F.B.C. Unione Venezia
Encyclopedia
Football Club Unione Venezia (formerly Società Sportiva Calcio Venezia), commonly referred to as simply Venezia, is an Italian football
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...

 club from Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

, Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...

.

Founded by a merger in 1907, Venezia have spent a large part of their history bouncing between the top-two tiers of Italian football.

Venezia's home stadium, the Pierluigi Penzo
Stadio Pierluigi Penzo
Stadio Pierluigi Penzo is a multi-use stadium in Venice, Italy. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of F.B.C. Unione Venezia. The stadium holds 10,500 people and is located on the island Sant'Elena. It is the only ground in Italy's top flights to which...

, is the only ground in Italy's top flights that must be reached by boat.

History

The club was founded as Venezia Football Club on 14 December 1907, by members of two local sports club
Sports club
A sports club or sport club, sometimes athletics club or sports association is a club for the purpose of playing one or more sports...

s coming together; Palestra Marziale and Costantino Reyer. It was originally based at Campo San Bartolomeo in the city of Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

; fifteen men including the first president Davide Fano were involved in the club's founding;

The most notable trophy success in the history of Venezia was winning the Coppa Italia
Coppa Italia
The Coppa Italia is an Italian football annual cup competition. Its first edition was held in 1922, but the second champions were not crowned until 1936. Roma and Juventus lead the way with nine wins. Roma has contested more finals, 16, while Torino and Juventus follow with 13...

 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
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...

 league finishing during that period with a 3rd place in 1941–42
Serie A 1941-42
-Final classification:-Results:...

.

Venezia won the Coppa Italia
Coppa Italia
The Coppa Italia is an Italian football annual cup competition. Its first edition was held in 1922, but the second champions were not crowned until 1936. Roma and Juventus lead the way with nine wins. Roma has contested more finals, 16, while Torino and Juventus follow with 13...

 in 1941. That team contained some of the players who went on to form part of the Torino F.C.
Torino F.C.
Torino Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Torino, is a professional Italian football club based in Turin, Piedmont, that was founded in 1906. The club has spent most of its history in the top tier in Italian football....

 side of the 1940s who died in the Superga air disaster
Superga air disaster
The Superga air disaster took place on Wednesday, 4 May 1949, when a plane carrying almost the entire Torino A.C. football squad, popularly known as Il Grande Torino, crashed into the hill of Superga near Turin killing all 31 aboard including 18 players, club officials, journalists accompanying the...

 in 1949, such as Ezio Loik
Ezio Loik
Ezio Loik was an Italian football player, who played for Torino FC and died in the Superga air disaster together with the whole Grande Torino team.-Biography:...

 and Valentino Mazzola
Valentino Mazzola
Valentino Mazzola was an Italian footballer and captain of the legendary Grande Torino side, killed in the Superga air disaster. He is considered one of the best football players of all time and perhaps the first modern all-around footballer, as he was an attacking midfielder who could score,...

.

From Serie A to Serie D

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
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...

 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
Maurizio Zamparini
Maurizio Zamparini is an Italian businessman and the current owner and chairman of Serie A club U.S. Città di Palermo....

, decided to purchase U.S. Città di Palermo
U.S. Città di Palermo
Unione Sportiva Città di Palermo is an Italian football club from Palermo, Sicily which currently plays in Serie A, the top level of Italian football. Formed in 1900 as Anglo Panormitan Athletic and Football Club, the club had various names before assuming its final form in 1987 and is currently...

, and took with him a large portion of the squad.

Notable recent former players include Álvaro Recoba
Álvaro Recoba
Álvaro Alexander Recoba Rivero , nicknamed "El Chino", is a Uruguayan footballer currently playing for Primera División Uruguaya side Club Nacional de Football...

, Filippo Maniero
Filippo Maniero
Filippo "Pippo" Maniero is an Italian retired football player. He played for several teams as a striker, most notably AC Milan, Parma, Palermo and Torino....

 and Christian Vieri
Christian Vieri
Christian Vieri is a retired Italian footballer who played as a centre forward.Vieri was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pelé as a part of FIFA's centenary celebrations...

.

The original club, going under the name Associazione Calcio Venezia 1907, was declared insolvent because of bankruptcy and relegated from Serie B
Serie B
Serie B, currently named Serie bwin due to sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It is contested by 22 teams and organized by the Lega Serie B since July 2010, after the split of Lega Calcio that previously took care of both the...

 in 2005.

At the end of the 2008–09 Lega Pro Prima Divisione
Lega Pro Prima Divisione 2008-09
The 2008–09 Lega Pro Prima Divisione season is the thirty-first since its establishment in 1978, and the first edition since the renaming from Serie C to Lega Pro...

 season, the club declared bankruptcy again and was refounded, changing its name to Foot Ball Club Unione Venezia, and starting 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...

 – 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.

After getting into financially difficulties in recent years, the club was competing 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...

 for the 2009–10 season.

On 15 February 2011 the former Russian major of Khimki Yuri Korablin, paid the club rights.

Venezia ranked 2nd in the group C of Serie D, but losing 3-2 with SandonàJesolo
SandonàJesoloCalcio
SandonàJesoloCalcio is an Italian association football club located in San Donà di Piave, Veneto. It currently plays in Serie D.Its colors are white and sky blue.-History:...

 it didn't access to the national play-off finals and so will remain also for the next season in this league.

Current squad

Staff

Head coach: Gianluca Luppi
Gianluca Luppi
Gianluca Luppi is an Italian professional football coach and a former player.-External links:*...



Assistant coach: Nicola Marangon

Goalkeeper coach: Massimo Lotti
Massimo Lotti
Massimo Lotti is an Italian footballer who plays for Venezia at Serie D. He spent half of his career at Lega Pro .-Biography:...


Colours, badge and nicknames

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
Genoa C.F.C.
Genoa Cricket and Football Club, commonly referred to simply as Genoa , is a professional Italian football club based in the city of Genoa, Liguria...

. However just a year after the club founded, it changed colours to black and green in 1908.

Much later, in 1987 when the club merged with a local side Associazione Calcio Mestre from Mestre
Mestre
Mestre is a city part of the comune of Venice, in Veneto, northern Italy.The city is connected to Venice by a large rail and road bridge, called Ponte della Libertà ....

 who wore orange and black, orange would also become one of Venezia's official colours, giving them the nickname arancioneroverdi ("orange-black-greens"). 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
Griffin
The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle...

. The golden winged-lion is the official symbol carries by the city of province of Venice
Province of Venice
The Province of Venice is a province in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Its capital is the city of Venice.It has an area of 2,467 km², and a total population of 829,418 . There are 44 comuni in the province . As of 2005, the main comuni by population are:-External links:* * : photos of...

; the symbol has led to one of the club's most popular nicknames in the form of leoni alati ("winged-lions").

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. As the city of Venice is situated on the Venetian Lagoon
Venetian Lagoon
The Venetian Lagoon is the enclosed bay of the Adriatic Sea in which the city of Venice is situated. Its name in the Venetian language, Laguna Veneta— cognate of Latin lacus, "lake"— has provided the international name for an enclosed, shallow embayment of saltwater, a lagoon.The Venetian Lagoon...

, the club is also nicknamed lagunari ("Lagoonal ones").

Honours

Coppa Italia
Coppa Italia
The Coppa Italia is an Italian football annual cup competition. Its first edition was held in 1922, but the second champions were not crowned until 1936. Roma and Juventus lead the way with nine wins. Roma has contested more finals, 16, while Torino and Juventus follow with 13...

:
  • Winners (1): 1940–41


Serie B
Serie B
Serie B, currently named Serie bwin due to sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It is contested by 22 teams and organized by the Lega Serie B since July 2010, after the split of Lega Calcio that previously took care of both the...

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


Serie C
Serie C
The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico , commonly known as Lega Pro , is the governing body that runs the third and fourth highest football divisions in Italy, the Prima Divisione and Seconda Divisione respectively. It also includes the sole professional club of San Marino...

/ Serie C1
Serie C1
Lega Pro Prima Divisione is the name of the third highest football league in Italy. It consists of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 18 teams each. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1....

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


Serie C2
Serie C2
Lega Pro Seconda Divisione is the name of the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. Usually it consists of 54 teams, but in the season 2010–11 the teams are only 49 divided geographically into three divisions of 17, 16 and 16 teams each...

:
  • Champions (1): 2005–06
    Serie C2 2005-06
    The 2005–06 Serie C2 was the football league season of Italian Serie C2 for the years 2005 and 2006. It was divided into two phases: the regular season, played from August 28, 2005 to May 7, 2006, and the playoff phase. Once the regular season was over teams placed 2nd to 5th entered a playoff to...

  • Runners-up (1): 1987–88


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...

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

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK