Genoa C.F.C.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Genoa Cricket and Football Club is a football club based in Genoa, Liguria, Italy. Genoa is the oldest existing Italian football club. The club currently plays at Stadio Luigi Ferraris (capacity 41,917), which it shares with the other club based in Genoa - UC Sampdoria. In 2006-07 season, Genoa Cricket and Football Club take part in Serie B achieving promotion to serie A.
The name, while English in origin, is pronounced according to Italian rules, therefore JEH-noa
History
On September 7, 1893, Charles De Grave Sells, S. Blake, G. Green, W. Riley, D.G. Fawcus, Sandys, E. De Thierry, Jonathan Summerhill Senior and Junior and the British diplomat Sir Charles Alfred Payton started Genoa Cricket & Athletic Club.
Since the club were set up to represent England abroad, the club's shirts were originally white, the same colour as the England football team's shirt. As it was originally set up as private club, Italians were not allowed into the team. The first field for the club was the Piazza d'Armi of the Campasso.
Between 1893 and 1895, the club played cricket against the crews of various British ships that docked in the harbour from time to time. In 1898, some of the club's early football matches were against the HMS Clementine crew and the crew of HMS Revenge. In 1896, Mr. James Richardson Spensley, considered to be the founder of Italian football, arrived and set up the football team. He played as a goalkeeper for a while, but wasn't particularly good. In 1897 Italian players were allowed to join and a new field was found. The following year, Genoa played their first friendly game, losing 1-0 to a team made up of players from International Torino and FBC Torinese.
On May 8, 1898, Genoa became the first ever Italian champions. In 1899, the club changed its name to Genoa Cricket & Football Club, dropping 'Athletic' from its name. The shirt also changed, from white, to white and blue vertical stripes. On April 16 of that year, the club won the Italian title again. Genoa would do so again in 1900.
In 1901, the club changed strip again to its famous red-navy halves and therefore became known as the Rossoblu. From 1902, Genoa were to win three titles in a row, after setting up the II Categoria Tournament, which was won by the reserve team in its first season (1904).
In 1915, the club was to win its first championship title for eleven years, which they won again in 1923 and 1924 (their last to date). The club remained among the best Italian teams for the next 20 years, winning the Coppa Italia in 1937, which was to be its last major trophy.
World War II affected dramatically the entire Italian football movement, but Genoa did not recover as well as other clubs. Between the '50s and '90s, through cashflows and irregularities, Genoa slowly declined, with few notable seasons (two Coppa delle Alpi in 1962 and 1964) and more and more frequent descents into Serie B. Genoa even experienced their first relegation to Serie C in 1970.
In 1989 Genoa experienced a resurrection that led to promotion to Serie A and, in 1991, Genoa managed a fourth-place finish in the top division, and a subsequent UEFA Cup semifinal the following year. In doing so, they became the first Italian team to win at Liverpool's Anfield Road ground. In 1996 the club became the last winners of the Anglo-Italian Cup by beating Port Vale F.C..
However, the glory did not last and Genoa returned to Serie B in 1995 where they played for the past ten years, their longest spell there to date, whilst experiencing deep financial problems. Backed by a new club organisation, in 2005 Genoa finally won the second division, achieving promotion to Serie A. Yet, on July 27, 2005, Genoa was placed last (hence condemned to relegation in Serie C) by the Disciplinary Committee of the Italian football federation as consequence of accusations relevant to fixing the last 2004-05 match against Venezia A.C., which had been won 3-2, even if this match did not affect promotion to Serie A.
On August 8, 2005, the appeal against the decision was finally turned down by the Italian federation and Genoa had to play the season in Serie C1.
The 2005-06 Serie C1 season for Genoa was very tormented. The team was handicapped by a three points penalty in the table related to the fraud in the previous season, and by a further three points penalty for fielding a disqualified player. Nevertheless, Genoa led the Serie C1/A table for most of the season. A number of consecutive poor performances early in 2006 appeared to compromise Genoa's efforts to achieve promotion and led to the temporary appointment of a substitute coach, Attilio Perotti. Following the return of Giovanni Vavassori at the helm Genoa ended the 2005-06 Serie C1/A regular season in second place, and thus took part to the playoffs; after having defeated Salernitana Calcio in the semi-finals, Genoa faced A.C. Monza in the promotion finals. Genoa won the away match 2-0 and lost in Genova 1-0, achieving the promotion to Serie B.
Genoa signed Gian Piero Gasperini as the new coach in July 2006.