Como 1907

Como 1907 () is an Italian professional football club based in Como, Lombardy. The club competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football, after achieving promotion in the 2023–24 Serie B season.

Founded in 1907 as Como Foot-Ball Club, the club adopted royal blue as its colours, and has played its home matches in 13,602-capacity Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia since 1928. The club currently has the richest club owners in Italian football after the club was bought by the Hartono brothers (Robert Budi Hartono and Michael Bambang Hartono) through Djarum Group in 2019. The club's minority shareholders include its current head coach, Cesc Fàbregas, and football legend Thierry Henry.

Como's first season in the top flight of Italian football was in the 1913–14 Prima Categoria, and remained there until relegation in 1922. Como secured their illustrious history in the 1930–31 season, as Gedeon Lukács led a triumphant promotion to Serie B, where Como finished unbeaten in both regular season and the play-offs of the Prima Divisione, scoring 90 goals in 32 matches and conceded only 24 goals.

Consecutive relegations in 2000s have caused financial difficulties to Como. In 2004, the club were declared bankrupt and excluded from participation in Italian professional football. They were immediately admitted to Serie D, the top level of non-professional football in Italy, where they spent three seasons before earning promotion back to Serie C2 in 2007. After a further bankruptcy in 2016, a new company re-founded the club in 2017 and was admitted to Serie D.

Since being bought by the Hartono brothers, who were ranked the 64th and 66th richest men by ''Forbes'' in 2022 and the richest men in Italy in 2024, the club returned to Serie B, and in 2024, for the first time in 21 years, was promoted to Serie A.

History

Foundation and early years

The club was founded on 25 May 1907 as Como Foot-Ball Club, by a committee of members gathered at the Taroni bar, located in the central Via Cinque Giornate, the first headquarters of the club. In the first years after its foundation, Como played friendly matches and local tournaments, competing against teams from Milan and Switzerland. On 1 October 1911, the club took part in the inauguration of the Campo via dei Mille by playing in a friendly match, defeating Bellinzona 3–1. Como then used the ground to host their home matches for the next few years.

In 1912, after merging with the student club "Minerva", the club participated in the qualification for entry into the Prima Categoria. On 20 October, in the first round, the club was defeated 3–1 by Savona in Turin. Como was therefore registered in the Lombardy Promozione group, and played its first match on 17 November 1912 with a 5–0 win over Brescia at Campo via dei Mille. The club's first appearance in top-flight competition was in the 1913–14 Prima Categoria, after the team was invited to join, and remained there until 1922.

In 1927, Como merged with ''Esperia'' and was renamed ''Associazione Calcio Comense'', which won the Coppa Volta in the same year, eliminating Inter 3–0 in the semi-final and beating Genoa 1–0 in the final. In the following year, the club moved their home ground to Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, after stadium was inaugurated on 30 July 1927. Como secured their illustrious history in the 1930–31 season, as Gedeon Lukács led a triumphant promotion to Serie B, where Como finished unbeaten in both regular season and the play-offs of the Prima Divisione, scoring 90 goals in 32 matches and conceded only 24 goals. The following year, in their first experience of Serie B, the Como side comfortably avoided relegation, finishing in ninth place with a young Marco Romano as their top scorer.

World War II dramatically affected the entire Italian football movement, but Como managed to bounce back. In 1945 when there was no national championship, the club won the Torneo Benefico Lombardo (Tournament for Lombard clubs) which included Milan, Ambrosiana-Inter, Novara and other Lombard clubs. After the war, Como competed in Serie B and spent three years battling for the top spot before finally being promoted to Serie A for the first time in 1949 with Mario Varglien as their coach. Como's first experience in the top division lasted four years, where in their first year, they finished in sixth position with the same points as Torino in fifth. In the following seasons, Como aroused sympathy throughout the peninsula for their choice to field only Italian players in their third year in Serie A. The club also became the sole leader of Serie A for the first time in its history when on 23 September 1951 after the third day of the 1951–52 Serie A season, one point ahead of Inter, Juventus, Milan and Napoli.

Mixed times

In the early 1960s, Como's campaign in the second division had to be stopped following the "Bessi case", a case that began at the start of the 1962–63 Serie B season when the club fielded defender Paolo Bessi for five matches, who had just been bought from Tau Altopascio without knowing that the player was not yet finished serving the disqualification sentence imposed on him by the Tuscany Regional Committee of the Lega Nazionale Dilettanti. After saving themselves on the pitch, Como were punished with five default defeats which saw them relegated to Serie C. In their first year of relegation to Serie C, the club finished third in Group A after a squad completely rejuvenated and renewed by coach Vinicio Viani, with Bruno Ballarini and Giovanni Invernizzi remaining the club's mainstays. After four years in Serie C, promotion finally came in the 1967–68 season when the team finished top of Group A under coach Franco Viviani and still led by historic captain Bruno Ballarini, Como's record appearance holder in the competitive matches.

In the 1973–74 season, following the arrival of Giuseppe Marchioro as coach, Como again fought for promotion with a solid defense of Antonio Rigamonti and Vito Callioni, but the team could only finish in a fourth place. The following season, still managed by Marchioro and with the contribution of rising star Marco Tardelli, a second promotion to Serie A arrived, but the team lasted only a season before being relegated back to Serie B. After being relegated to Serie C1 in 1978, Como were once again coached by Marchioro supported by sporting director Lamberti, immediately gaining two consecutive promotions by winning Serie C1 in 1978–79 season season and Serie B in 1979–80 season with Adriano Lombardi as their best player. They then remained in Serie A for two seasons.

Como managed another promotion to the top flight in 1984, with a five-year stint in Serie A proving the club's most successful period. The strikeforce of Dan Corneliusson and Stefano Borgonovo oversaw a 9th-place finish in 1986, which was repeated the following year with far fewer goals scored. The club's defence, led by hard man Pasquale Bruno, proved more than up to the task. Two consecutive relegations to C1 in the 1990s led to a poor decade for Como, who found themselves floating for most of the 1990s in Serie C1. The only exception to those poor years was when they managed to gain promotion to Serie B in the 1994–95 season. Como also won the 1996–97 Coppa Italia Serie C, beating Nocerina in the two-legged final with an aggregate score of 4–2.

Bankruptcy and brief promotion to Serie B

The 21st century saw Como experience a brief revival. Promotion to Serie B in 2001 was marred by an appallingly violent incident in a game against Modena, resulting in captain Massimiliano Ferrigno being handed a three-year ban. They nonetheless managed promotion to Serie A in the 2002–03 season; however, the return to Serie A proved a major disappointment with the side in the bottom two all season, and a ban on games at the Sinigaglia after crowd violence. Consecutive relegations have caused financial difficulties; in December 2004 the club was declared bankrupted. No investor was successful to take over the club as the bid from Enrico Preziosi was denied, and thus the company Calcio Como S.p.A. was liquidated. Due to FIGC regulation, a new entity, which was named Calcio Como S.r.l., was allowed to admit into 2005–06 Serie D. The liquidator also found former chairman Preziosi had transferred some assets such as the contracts of the players to his new club Genoa, causing the financial failure in Como. In the 2007–08 season, Como won the Girone B of Serie D by finishing top of the group, and earned promotion to the fourth-tier, Lega Pro Seconda Divisione the following season. In this season, the club also won the Coppa Italia Serie D after beating Colligiana with an aggregate score of 3–1 in the two-legged final. In 2009, Como finally returned to the third-tier Lega Pro Prima Divisione, by winning the promotion play-off after defeating Rodengo Saiano with 1–1 aggregate and Alessandria with 4–1 aggregate. In 2015, Como finished fourth in the third-tier. They qualified for the promotion play-offs and earned promotion to Serie B after beating Bassano Virtus with an aggregate score of 2–0 in the two-legged final. They were relegated back down to Lega Pro the following season.

New economic problems arose in the 2016–17 season, forcing the club to be declared out of business and put on auction. At the fourth auction, the assets of the club were acquired by Akosua Puni Essien, wife of the Ghanaian footballer Michael Essien and which is alson the first foreign businesswoman in Italian football (through her company F.C. Como S.r.l.). The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) rejected the application of F.C. Como as Como's successor in 2017–18 Serie C, as the club did not fulfill all the criteria in the Article 52 of N.O.I.F. At the start of season, another company, which was named Como 1907 S.r.l., was admitted to 2017–18 Serie D instead, excising another sub-clause of the Article 52.

New ownership and return to Serie A

In 2019, the club was acquired by Indonesian company Djarum Group, led by Robert Budi Hartono and Michael Bambang Hartono, after the club won the Girone B of 2018–19 Serie D. Como returned to professional football that year under the ownership of the brothers, who as of 2022, earns €4 million per hour according to ''Forbes''. From 2021 to 2024, the club is sponsored by Djarum's streaming service subsidiary, Mola. In 2021, former Chelsea player Dennis Wise was appointed CEO of the club after previously playing an advisory role since 2019. In the 2021–22 season, former club player Giacomo Gattuso was appointed as coach and managed to survive the Serie B relegation zone by finishing in thirteenth position, the club's best result in the last twenty years in the second division. That result was repeated in the 2022–23 season, with the club finishing the season in thirteenth place once again under Moreno Longo, who replaced Gattuso who had to leave the club due to personal reasons midway through the season. In August 2022, former Arsenal, Chelsea and Barcelona player, Cesc Fàbregas arrived as a minority stakeholder, while also playing for the club as a player. Another minority stakeholder is a French football legend, Thierry Henry who also joined later in the month.

In the 2023–24 season, the club had a good start in Serie B under Longo and rose to the top of the table, but on 13 November the club decided to sack head coach Moreno Longo and appoint Cesc Fàbregas as caretaker manager, who did not yet have the UEFA Pro License. After the exemption granted to him expired, on 20 December Como appointed Welshman Osian Roberts as head coach, with Fàbregas being demoted as his assistant. They finished the season in second place, earning them a return to Serie A for the following season after a 21-year absence from the top flight of Italian football. Promotion was secured on the final matchday of the season on 10 May 2024, against Cosenza which ended 1–1, making the club finish as runners-up above Venezia with a three-point lead and just below Parma, the Serie B champion. It was originally unclear whether Como, which became the richest club in Serie A, would be able to play their home matches at Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia in the 2024–25 season as the venue did not meet Serie A stadium requirements. However, the stadium is now used.

Colours and badge

Badge

The element that has characterized almost all the badges that Como has used over the decades is the city's coat of arms in red with a silver cross in the center. In some cases, such as in their 1949–50 season, this cross was adopted in every way as a social symbol and was sewn onto the players' shirts. Another element that recurs in the club's badge are the various references to Lake Como.

Among the first known club badges was the one adopted in 1919 which included a brown ball, surrounded by a white band with the name of the city and the coat of arms of the city. In 1927, a change of crest occurred when Como merged with ''Esperia'' and was renamed ''Associazione Calcio Comense.'' The badge took the form of a circle with the name of the club on top in blue, accompanied by a white five-pointed star, and at the bottom appeared a white cross on a red field borrowed from the city's coat arms. Since the early 1950s, a new badge was introduced, a blue modern French shield with the club name – Calcio Como in canary letters, and the city's coat of arms emblazoned in the top left corner. In 1991, a change to the badge occurred when a white ancile was introduced, containing the city's coat of arms in the center flanked by blue waves. Above this design appeared the name of the city, while below it was the year the team was founded in blue letters. The badge has occasionally been modified in subtle ways, by changing the intensity of the colors and using different typographic letters.

In 2019, the change of ownership of Como brought with it a new logo, the choice of which was once again left to a popular vote among fans. The shield bears the club's name and a lake wave design, superimposed on a Greek cross. The design is presented monochromatically in blue or white depending on the surface of the application, while the red component is completely absent.

Logo AC Comense.png, Logo of the ''Associazione Calcio Comense'', used from 1927 to 1936
Calcio Como - logo (Italy, 1950-1970).svg, Como logo used between 1950 and 1970
Logo Como 1992 - 2017.png, Como logo used between 1991 and 2017
Calcio Como - logo (Italy, 2019-).svg, Como logo used since 2019

Colours

Historically, Como's identity colours have been light blue, traditionally used on plain shirts, accompanied by white as the colour reserved for shorts and details. In the first decades of the club, this colour was used more on Como's shirts, with the use of cross, striped or palati patterns. In the third millennium, the club colours tended to decline to royal blue, which also gave rise to the nickname ''Biancoblù''. As for the away kit, it is usually the reverse of the home kit, with occasional exceptions due to the colourful fashion of the time.

In 1926, when the club merged with '' Esperia'' as ''Associazione Calcio Comense'', garnet red was chosen as a sporadic condiment on the shirts. Similarly, green was adopted in 1938 after the club's merger with ''AS Ardita''.

Kit suppliers and shirt sponsors

Stadiums

Como played their first matches at the Campo di via dei Mille, located in the Municipality of Como. The ground was inaugurated on 1 October 1911, with two friendly matches as Internazionale beat Milanese 8–0, and Como managed to beat Bellinzona 3–1. The club then used the stadium to play their home matches in various competition until 1928.

In the 1928–29 season, Como moved to the stadium where they still play nowadays: Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, to play their home matches in the Prima Divisione. The stadium was built on the orders of Benito Mussolini, and was named after the Italian rower and war hero Giuseppe Sinigaglia, who died in the World War I. It was inaugurated on 30 July 1927, in an international match between Austria and Lombardy, which ended with 3–1 for the Austrian side.

The stadium is owned by the Municipality of Como and has a capacity of 13,602 spectators. Its construction, curated by Giovanni Greppi, is one of the first examples of rationalist architecture in Italy. Although the club secured promotion to Serie A in May 2024, it remains unclear whether they will play their home games at Sinigaglia during the 2024–25 season, as the stadium currently does not meet the minimum capacity requirements set by the league. Therefore, urgent work is needed before the start of the season to increase the capacity of the stadium.

Supporters and rivalries

Como ultras movement was born with the ''Fossa Lariana'' group, one of the biggest and most important ultras group of the period, which had various sections spread throughout Italy, especially in Lazio in the mid-1970s. In short, Como ultras rose to prominence, rejecting the classic Italian style that was popular among the Larian ultras, characterized by drums, banners and various colors, in favor of the English style with the ''Blue Fans Como'' (BfC) group. After their disbandment in 2002, in town were born many groups that led the ''Curva Como'' such as ''Lariani, Estrema Fazione, WBH (White & Blue Hooligans)'' and ''Blacklist Como'' all united by a far-right ideological matrix.

After the supporters suffered from the relegation and failure of the club, they rose again after the new ownership by the Indonesian company Djarum Group in 2019. Como ultras were then reorganized under the banner of ''Como 1907'', which brought together the collectives of ''Maledetta Gioventù'' (the leading group) and ''Solo Cylom 1995.'' Other groups in the ''Curva Como'' are: ''Panthers 1975'' (one of the oldest group still existing in Como), ''Distinzione Lariana, Brusà, Madness - Tugurio, Away 1907, Quelli del Lago, Old Fans'' and ''Veterani'' .

One of the main motto's of the Como's supporters is "Non ci sono amici di Como", "There aren't friends of Como", which briefly summarizes the reason for many rivalries. Como's main rivalries are with its neighbouring clubs, such as the Derby del Lario against Lecco, the Derby Insubria against Varese, and the Derby between Como and Monza which is defined as "the hottest derby in Serie B". The two clubs first played each other in Como on 19 November 1922, with the match ending in a goalless draw. The rivalry began on 4 June 1967, when Monza beat Como 1–0 in the decisive promotion play-off match of the Serie B. It became more intense on 13 April 1980; with Monza leading 3–1, Como equalised in the last minute with a penalty. The 3–3 draw ended Monza's chances of promotion to the Serie A. Another famous rivalry is between Como and Inter ultras, twinned with Varese, which led to very violent clashes especially in the 80s. Other rivalries are with the supporters of Modena, Livorno, Atalanta, Venezia, Palermo, Cremonese, Brescia, Verona, Sampdoria, Ternana, Piacenza and others.

Popular culture

In April 2021, a documentary series ''Como 1907: The True Story'' was released. The series not only features club matches, but also explores the dynamics of the club behind the scenes in an effort to lift the Italian third-tier club from its slump, since its ownership was taken over by the Djarum Group. The documentary series was released worldwide through the Indonesian streaming service, Mola, which is also a subsidiary of the Djarum Group.

The production process from the beginning of filming to post-production took one and a half years and cost around IDR3 billion. The making of this series was quite long since the filming process took a full club's season.

In 2025, Como 1907 unveiled a fourth kit in collaboration with Rhude and Adidas, blending football heritage with contemporary fashion design.

Players

First-team squad

Primavera

Out on loan

Notable players

Club captains

Player of the Year

Since 2013, a yearly award is given at the end of the season in order to recognize the team's best player or staff member. The award is called ''Trofeo Brogonovo'' (Borgonovo Trophy), named after club legend Stefano Borgonovo and is organized by the club's supporters.

Club officials

Executive

Coaching staff

Managers

Managerial history

Below is a list of Como managers from 1913 until the present day.

Honours

League

* Serie B
** Winners: 1948–49, 1979–80, 2001–02
** ''Runners-up:'' 1974–75, 1983–84, 2023–24
* Serie C groups
** Winners: 1930–31, 1967–68, 1978–79, 2020–21
** ''Runners-up:'' 1993–94, 2000–2001
** ''Play-off winners:'' 2014–15
* Serie D groups
** Winners: 2007–08, 2018–19
** ''Play-off winners:'' 2008–09

Cups

* Coppa Italia Serie C
** Winners: 1996–97
** ''Runners-up:'' 1992–93, 2014–15
* Coppa Italia Serie D
** Winners: 2007–08

Other titles

* Coppa Volta
** Winners: 1926–27
* Torneo Benefico Lombardo
** Winners: 1944–45

Divisional movements

Notes

References

Bibliography

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External links

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Como
at Serie A

1907 establishments in Italy
Association football clubs established in 1907
Coppa Italia Serie C winning clubs
Football clubs in Lombardy
Serie A clubs
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