LR Vicenza

Founded on 9 March 1902, as Associazione del Calcio in Vicenza, it is the oldest football club in north-eastern Italy as well as in the Triveneto and Veneto regions.Vicenza, founded in 1902 by a group of citizens led by Professor Tito Buy, headmaster of the Lioy High School, and by physical education teacher Antonio Libero Scarpa, it is one of the oldest football clubs in Italy.In the 1924–25 season Vicenza won the elimination round of the Second Division after play-offs with Udinese and Olympia Fiume, but was then disqualified and downgraded to last place due to the irregular positions of the Hungarians Horváth and Molnár; however, it was not relegated because thanks to the Italian Football Federation.In that period the "biancorossi" churned out talents of the calibre of the Umberto brothers and above all Romeo Menti, captain "Neno" Rossi, Bruno Camolese, Luigi Chiodi, Giovanni Costa, and the star Piero Spinato, the club's top scorer to this day.At the beginning of the 1940s Vicenza conquered the top national division, thanks also to a midfield that went down in history as one of the best of the era formed by: Osvaldo Fattori (later at Inter), Alfonso Santagiuliana (who also played for Grande Torino) and Luigi Abeni (whose career was cut short by illness).On 26 June 1953 an event occurred that would change the history of the Vicenza club for many decades: the old ACIVI was bought by the Schio-based wool producing giant, Lanerossi, founded in the 19th century by Alessandro Rossi.The logo remained on the red and white shirts until the 1988–1989 season, but has made a return since the 2000s as it has become a de facto symbol of the Vicenza football club even following the company's departure.From the Viareggio team came players such as Azeglio Vicini, Sergio Campana, Renzo Cappellaro, Mario David, Mirko Pavinato, Luigi Menti and many others who later wore the biancorossa shirt in Serie A.In the second half of the 1950s, the offensive department was strengthened with the addition of two South Americans, first Américo Murolo and, in the following season, Francisco Lojacono, as well as the Vicenza-born Renzo Cappellaro.After a hesitant start, the red and whites proved to be overwhelming, thanks to Rossi's goals, the safety of libero Giorgio Carrera, the plays of Franco Cerilli and Giancarlo Salvi, Mario Guidetti in midfield, and the unstoppable Roberto Filippi.Paolo Rossi became the new phenomenon of Italian football: in December 1977 he was called up for the national team and at the end of the season he won the title of top scorer with 24 goals, a significant figure for a 16-team tournament.In June 1978 Rossi was part of the Italian team at the World Cup in Argentina, where the Azzurri finished fourth and the centre forward scored three goals.The deal was only resolved at the trade deadline, with record sums never committed before in a single football market session: Farina offered as much as 2,612,510,000 lire to secure the other half of Pablito's card.The considerable sums proved problematic for Vicenza's shrunken coffers, who were now forced to sell some of Fabbri's other best elements in order to recoup their investment in "Mr. Five Billion" Rossi, as well as facing discontent from the rest of the squad due to the different economic treatment reserved for them.In this difficult context, Farina's plans failed in the short space of a season: in its European debut, the team was eliminated in the first round of the 1978–1979 UEFA Cup by Czechoslovakia's Dukla Praga, while in Serie A, after never having found a real rhythm of play, it slowly slipped to the bottom of the table to an unthinkable relegation.On 16 June 1985, even with the young star Roberto Baggio absent due to injury, on the neutral pitch of the Franchi in Florence, Vicenza, led by coach Bruno Giorgi, returned to Serie B after winning the promotion play-offs against Piacenza.On 7 June 1990 Vicenza, led by flag-bearer Giulio Savoini, escaped relegation in a play-off match against Prato on the neutral pitch of the Mazza stadium in Ferrara, with the support of an exodus of "biancorossi" fans who invaded the Estense city.The following year, the performances of captain Giovanni Lopez, full-back Gilberto D'Ignazio Pulpito and centre-back Domenico Di Carlo brought Vicenza back to the top flight, where they finished ninth.After a very positive Serie A season, in which Vicenza were able to achieve memorable victories against the "big three" Juventus, Inter and Milan, as well as being the league leaders for several weeks, the team catalysed national interest thanks to it being a revelation in the Coppa Italia, culminating in the final against Napoli: in the first leg, played at the San Paolo, the "biancorossi" lost 1–0, but in the return match, on 29 May 1997 at the Romeo Menti Stadium in Vicenza, Giampiero Maini immediately levelled the score; it then went into extra time where Maurizio Rossi and Alessandro Iannuzzi scored the historic goals at the end of the match sealing a 3–0 final score and winning Vicenza the most important trophy in its history.In the summer of 1997, the ENIC Group (English National Investment Company) owned by Joe Lewis, took over the majority of the red and white club: Vicenza thus became the first Italian team to have foreign ownership.As holders of the Coppa Italia, the "biancorossi" earned the right to play in the Italian Super Cup, which they lost to Juventus on 23 August 1997 at the Stadio delle Alpi in Turin.In 2013 this relatively successful decade ended with the definitive downgrading to Italy's third league due to cyclical financial problems, which led to a heavy deficit for the club.Vicenza managed to avert direct relegation only on the last day of the regular season, but the descent to Serie C was finally sanctioned by a play-out loss against Cosenza.In the 1996–1997 Serie A, goalkeeper Luca Mondini, being a rugby enthusiast, agreed with technical supplier Biemme, in wearing several extravagant customised jerseys with bichromatic horizontal stripes (green-and-white, yellow-and-yellow, blue-orange and red-and-white).In the 2016–2017 season on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the winning of the 1996–1997 Coppa Italia, a celebratory coat of arms was featured on Vicenza's jersey to commemorate the historic victory of the tricolour cockade.Inaugurated on the city's patron saint's day on 8 September with a match between Vicenza and Soroksár of Budapest, it was subsequently damaged by bombings during the Second World War, renovated in a few months (with the elimination of the athletics track) and renamed, in 1946, to Municipal.Among the foreign coaches, those who boast the highest number of presences on the red and white bench are the Hungarians Wilmas Wilhelm and Imre Janos Bekey and the Uruguayan Hector Puricelli.Both players and coaches of Vicenza (in chronological order) were: Giulio Fasolo, Aldo Casalini, Wilmas Wilhelm, Eraldo Bedendo, Pietro Spinato, Umberto Menti, Roberto Lerici, Antonio Pin, Chinesinho, Giulio Savoini, Ernesto Galli, Fabio Viviani, Giancarlo Camolese, Massimo Beghetto, Manlio Zanini, Alessandro Dal Canto, Giovanni Lopez, Nicola Zanini and Domenico Di Carlo.Another historic rivalry with serious clashes is the one with Napoli: this relationship, which has always been antagonistic between the two fan groups, was accentuated even more in the mid-1990s, during home matches at the Menti, with incidents in and outside the Vicenza stadium occurring in March 1996, in January and May 1997; in addition to the violent episodes that occurred in the Coppa Italia final of the same year: during the first leg at the San Paolo there was throwing of fireworks, bombs and bathroom fittings, while at the return leg at the Menti there was the stabbing of a Vicenza supporter by the Neapolitan fans and the firing of flares from the Azzurri ultras which caused a burn to the face of an Udinese supporter.The stadium is also recognisable by the presence of the red and white banners of the ultras from Vicenza and the Pal Zileri billboard placed above the centre of the Curva Sud.