Società Sportiva Arezzo (formerly Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica Atletico Arezzo and Associazione Calcio Arezzo) is an
Italian association football club based in
Arezzo
Arezzo ( , ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in Italy and the capital of the Province of Arezzo, province of the same name located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about southeast of Florence at an elevation of Above mean sea level, above sea level. As of 2 ...
, Tuscany. The club was formed in 1923, refounded in 1993 after going bankrupt and refounded in 2010 after being unable to enroll in the tournament. The club currently plays in
Serie C
The Serie C (), officially known as Serie C NOW for sponsorship purposes, is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing ...
, the third tier of Italian football.
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 Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football league system. Found ...
). 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, 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, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
ian team
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama ( , ; – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and nobleman who was the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India, first European to reach India by sea.
Da Gama's first voyage (1497–1499) was the first to link ...
, 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 "Ciccio" Graziani (; born 16 December 1952) is an Italian football manager and former football player who played as a forward.
He began his career with Arezzo in 1970, and later joined Torino in 1973, where he remained until 1981, wi ...
, 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, with
Tullio Gritti as striker. The previous year, Arezzo had won its first (and only) Italy's Serie C Cup, defeating
Ternana
Ternana Calcio, commonly referred to as Ternana, is an Italian football club based in Terni, Umbria and currently compete in the Serie C.
The club was founded in 1925 and refounded in 1993. In its history, Ternana has twice played in Serie A ...
in the finals. In 1984, Arezzo barely missed promotion to
Serie A
The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...
, 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
The Serie D () is the highest level of semi-professional football in Italy, and the fourth tier of the Italian national league system. It sits beneath the third and lowest fully professional league, Serie C, and feeds in to it through promotion ...
. In 1996 an unknown coach with a few lower division experiences,
Serse Cosmi
Serse Cosmi (born 5 May 1958) is an Italian football coach, most recently in charge of Rijeka.
Career Early career
Cosmi was born in 1958 in Ponte San Giovanni, a Perugia ''frazione''. His father, a cycling fan, called him Serse after Fausto ...
, 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, Arezzo lost promotion playoffs; the following year, after Cosmi left Arezzo for Serie A side
Perugia
Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...
,
Antonio Cabrini
Antonio Cabrini (; born 8 October 1957) is an Italian professional football manager and a former player. He played as a left-back, mainly with Juventus. He won the 1982 FIFA World Cup with the Italy national team. Cabrini was nicknamed ''Bell'A ...
was appointed as new coach, and
Mario Frick replaced Bazzani as forward. The team returned to Serie B in 2004, with
Mario Somma as coach; the next season, which saw
Pasquale Marino
Pasquale Marino (born 13 July 1962) is an Italian football manager and former player, currently in charge of club Salernitana.
Playing career
A midfielder, Marino started for his home team, Marsala. Marino never played in divisions higher than ...
replacing Somma, who signed for
Empoli
Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno River, Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Ancient Ro ...
, Arezzo barely maintained a Serie B place.

At the end of the
2009–10 Lega Pro Prima Divisione
The 2009–10 Lega Pro Prima Divisione season was the thirty-second football league season of Italian Lega Pro Prima Divisione since its establishment in 1978, and the second since the renaming from Serie C to Lega Pro.
It was divided into two ph ...
season the club, due to financial problems, were unable to enroll to the next season tournament. A new club with the Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica Atletico Arezzo denomination was entered in
Serie D
The Serie D () is the highest level of semi-professional football in Italy, and the fourth tier of the Italian national league system. It sits beneath the third and lowest fully professional league, Serie C, and feeds in to it through promotion ...
.
In November 2010 the club was acquired by a consortium of Rome-based entrepreneurs (including popular actor
Luca Zingaretti
Luca Zingaretti (; born 11 November 1961) is an Italian actor and film director, known for playing Salvo Montalbano in the '' Inspector Montalbano'' mystery series based on the character and novels created by Andrea Camilleri. Zingaretti is a ...
) 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.
On 1 July 2012 the club was renamed Unione Sportiva Arezzo with Balbo as new head coach, replaced since 30 October 2012 by
Michele Bacis.
On 9 January 2013 Mauro Ferretti, an enreprenuer from Rome, bought the club. A few weeks later, on 28 January,
Federico Nofri replaced Bacis as coach.
For the 2013–14 season,
Davide Mezzanotti was appointed as new coach.
After the club ended in third place,
Ezio Capuano
Ezio "Eziolino" Capuano (born 19 January 1965) is an Italian association football, football coach.
Career Coach
Capuano is a head coach with massive experience as a head coach in the lower ranks of Italian football, all from and below the thi ...
was named new head coach; later in September 2014, Arezzo was readmitted to
Lega Pro
The Lega Italiano Calcio Professionistico (Italian for Professional Football Italian League), commonly known as Lega Pro (Pro League), is the governing body that runs the third tier of professional football competitions in Italy, the Serie C. I ...
to fill a vacancy. Under Capuano's tenure (which lasted until April 2016), the club safely escaped relegation on both seasons. For the 2016–17 season, the club came with a new head coach,
Stefano Sottili, and a number of major signings such as former Serie A player
Davide Moscardelli.
League and cup history
Scoring history
Highest scoring and best win:
*2004–05 season: 5–3, defeated
Verona
Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...
Players
Current squad
Out on loan
Notable players
Notable managers
Antonio Conte
Maurizio Sarri
Maurizio Sarri (; born 10 January 1959) is an Italian professional football manager who is currently manager of Serie A club Lazio.
Sarri did not play football professionally, taking part as an amateur centre back and coach while working as a ba ...
Honours
*
Coppa Italia Serie C
Coppa Italia Serie C (), formerly named Coppa Italia Lega Pro, is a straight knock-out based competition involving teams from Serie C in Italian football first held in 1972.
Format
There are a total of six rounds in the competition. It begins i ...
: Winners: 1980–81
*
Supercoppa di Serie C
The Supercoppa di Serie C, formerly named Supercoppa di Lega Pro, is an Italian football competition played by the three group winners of Serie C. The competition was inaugurated in 2000.
Forerunners
The FIGC introduced a third-level national foo ...
:Winners: 2004
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arezzo
Football clubs in Italy
Football clubs in Tuscany
Association football clubs established in 1923
Serie D clubs
1923 establishments in Italy
Coppa Italia Serie C winning clubs