Venezia F.C.


Venezia Football Club, commonly referred to as Venezia, is a professional football club based in Venice, Veneto, Italy, that currently plays in Serie B, the second tier of Italian football. The team is owned and managed by Duncan L. Niederauer, the former CEO of the New York Stock Exchange.
Founded by a merger in 1907, Venezia have spent a large part of their history in Serie A and Serie B, the top two divisions in Italy. Venezia won the Coppa Italia in 1941, defeating Roma in a two-legged final. The win remains Venezia's only major trophy to date.

Stadium

Venezia's current home stadium, the Pierluigi Penzo, is the second-oldest stadium in Italy.
It is a multi-use stadium in Venice, Italy. It is the largest sports facility in Venice. The stadium was first opened in 1913 and takes its name from World War I pilot Pierluigi Penzo.
Originally constructed from wood, the stadium was largely upgraded with a concrete main stand in the 1920s and further improvements were made in the decades that followed. The record attendance of 26,000 was for a 1966 Serie A match against A.C. Milan.
On September 11, 1970 a tornado hit Venice and caused extensive damage to the stadium. Due to the club's decline the stadium was only partially reinstated, and the capacity was reduced to just over 5,000. The club rose back up to Serie A in 1998 and additional makeshift stands were added, bringing capacity back up to 13,400, but it has since been reduced again to the current capacity of 7,450.
The stadium is notable as it is primarily accessible by boat.

History

The club was founded as Venezia Foot Ball Club on 14 December 1907, 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;. In 1919, the name was translated into Italian as Associazione Calcio Venezia.
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The most notable trophy success in Venezia's history is winning the Coppa Italia during the 1940–41 season. The Cup-winning Venezia team included some of the players who went on to form the Torino F.C. side of the 1940s who died in the Superga air disaster in 1949, such as Ezio Loik and Valentino Mazzola.
In 1941–42, Venezia earned its highest ever Serie A position, finishing in third place in the league.

A.C. Venezia 1907

In the summer 1990, the club was renamed Associazione Calcio Venezia 1907.
Venezia has spent the majority of its history in Serie A and Serie B, Italy's two top divisions. The club was last relegated from Serie A in 2002. This last season in Serie A began a period of decline for the club. Frustrated with the team and the inability to agree on plans for a larger stadium with the local council, then president Maurizio Zamparini decided to purchase U.S. Città di Palermo, and he took with him a large portion of the squad.
played for Venezia.
Notable recent former players include Álvaro Recoba, Filippo Maniero and Christian Vieri.
In 2002 the club was relegated to Serie B and declared insolvent because of bankruptcy.

S.S.C. Venezia

In the summer 2005 the club was refounded as Società Sportiva Calcio Venezia and was admitted in Serie C2 due to Lodo Petrucci.
At the end of the 2008–09 Lega Pro Prima Divisione season, the club was declared bankrupt.

Foot Ball Club Unione Venezia

After the club's second bankruptcy, the club was re-founded as Foot Ball Club Unione Venezia, and was admitted to Serie D – the top level non-professional league in Italian football.
In 2011–12, Venezia won the Scudetto Dilettanti.
The club was promoted to Lega Pro Prima Divisione in the 2013-14 season. They finished the 2013-14 season at 10th position, just short of one position to reach the promotion playoffs to Serie B.

Venezia Football Club

After the club's third bankruptcy, the club was re-founded as Venezia F.C. S.r.l.d., and was admitted to Serie D for the 2015–16 season.
In October 2015, New York lawyer Joe Tacopina and a group of American investors announced the purchase of Venezia. Tacopina was previously the President of Bologna and is also the former Vice President and
In Tacopina's first season, Venezia earned promotion to Lega Pro.
On 7 June 2016, Filippo Inzaghi was hired as the new coach of the club. On 19 April 2017, Venezia managed to beat Parma to top spot in Lega Pro and eventually gaining a promotion to Serie B. The team finished 5th in points, and lost the promotion semifinals to Palermo. The club struggled the following season and were slated for relegation to Serie C after they lost the Serie B playout to Salernitana. They were ultimately spared when, on 12 July 2019, Palermo was punished with relegation for administrative irregularities.

Current squad

Out on loan

Colours, badge and nicknames

Originally Venezia's colours were blue and red and the shirt features halves in those colours, the kit was very similar to that of Genoa. 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 who wore orange and black, orange would also become one of Venezia's official colours, giving them the nickname arancioneroverdi. 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 carried by the city of province of Venice; the symbol has led to one of the club's most popular nicknames in the form of leoni alati.
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, the club is also nicknamed lagunari.

Honours

Coppa Italia
Serie B
Serie C/Serie C1
Coppa Italia Lega Pro
Serie C2/Lega Pro Seconda Divisione
Serie D