non-professional football association called Lega Nazionale Dilettanti. The association represents over a million football players and thousands of football teams across Italy. Serie D ranks just below Lega Pro Seconda Divisione , and is thus considered the...

 league.

History

The club was founded on 9 September 1923, by a group of friends, and football fans, as Juventus Football Club Arezzo (in honour of Juventus F.C.
Juventus F.C.
Juventus Football Club S.p.A. , commonly referred to as Juventus and colloquially as Juve , are a professional Italian association football club based in Turin, Piedmont...

). In 1930, following a merge with several other minor Arezzo teams, the club became Unione Sportiva Arezzo, which was admitted in 1935 to new-born Serie C division. The team was relegated from Serie C in 1953, following several financial troubles, returning to Serie C division five years later. In 1961, Arezzo started to play its games in the Stadio Comunale
Stadio Comunale (Arezzo)
Stadio Città di Arezzo is a multi-purpose stadium, located in Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy. It is used mostly for football matches and is the home of the A.S.D. Atletico Arezzo football club.-See also:*1923 in architecture...

, its current venue. In 1966, Arezzo promoted to Serie B for the first time; in order to celebrate the triumph, Arezzo played a friendly match with Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

ian team Vasco da Gama
Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama
Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama |Rowing Club]]), usually known as Vasco da Gama or simply Vasco, is a famous and traditional Brazilian multisports club from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, founded on August 21, 1898...

, winning it 2–1. However, the next year Arezzo was not able to remain in the division, and returned to Serie C the following year. But in 1969 Arezzo again won Serie C, and returned to play in Serie B, where it played until 1975. In 1971, Arezzo signed striker Francesco Graziani
Francesco Graziani
Francesco "Ciccio" Graziani is an Italy football manager and former player.-Playing career:Graziani was born in Subiaco, in the province of Rome....

, who quickly became a fan favourite and a key player for the team.

The third promotion to Serie B came in 1982, under coach Antonio Valentin Angelillo
Antonio Valentin Angelillo
Antonio Valentín Angelillo is an Italian Argentine former football forward who played the majority of his professional career in the Italian Serie A, and was a member of both the Argentine and the Italian national teams.-Club career:...

, with Tullio Gritti as striker. The previous year, Arezzo had won its first (and only) Italy's Serie C Cup, defeating Ternana
Ternana Calcio
Ternana Calcio is an Italian football club based in the city of Terni, Umbria.The team's colours are red and green.The club was founded in 1925 and refounded in 1993. In its history, Ternana have twice played in Serie A...

 in the finals. In 1984, Arezzo barely missed promotion to Serie A
Serie A
Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...

, ending just five points back from the last promotion place. In 1988, despite a team accordingly built to promote to Serie A, Arezzo relegated to Serie C1. Arezzo disbanded in 1993, following financial troubles, being excluded by Serie C1 seven football days before the end of the season. Following the cancellation, a pool of shareholders led by former Arezzo star Ciccio Graziani founded Associazione Calcio Arezzo, admitted to Serie D
Serie D
Serie D is the top level of the Italian non-professional football association called Lega Nazionale Dilettanti. The association represents over a million football players and thousands of football teams across Italy. Serie D ranks just below Lega Pro Seconda Divisione , and is thus considered the...

. In 1996 an unknown coach with a few lower division experiences, Serse Cosmi
Serse Cosmi
However, after a disappointing series of results, including elimination in Champions League and results in Serie A much below the expected results, Cosmi was finally fired on February 10, 2006.-Brescia and Livorno:...

, was appointed as new manager. Despite his complete lack of experience in the division, Cosmi immediately won hands down Serie D, leading Arezzo back to professional football. In 1998, again with Cosmi, Arezzo qualified to and won the Serie C2 promotion playoffs, gaining promotion to Serie C1. In 1999/2000, despite the contributions of Fabio Bazzani
Fabio Bazzani
Fabio Bazzani is an Italian association football striker, who currently plays for A.S.D. Mezzolara.He is a striker, notable for his headers, as well as his shooting and strength.-Career:...

, Arezzo lost promotion playoffs; the following year, after Cosmi left Arezzo for Serie A side Perugia
Perugia Calcio
Associazione Calcistica Perugia Calcio is an Italian association football club based in Perugia, Umbria, direct heir of the old Perugia Calcio and A.C. Perugia, excluded from Italian football because of financial troubles....

, Antonio Cabrini
Antonio Cabrini
Antonio Cabrini is an Italian football former player. He played left-back, mainly with Juventus. He won the 1982 FIFA World Cup with the Italian national team....

 was appointed as new coach, and Mario Frick
Mario Frick (footballer)
Mario Frick is a Swiss-born Liechtensteiner football striker, who plays for Liechtenstein side FC Balzers in the Swiss 1st League.-Liechtenstein:...

 replaced Bazzani as forward. The team returned to Serie B in 2004, with Mario Somma
Mario Somma
Mario Somma is an Italian football manager.-Player:Somma started his career with Genoa and then spent his later years mostly at the Serie C1 and Serie C2 level, playing for several Campanian teams...

 as coach; the next season, which saw Pasquale Marino
Pasquale Marino
Pasquale Marino is an Italian football coach.-Playing career:In his playing career, started for his home team, Marsala, Marino never played in divisions higher than Serie C1, and ended his career for Catania in 1996/1997....

 replacing Somma, who signed for Empoli
Empoli F.C.
Empoli Football Club is an Italian association football club located in Empoli, Tuscany, founded in 1920 and played its first official match in 1921.In recent years, the club has all too often been bouncing between Italy's two top divisions...

, Arezzo barely maintained a Serie B place.

At the end of the 2009-10 Lega Pro Prima Divisione season the club went bankrupt and a new club with the current denomination was entered in Serie D
Serie D
Serie D is the top level of the Italian non-professional football association called Lega Nazionale Dilettanti. The association represents over a million football players and thousands of football teams across Italy. Serie D ranks just below Lega Pro Seconda Divisione , and is thus considered the...

.

On November 2010 the club was acquired by a consortium of Rome-based enterpreneurs (including popular actor Luca Zingaretti
Luca Zingaretti
Luca Zingaretti is an Italian actor, known for playing Salvo Montalbano in Il commissario Montalbano mystery series based on the character and novels created by Andrea Camilleri. Zingaretti is a native of Rome...

) for a sum of €400,000; the new owners immediately made a number of changes, appointing former Cagliari player Maurizio Coppola as head coach and former Serie A star Abel Balbo as assistant coach and technical area coordinator.

External links

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