Early years

The team was founded in 1929 by a small number of football fans from the small borough of Chievo, a Verona neighbourhood. Initially the club was not officially affiliated to the Italian Football Federation, but played under the denomination “Ond Chievo” imposed by the fascist regime several amateur tournament and friendly matches. The formal debut in an official league is dated November 8, 1931. The team colours at the time were blue and white. However, Chievo disbanded in 1936 because of economic woes, and the team returned to play in 1948 after World War II, being registered in the regional league of “Seconda Divisione” (Second Division). In 1957 the team moved to the “Carlantonio Bottagisio” parish field, where Chievo played until 1986. In 1959, after the restructuring of the football leagues, Chievo was admitted to play the “Seconda Categoria” (Second Category), a regional league placed next-to-last in the Italian football pyramid. That year, Chievo changed its denomination to “Cardi Chievo”, after the new sponsor, and was quickly promoted to the “Prima Categoria”, which it left in 1962 after having experienced its first relegation ever.

Series of promotions

In 1964, Luigi Campedelli, a businessman and owner of the Paluani company, is named new Chievo chairman. Under Campedelli’s presidency, Chievo climbed the entire Italian pyramid, reaching the Serie D after the 1974/1975 season. Under the name “Paluani Chievo”, the team is promoted to Serie C2 in 1986. After this promotion, Chievo was forced to move to the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi, the main venue in Verona; another promotion, to Serie C1, then arrived in 1989. In 1990, the team finally changed its name to the current one, “A.C. ChievoVerona”.

In 1992, President Luigi Campedelli, who returned at the helm of the club two years before, died of a heart attack, and his son Luca Campedelli, aged just 23, became the new chairman. Luca Campedelli, the youngest chairman of all Italian professional football clubs, promoted Giovanni Sartori as Director of Football and named Alberto Malesani the new head coach. Under Malesani, the team astonishingly won the Serie C1 and was promoted to Serie B, where city rival Hellas Verona was playing at the time. In 1997, after Malesani signed for Fiorentina, Silvio Baldini was appointed new head coach. The following season, with Domenico Caso as new coach, saw the first dismissal ever in the presidency of Luca Campedelli, with Caso fired and replaced with Lorenzo Balestro.

In 2000/2001, Luigi Del Neri was signed as new coach, and led Chievo to a historic promotion to Serie A, the first-ever in the team’s history, ending its Serie B run in third-place.

Serie A times

In its 2001/2002 Serie A debut, to everyone’s great surprise the small and unconsidered Chievo, most critics’ choice for an instant return to Serie B, quickly became the most astonishing team in the league, playing spectacular and entertaining football and even leading the top division for six consecutive weeks, finally ending the season with a highly respectable fifth place, qualifying the team to play in the UEFA Cup.

In 2002/2003, Chievo debuted at the European level but were eliminated in the first round against Red Star Belgrade. The team finished the Serie A season in seventh place, again proving itself one of the most valued Serie A teams. The 2003/2004 season, the last with Del Neri at the helm, saw Chievo ending in ninth place.

The 2004/2005 season is remembered as one of the toughest ever in Chievo’s history. Mario Beretta, a Serie A novice from Ternana, was named new coach: after a good start which brought Chievo to a third place behind Juventus and AC Milan, the team slowly lost positions in the Serie A table. Three matches before the end of the league, Chievo was third from last, a position which would relegate it to Serie B. As a last resort Beretta was fired and Maurizio D’Angelo, a highly respected former Chievo player, was appointed temporarily to replace him as coach. Morale improved, and two wins and a tie from the final three matches proved just enough to keep Chievo in Serie A.

In 2005/2006, Giuseppe Pillon of Treviso FBC was appointed as new coach. The team experienced a throwback to the successful Del Neri era, both in style of play and results, and Chievo consequently gained a place in the next UEFA Cup, ending the season in a solid seventh place. However, because of the football scandal involving several top-class teams, all placed before Chievo in the 2005/2006 season, the Flying Donkeys had a chance of playing the next Champions League preliminary phase.

On July 14, 2006, the verdict in the scandal was made public. Juventus, AC Milan and Fiorentina, all qualified for the 2006-07 Champions League, and Lazio, originally inscribed for the 2006-07 UEFA Cup, were all banned from UEFA competition for the 2006/07 season, although AC Milan were allowed to enter the Champions League after their appeal to FIGC. Chievo took up a place in the third qualifying stage of the competition along with AC Milan and faced Bulgarian Levski Sofia. Chievo lost the first leg 2-0 in Sofia and managed a 2-2 home draw on the second leg. Levski advanced to the Champions League group stage on a 4-2 aggregate score, and Chievo was knocked out. As a Champions League third round qualifying loser, Chievo was placed in the UEFA Cup final qualifying round. On August 25, 2006 Chievo was drawn to face Portuguese Braga. The first leg, played on September 14 in Braga, ended in a shock 2-0 win for the Portuguese side. The return match, played on September 28 in Verona, was won by Chievo 2-1. However, the Italian side lost 3-2 on aggregate and was knocked out of any further European competitions.

On October 16, 2006, following a 1-0 defeat against Torino F.C., head coach Giuseppe Pillon was fired, and replaced by Luigi Del Neri, one of the original symbols of the miracle Chievo, who had led the club to Serie A in 2002.

On May 27, 2007, the last match day of the 2006-07 Serie A season, Chievo was one of five teams in danger of falling into the last undecided relegation spot. Needing only a tie against Catania, a direct competitor in the relegation battle, Chievo lost 2-0 playing in the neutral field of Bologna. Simultaneous wins by Parma, Siena and Reggina condemed Chievo to Serie B for the 2007-08 season after six seasons in the senior league.

A Year with the Cadetti

Chievo bounced back quickly from the disappointment of their last matchday relegation in 2006/07, going in search of an immediate promotion back to the top flight. After the expected departure of several top-quality players (i.e., Semioli, Lanna, Brighi, Sammarco, Bogdani among them), as well as the manager (Luigi Del Neri parted ways with the club, and Giuseppe Iachini replacing Del Neri) and captain (Lorenzo D’Anna giving way to Sergio Pellissier at the end of the transfer window), a new squad was constructed, most notably including the arrivals of midfielders Maurizio Ciaramitaro and Simone Bentivoglio, defender Cesar, and forward Antimo Iunco. This new incarnation of the ‘gialloblu’ were crowned Winter Champions (along with Bologna), en route to a 41st matchday promotion after a 1-1 draw at Grosseto left them 4 points clear of third-place Lecce with one match remaining. Furthermore, they were conferred the “Ali della Vittoria” trophy on the final matchday of the season, their first league title of any kind in 14 years.

Associazione Calcio ChievoVerona[2] (more commonly called Chievo Verona or simply Chievo) is an Italian professional football club named after and based in a suburb of Verona, Veneto, and owned by Paluani, a cake company and the inspiration for their original name, Paluani Chievo. The club is nicknamed alternatively gialloblu, mussi volanti or Ceo, and shares its stadium with Hellas Verona which is the 42,160 seater Marcantonio Bentegodi stadium. Chievo slipped into the relegation zone on the final match day of 2006-2007 and was demoted to Serie B, but subsequently rebounded to clinch promotion back to the top-flight in their first year in the cadetteria.

Catania have had several presidents over the course of their history, some of which have been the owners of the club, others have been honorary presidents, here is a list of them from 1946 onwards.

As of 2008-02-01^[9]

No. Position Player 1 GK Albano Bizzarri 2 DF Gennaro Sardo 3 DF Rocco Sabato 4 DF Andrea Sottil 5 DF Matías Silvestre 6 DF Lorenzo Stovini 7 MF Juan Manuel Vargas 8 MF Mark Edusei 9 MF Giuseppe Colucci 10 FW Giuseppe Mascara 11 FW Inácio Piá 13 MF Mariano Julio Izco 15 FW Takayuki Morimoto 16 GK Ciro Polito 17 MF Davide Baiocco (captain) 18 GK Generoso Rossi (on loan from Triestina)

No. Position Player 19 MF Giacomo Tedesco 20 DF Marcello Gazzola 21 DF Cristian Silvestri 22 DF Pablo Álvarez 23 DF Christian Terlizzi 24 FW Gionatha Spinesi 25 FW Jorge Andrés Martínez 27 MF Marco Biagianti 28 GK Raffaele Ioime TBA GK Tomáš Košický TBA FW Julián Di Cosmo TBA DF Ezequiel Carboni TBA FW Nicolae Dică TBA FW Andrea Catellani TBA FW Michele Paolucci

Out on loan

No. Position Player 5 DF Mauro Minelli (at Triestina, co-ownership with Atalanta) 14 FW Babù (at Triestina) 22 MF Cristian Ezequiel Llama (at Newell’s Old Boys) 30 MF Francesco Millesi (at Spezia)[10]Gianvito Plasmati (Loan to Taranto)

Notable former players

The origins of football being played by representatives of the Province of Catania can be traced back to English cargo ships, thanks to the workers who brought the game to Sicily. Specifically the earliest Catania team can be traced to match which took place on 2 May 1901 at San Raineri di Messina against Messina, the team was named Royal Yacht Catania; an English ship with a local Catanian crew.

Earliest club photograph; as Pro Patria in 1908.

The ship workers team was just a pastime however, Catania’s first professional and most stable football club was founded on 19 June 1908, by Italian film director Gaetano Ventimiglia and Francesco Sturzo d’Aldobrando, who founded the club under the name A.S. Educazione Fisica Pro Patria. Early on they would always play against sailors visiting the port of Catania, particularly foreign ships. Though their first ever match was against Regina Margherita an Italian battleship, the game ended in a 1-1 draw and the Catania line-up that day consisted of; Vassallo, Gismondo, Bianchi, Messina, Slaiter, Caccamo, Stellario, Binning, Cocuzza, Ventimiglia and Pappalardo. Just two years later they changed the name to Unione Sportiva Catanese.

In the North of Italy, football was more organised and those clubs competed in the early Italian Football Championships, while Catania and other Southern clubs competed in competitions such as the Lipton, Sant’ Agata and Agordad cups. U.S. Catanese survived the First World War and just after it played in the local Coppa Federale Siciliana. Seven seasons later in 1927 they were entered into the Campionato Catanese, which was won in the 1928-29 season. As they gained promotion the club were entered into the Second Division, and changed their name first to Società Sportiva Catania. They first competed in Serie B in the 1934-35 season^[4] where they finished 4th; that season Genoa won the Serie B title.

Catania played in the league for three seasons during this period, before being relegated. Down in Serie C, Catania were crowned champions in the 1938-39 season, finishing above Sicilian rivals Siracusa and Messina (who came in 2nd and 3rd respectively). Their return to Serie B was not a pleasant one, the club finished bottom of the league and won only three games that season. The club’s name was briefly changed to Associazione Calcio Fascista Catania during the 1942-43 season in Serie C, which ended prematurely because of the 2nd World War.

[edit] Rebirth

Calcio Catania during 1946.

After World War II ended, a local competition was organised, the Campionato Siciliano. US Catanese were back; at the end of that season a local team named Elefante Catania^[5] were merged into the club. The merged club kept the Catanese name and competed in Serie C during the 1945-46 season, but finished last. In the same league that season a team called Virtus Catania were also present and finished 8th.^[6]

At the end of the season, Catanese and Virtus merged together to form Club Calcio Catania, with the first president as Santi Manganaro-Passanisi (who had been president of Catanese). They were entered into Serie C where they spent three seasons, after an epic duel with Reggina for first place Catania prevailed with stars such as Goffi, Messora, Ardesi and Prevosti, gaining promotion to Serie B during 1948-49.

Calcio Catania’s Golden years

The late 1950s through 1960s are considered the golden years for the Catanian club, as they managed to achieve promotion to Serie A on two separate occasions during this time. Their first promotion from Serie B came, when in the 1953-54 season Catania beat out Cagliari and Lombardy side Pro Patria to be crowned champions of the division. Their first season in Serie A, saw Catania achieve a respectable 12th place finish, but the club were forcibly relegated due to financial scandal (as were Udinese).

Calcio Catania during their second spell in Serie A, in the 1960s.

Under the management of Carmelo Di Bella (who had played for the club in the late ’30s) Catania gained promotion from Serie B in the 1959-60 season. The race for promotion in third spot went down to the last day of the season and was very tense. Catania had lost their final game 4-2 to Brescia and needed Parma to get a good result against Triestina for the Sicilian club to secure promotion. That is exactly what happened and Catania had thus gained promotion once more. .

Catania returned into Serie A for the 1960-61 season, to begin what would be a six-year stay in the league. Their return season was emphatic as the newly promoted club finished in 8th above top Italian clubs such as Lazio and Napoli. This season produced several notable wins; they beat Napoli and Bologna twice, Sampdoria 3-0 at home and most notably they beat AC Milan 4-3 in Sicily and then on the final day of the season they beat Internazionale 2-0, with goals from Castellazzi and Calvanese. This rubbed the salt into the wounds of Inter who lost the closely contested title that year to Juventus.

Four years later in 1965 they would also finish 8th in the league, this time above Roma and Sicilian rivals Messina. Many of the club’s most notable stars played around this time, such as; midfielders Alvaro Biagini and the Brazilian Cinesinho, along with wingers Carlo Facchin and Giancarlo Danova in the side. Catania more than held their own amongst the giants of Italian football, with wins against Juventus (2-0), Fiorentina (2-0) and Lazio (1-0).

Mixed fortunes in the 70s and 80s

After their relegation in 1966 Carmelo Di Bella left and Catania stayed in Serie B; clashing with Palermo in the Sicilian derby before the Palermitan club were promoted. Catania followed in 1970-71 with a third place finish; though their stay in Serie A this time was very brief and they were relegated back down after one season. Their most impressive results that season was 3-1 win against Lazio and a draw at home against AC Milan, Catania lacked goalscorers at the time as they only scored 18 goals all-together in 30 games. Worse was to come for the club, who in 1973-74 were relegated down to Serie C, but fortunately for the club they were able to bounce straight back with a promotion into Serie B as champions. A similar situation happened in 1976-77, where they were relegated down to Serie C. This time however, they were not able to bounce right back; they finished 2nd and then 3rd before finally being crowned champions of what was now known as Serie C1 in 1979-80.

After three short seasons, Catania were promoted in 3rd place behind AC Milan and Lazio, into Serie A. They played the 1983-84 season in Italy’s top league, but it proved to be an especially dismal season, with only one win (which came against Pisa) and 12 points despite the presence of Claudio Ranieri and Brazilian imports Luvanor and Pedrinho.

Decline and revival

The decline of Catania started most evidently after its last relegation to Serie B. The team was no longer able to reach the top division of Italian football, and instead continued to decline, being relegated for a while into Serie C1 for the latter part of the 1980s. The lowest point of the club’s history, however, was reached in 1993, when the team was cancelled by the FIGC because of financial irregularities.

However, after a long judicial battle, the magistrature declared the Italian Federation decision as invalid, and forced it to include the team back into the footballing fold. Catania was thus included in the Sicilian Eccellenza (the sixth level of Italian football), but in the meantime another Sicilian football team, Atletico Leonzio from Lentini (in the Province of Syracuse), had been relocated in the city and renamed Atletico Catania. Despite all of this, the “real” Catania was able to rise back to Serie C in a relatively small number of years, and even back to Serie B in 2002.

During 2003, Catania was at the centre of a controversy that led to the enlargement of Serie B from 20 to 24 teams, known as Caso Catania. The club claimed that Siena fielded an ineligible player in a 1-1 tie, a result which saw Catania relegated, whereas the two extra points from a victory would have kept them safe. They were awarded a 2-0 victory, before the result being reverted, and then re-awarded again. In August, the FIGC decided to let Catania, along with Genoa and Salernitana stay in Serie B, the newly-reborn Fiorentina were also added for the 2003-04 season. The ruling led to protests and boycotts by the other Serie B clubs that delayed the start of the season.

The league went down to 22 teams for 2004-05, while at the same time Serie A expanded from 18 to 20 teams. During the start of that season, Antonino Pulvirenti, chairman of the flight company Windjet and owner of Acireale, a Sicilian Serie C1 team, bought the club. Catania’s new ownership let the team enjoy a revival, and in 2005-06 Catania ended in second position, earning promotion to Serie A.

Against Atalanta in Serie A during 2006.

Return to Serie A

The 2006-07 season saw Catania in Serie A for its first appearance in 22 years. In their first season back Catania began well, though they recorded a couple of heavy defeats, their home form saw them peak as high as 4th after 20 games.

Their return season changed drastically on 2 February 2007, due to the 2007 Catania football violence incident. It happened during the Sicilian derby with Palermo, policeman Filippo Raciti was killed during football-related violence caused by Catania ultras outside the Massimino stadium.^[7] The event led FIGC commissioner Luca Pancalli to cancel all football-related events in the country for a period of time; including league and national team matches. Catania chairman and owner Antonino Pulvirenti announced his willingness to leave the football world, stating it was not possible to go on producing football in Catania.

After the Italian football league restarted, Catania continued on but dropped in form largely. In truth their slump in form had started just before the derby incident and all together they failed to win for twelve games in a row, before beating Udinese 1-0 in late April 2007,^[8] they eventually finished 13th.

Calcio Catania is an Italian football club founded in 1908 and are based in Catania, Sicily. The club has spent much of its history in Serie B, gaining promotion to Italy’s top league Serie A five times. They currently compete in Serie A after climbing back up the football pyramid.

The club has achieved moderate success in the top league, the highest position ever reached by the club is 8th in Serie A twice, both during the early 1960s. The furthest Catania have progressed in cup competitions is the final of the Coppa delle Alpi.

Cagliari have had many managers and trainers, some seasons they have had co-managers running the team, here is a chronological list of them from when they founded in 1920 onwards.

Name Nationality Years Gaetano Fichera 1920–1921 Giorgio Mereu 1921–1923 Angelo Colombo 1923–1926 Natale Archibusacci 1926–1927 Roberto Winkler 1927–1930 Egri Erbstein 1930–1932 András Kuttik 1932–1934 Enrico Crotti 1934–1935 Ferenc Molnár 1935 Roberto Orani 1935–1936 Renato Bonello 1936–1938 Roberto Winkler 1938–1939 Mariolino Congiu 1939–1941 Mariolino Congiu Enrico Corrias 1941–1942 Mariolino Congiu 1942–1946 Raffaele D’Aquino 1946–1948 Roberto Winkler 1948–1949 Armando Latella 1949–1950 Mariolino Congiu 1950 Enrico Carpitelli 1950–1951 Mariolino Congiu 1951 Federico Allasio 1951–1954 Vincenzo Soro 1954 Carlo Alberto Quario 1954–1955 Silvio Piola 1955–1956 Carlo Rigotti 1956–1957 Silvio Piola 1957 Mariolino Congiu 1957–1958 Piero Andreoli 1958 Stefano Perati 1958–1960 Carlo Rigotti 1960–1961 Arturo Silvestri 1961–1966 Ettore Puricelli 1967–1968 Manlio Scopigno 1968–1972 Edmondo Fabbri 1972–1973 Giuseppe Chiappella 1973–1975 Luigi Radice 1975 Luis Suárez 1975–1976

Name Nationality Years Mario Tiddia 1976 Lauro Toneatto 1976–1978 Mario Tiddia 1978–1981 Paolo Carosi 1981–1982 Gustavo Giagnoni 1982–1983 Mario Tiddia 1983–1984 Fernando Veneranda 1984–1985 Renzo Ulivieri 1985–1986 Gustavo Giagnoni 1986–1987 Enzo Robotti 1987–1988 Mario Tiddia 1988 Claudio Ranieri 1988–1991 Massimo Giacomini 1991 Carlo Mazzone 1991–1993 Luigi Radice 1993–1994 Bruno Giorgi 1994 Oscar Washington Tabarez 1994–1995 Giovanni Trapattoni 1995–1996 Bruno Giorgi 1996 Gregorio Pérez 1996 Carlo Mazzone 1996–1997 Giampiero Ventura 1997–1999 Oscar Washington Tabarez 1999 Renzo Ulivieri 1999–2000 Gianfranco Bellotto 2000–2001 Giuseppe Materazzi 2001 Antonio Sala 2001–2002 Giulio Nuciari 2002 Nedo Sonetti 2002 Giampiero Ventura 2002–2004 Edoardo Reja 2004 Daniele Arrigoni 2004–2005 Attilio Tesser 2005 Daniele Arrigoni 2005 Davide Ballardini 2005–2006 Nedo Sonetti 2006 Marco Giampaolo 2006-2007 Nedo Sonetti 2007 Davide Ballardini 2007-

Cagliari have had numerous presidents over the course of their history, some of which have been the owners of the club, others have been honorary presidents, here is a complete list of them:

As of 2008-02-01

No. Position Player 2 MF Davide Marchini 3 DF Cristiano Del Grosso 4 GK Luca Capecchi (on loan from Ravenna) 5 MF Daniele Conti (captain) 6 DF Diego López 7 MF Andrea Cossu 8 MF Davide Biondini 9 FW Robert Acquafresca 10 MF Pasquale Foggia (on loan from Lazio) 12 GK Jan Koprivec 13 GK Marco Storari (on loan from A.C. Milan) 14 DF Francesco Pisano 15 MF Sebastián Rosano (on loan from Montevideo Wanderers) 18 MF Andrea Parola 19 FW Joaquín Larrivey 20 DF Paolo Bianco 21 DF Michele Canini 22 MF Vítor Gomes (on loan from Rio Ave)

No. Position Player 23 MF Michele Fini 24 MF Rijat Shala 25 MF Rafael Acosta 26 MF Marco Mancosu 27 FW Jeda Neves (on loan from Rimini) 28 DF Daniele Magliocchetti (on loan from AS Roma) 29 DF Michele Ferri 30 FW Daniele Ragatzu (from youth team) 31 DF Alessandro Agostini 32 FW Alessandro Matri 33 MF Enrico Cotza (from youth team) 34 MF Davide Meloni (from youth team) 35 DF Davide Puddu (from youth team) 36 MF Alessandro Dettori (from youth team) 37 DF Claudio Herrera (from youth team) 38 DF Giacomo Garau (from youth team) 39 GK Mauro Vigorito (from youth team)

For all transfers and loans pertaining to Cagliari for the current season, please see; 2007–08 transfers.

Retired numbers

Main article: Retired numbers in football

11 – Gigi Riva, striker, 1963–1978

Notable former players

Including only players with at least 100 appearances in the club, or an appearance in a FIFA World Cup edition

• Nelson Abeijón
• Enrico Albertosi
• Roberto Boninsegna
• Massimiliano Cappioli
• Pier Luigi Cera
• Julio Cesar Dely Valdes
• Angelo Domenghini
• Mauro Esposito
• Daniel Fonseca
• Enzo Francescoli
• José Oscar Herrera
• Gerry Hitchens
• Antonio Langella
• Alberto Marchetti
• Gianfranco Matteoli
• Patrick Mboma
• François Modesto
• Francesco Moriero
• Roberto Muzzi
• Comunardo Niccolai
• Luis Oliveira
• Fabian O’Neill
• Giuseppe Pancaro
• Gigi Riva
• Franco Selvaggi
• Darío Silva
• David Suazo
• Julio César Uribe
• Waldemar Victorino
• Pietro Paolo Virdis
• Cristiano Zanetti
• Gianfranco Zola

Before Serie A

Cagliari became the first ever out-right champions of Serie C during the 1951-52 season, prior to that in the league the championship was shared amongst more than one team. They spent the 1950s from then on in Serie B, losing a promotion play-off in 1954. After descending to Serie C in the early 1960s, Cagliari’s rise would be meteoric- eventually achieving promotion to Serie A in 1964.

First Serie A adventure: 1964-1976

The squad for the Rossoblu’s debut season in Serie A featured players like defender Mario Martiradonna, midfielders Pierluigi Cera and Ricciotti Greatti, and forward Luigi Riva. A poor first half of the season saw Cagliari in last place with 9 points at the halfway mark. An astonishing second half of the season saw Cagliari defeat the likes of Juventus and Milan and finish in 7th place with 34 points. Two seasons later Riva finished Serie A top scorer for the first time while Cagliari finished with the league’s best defensive record.

During the summer of 1967, Cagliari played a season in North America as part of a fledgling league called the United Soccer Association. This league from Europe and South America to play in American and Canadian cities, with each club bearing a local name. Cagliari played as the Chicago Mustangs, and finished joint second in the league’s Western Division with 13 points, two behind the division champion and eventual league champion Los Angeles Wolves. The league’s leading scorer was Chicago/Cagliari’s Roberto Boninsegna, who scored 10 goals while playing in 9 of the team’s 12 games.

Cagliari first emerged as serious Serie A title contenders in 1968-69 with a three-horse race involving them, Fiorentina and Milan. Fiorentina would win the league, but the following season would bring ultimate glory. With Angelo Domenghini joining the side, Cagliari would win the title in 1970 with only two games lost, 11 goals conceded (the fewest in any major European league to date) and Riva as league top scorer once more. Players like Cera, Domenghini and Riva played in Italy’s 1970 World Cup Final team.

The 1970s would see a gradual decline (though were title contenders two years after their one and only scudetto win) Cagliari were finally relegated in 1976 with Riva’s career having effectively ended during that season.

Up and down again: 1976-87

After relegation, Cagliari lost a play-off for promotion the following season and would return to Serie A in 1979. Players like Franco Selvaggi, Mario Brugnera (a survivor of the 1970 team) and Alberto Marchetti ensured a respectable four-year stay in the top flight before a second relegation in 1983. The 80s would then prove to be a darker time compared to the previous two decades with relegation to Serie C1 in 1987.

There and back: 1987-2000

Cagliari spent two seasons in Serie C1. In the first one it barely avoided relegation in Serie C2. In 1988, Claudio Ranieri was appointed coach, and led the team to two successive promotions, to Serie B in 1989 and to Serie A in 1990. The first two seasons back in Serie A saw Cagliari fight relegation, with safety being achieved by excellent second half runs. But season 1992-93 would see Cagliari fight for a European place and succeed under the management of Carlo Mazzone. The following season saw a run to the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup, unprecedented for the Sardinian club.

The next few years would see Cagliari return to mid-table anonymity, before a struggle in 1996-97 saw Cagliari relegated after losing a play-off to Piacenza. Once more they bounced back after just one year, but their next stay in Serie A lasted just two seasons.

Once and again: 2000 onwards

Cagliari spent the next four seasons in Serie B, for most part in mid-table mediocrity. But 2003-04 would see the Rossoblu, led by Sardinian-born Gianfranco Zola, mount a successful promotion challenge and the following season saw Cagliari hold their own in Serie A with a respectable mid-table finish. The following season was a quiet one for the Sardinians, that obtained a good mid-table position (12th place).

The 2005-06 season, the first without Zola, started in the worst way possible for Cagliari, which changed its manager for three times, with Attilio Tesser, Daniele Arrigoni and Davide Ballardini alternating to the position of coach, before Nedo Sonetti, appointed in November, who was able to save the team from a relegation also thanks to goals of Honduran striker David Suazo. For the 2006-2007 season, Marco Giampaolo was signed as head coach, however he was fired after the 17th matchday and replaced by Franco Colomba. However, after a number of poor performances ending in a 2-0 home defeat to Lazio, Colomba was sacked, and chairman Cellino chose to reinstate Giampaolo as head coach. Giampaolo was confirmed for the 2007-08 season, and his contract was extended for two more years.

The 2007-08 season saw the flagship striker David Suazo, Esposito and Langella left for Internazionale, Roma and Atalanta respectively, the experienced goalkeeper Chimenti left for Udinese, and the club reinforced with youngster likes Acquafresca, Matri, Foggia, Magliocchetti, Argentine Larrivey and Slovenian Koprivec . Nedo Sonetti returned to coach the Rossoblu in November 2007 after Giampaolo was relieved of his duties as a result of poor results in the first part of the 2007-08 Serie A season that saw them sink to the bottom of the Serie A standings. In January transfer windows, Cagliari made a great change with squad which goalkeeper Vincenzo Marruocco and Marco Fortin were replaced by Marco Storari and Luca Capecchi, along with experienced striker Jeda.