AC ChievoVerona

ChievoVerona

File:Chievo-verona-logo.png
Full name	Associazione Calcio Chievo Verona S.r.l.
Nickname(s)	Gialloblu (Yellow-Blues), Mussi Volanti ("Flying Donkeys" in Venetian language), Ceo ("Chievo" in Venetian)
Founded	1929 (1929)
Ground	Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi, Verona, Italy
Capacity	38,402
President	Luca Campedelli
Head coach	Rolando Maran
League	Serie A
2014–15	Serie A, 14th
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Associazione Calcio Chievo Verona (more commonly called ChievoVerona or simply Chievo [ˈkjɛvo]) is a professional Italian football club named after and based in Chievo, a suburb of 4,500 inhabitants in Verona, Veneto, and owned by Paluani, a bakery product company and the inspiration for their original name, Paluani Chievo. The club is nicknamed alternatively Gialloblu ("Yellow-Blues"), Mussi volanti ("Flying donkeys") or Ceo ("Little boy"), and shares the 38,402 seater Marcantonio Bentegodi stadium with its cross-town rivals Hellas Verona.

History

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 several amateur tournament and friendly matches under the denomination "O.N.D. Chievo", a title imposed by the fascist regime. The club's formal debut in an official league was on 8 November 1931. The team colours at the time were blue and white. Chievo disbanded in 1936 because of economic woes but 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 they 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 name to "Cardi Chievo", after a new sponsor, and was quickly promoted to the "Prima Categoria", from which it experienced its first-ever relegation in 1962.

Series of promotions

In 1964, Luigi Campedelli, a businessman and owner of the Paluani company, was named new Chievo chairman. Under Campedelli's presidency, Chievo climbed through the entire Italian football pyramid, reaching the Serie D after the 1974/1975 season. Under the name "Paluani Chievo", the team was promoted to Serie C2 in 1986. As a consequence of promotion, Chievo was forced to move to the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi, the main venue in Verona; another promotion, to Serie C1, followed in 1989. In 1990, the team changed its name to its current one, "A.C. Chievo Verona".

In 1992, President Luigi Campedelli, who had 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 and youngest chairman of an Italian professional football club. Campedelli promoted Giovanni Sartori to Director of Football and named Alberto Malesani as 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 the new head coach. The following season, with Domenico Caso as the coach, saw the first dismissal of a coach during the presidency of Luca Campedelli, with Caso being fired and replaced with Lorenzo Balestro. During these years was born the nickname "mussi volanti", coming from a teasing of Hellas Verona supporters, it stated that Chievo would be promoted in Serie A when a donkey would have flown.

In 2000–01 Luigi Delneri was signed as coach and led Chievo, by virtue of its third-place finish in Serie B, to promotion to Serie A, the first time in the team's history that it had reached the top tier of Italian football.

Mussi Volanti (2001–2007)

In its 2001/2002 Serie A debut season Chievo, who were most critics' choice for an instant return to Serie B, became the surprise team in the league, playing often spectacular and entertaining football and even leading the league for six consecutive weeks. The club finally ended the season with a highly respectable fifth place finish, 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 by Red Star Belgrade. The team finished the Serie A season in seventh place, again proving itself one of the better Serie A teams. The 2003/2004 season, the last with Delneri at the helm, saw Chievo finish 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 the coach but, after a good start which brought Chievo to a third place behind Juventus and AC Milan, the team slowly lost position in the Serie A table. Three matches before the end of the season Chievo was third from last, a position which would see it relegated to Serie B. As a last resort Beretta was fired and Maurizio D'Angelo, a 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 return to the successful Delneri era, both in style of play and results, which resulted in Chievo ending the season in a seventh place and gaining a place in the next UEFA Cup. However, because of the football scandal involving several top-class teams, all of which finished higher than Chievo in the 2005/2006 season, the Flying Donkeys were awarded a place in the next Champions League preliminary phase.

On 14 July 2006, the verdict in the scandal was made public. Juventus, AC Milan and Fiorentina, who had all originally qualified for the 2006–07 Champions League, and Lazio, who had originally qualified 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 side Levski Sofia. Chievo lost the first leg 2–0 in Sofia and managed a 2–2 home draw on the second leg and were eliminated by a 4–2 aggregate score with Levski advancing to the Champions League group stage. As a Champions League third round qualifying loser, Chievo was given a place in the UEFA Cup final qualifying round. On 25 August 2006 Chievo was drawn to face Portuguese Braga. The first leg, played on 14 September in Braga, ended in a shock 2–0 win for the Portuguese side. The return match, played on 28 September in Verona, although won by Chievo 2–1 resulted in a 3–2 aggregate loss and the club's elimination from the competition.

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

On 27 May 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 on a neutral field in Bologna. Wins by Parma, Siena and Reggina condemned Chievo to Serie B for the 2007–08 season after six seasons in the senior league.

Even as a relatively successful Serie A team the club, which averages only 9-10000 fans and is kept afloat mainly by money from television rights, does not have the same number of fan supporters as Hellas – the oldest team of Verona, actually (season 2012–13) playing in the "Serie B" (Italian's 2nd division). The difference between the clubs supporters' number is highlighted during local derby games played in season 2001–02 at the clubs' shared stadium when, for Chievo's "home" fixtures, the Chievo fans were located in "away" end of the stadium (the area of the stadium Chievo's supporters by years claim as "their", in fact the main supporters faction's name is "North Side", the side of the stadium usually assigned to away teams' supporters), while the most of the rest of the stadium seats was assigned to Hellas supporters.

A year with the Cadetti (2007–08)

Chievo bounced back quickly from the disappointment of their relegation on the last matchday of 2006/07, going in search of an immediate promotion back to the top flight. After the expected departure of several top-quality players including Semioli, Lanna, Brighi, Sammarco, Bogdani the manager Delneri also parted ways with the club. Giuseppe Iachini replaced him and the captain, Lorenzo D'Anna, gave way to Sergio Pellissier at the end of the transfer window. A new squad was constructed, most notably including the arrivals of mid-fielders Maurizio Ciaramitaro and Simone Bentivoglio, defender César (César Cervo de Luca) 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 four points clear of third-place Lecce with one match remaining. In addition to winning promotion they were conferred with the "Ali della Vittoria" trophy on the final matchday of the season, their first league title of any kind in fourteen years.

Back in Serie A (2008–)

In their first season back to the top flight, Chievo immediately struggled in the league resulting in the dismissal of Iachini in November and his replacement with former Parma boss Domenico Di Carlo. After Di Carlo's appointment, Chievo managed a remarkable resurgence that led the gialloblu out of the relegation zone after having collected just 9 points from their first 17 matches. Highlight matches included a 3–0 defeat of Lazio (who then won the 2008–09 Coppa Italia title) at the Stadio Olimpico, and a thrilling 3–3 draw away to Juventus in which captain and long-time Chievo striker Sergio Pellissier scored a late equaliser to complete his first career hat-trick. A series of hard-fought draws against top clubs Roma, Inter and Genoa in the final stretch of the season solidified Ceo's position outside the drop zone and Serie A status was finally confirmed on matchday 37 with a home draw against Bologna. A largely unchanged line-up earned safety the following season with 4 matchdays to spare, and Chievo is therefore a part of the inaugural Lega Calcio Serie A in 2010–11, their third consecutive season (and ninth season in the last ten years) in the top flight of Italian football.

Current squad

First team squad

As of 19 August, 2015

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	ARG	Albano Bizzarri
2	DF	ITA	Raffaele Pucino
3	DF	ITA	Dario Dainelli
4	MF	ITA	Nicola Rigoni
5	DF	ITA	Alessandro Gamberini
7	MF	ITA	Simone Pepe
8	MF	SRB	Ivan Radovanović
10	MF	DEN	Anders Christiansen
11	DF	ITA	Federico Mattiello (on loan from Juventus)
12	DF	SVN	Boštjan Cesar
13	MF	ARG	Mariano Izco
16	FW	GAM	Ali Sowe
18	DF	ITA	Massimo Gobbi
19	MF	ARG	Lucas Castro
20	DF	ITA	Gennaro Sardo

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
21	DF	FRA	Nicolas Frey
23	MF	SVN	Valter Birsa
24	MF	SEN	Maodo Malick Mbaye
29	DF	ITA	Fabrizio Cacciatore
31	FW	ITA	Sergio Pellissier (captain)
32	GK	ITA	Walter Bressan
34	DF	ITA	Cristiano Biraghi
40	FW	COD	Paul-Jose M'Poku
43	FW	ITA	Alberto Paloschi
45	FW	ITA	Roberto Inglese
56	MF	FIN	Përparim Hetemaj
57	DF	ITA	Michele Troiani
69	FW	ITA	Riccardo Meggiorini
90	GK	ITA	Andrea Seculin

Other players under contract

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	GK	BRA	Marcos Miranda
—	DF	MLI	Oumaro Coulibaly
—	DF	ITA	Francesco Sabatucci
—	DF	ITA	Davide Savi
—	MF	ITA	Simone Bentivoglio
—	MF	SEN	N'Diaye Djiby
—	MF	ITA	Nicola Bellomo
—	MF	ITA	Emanuele Gatto

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	MF	ITA	Alessandro Sbaffo
—	MF	GHA	Isaac Ntow
—	MF	MNE	Idriz Toskić
—	FW	ITA	Valerio Anastasi
—	FW	GHA	Caleb Ekuban
—	FW	ITA	Andrea Sanna
—	FW	SVN	Damir Bartulovič

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	GK	ITA	Simone Moschin (at Renate)
—	GK	ITA	Ivan Provedel (at Modena)
—	DF	ITA	Amedeo Benedetti (at Cittadella)
—	DF	ITA	Alessandro Bassoli (at Südtirol)
—	DF	ITA	Marco Calderoni (at Latina)
—	DF	ITA	Filippo Costa (at Bournemouth)
—	DF	ITA	Gianni Manfrin (at Alessandria)
—	DF	SEN	Ansoumana Sané (at Pontedera)
—	DF	ITA	Matteo Solini (at Renate)
—	MF	ITA	Matteo Brunelli (at Pisa)

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	MF	ITA	Victor da Silva (at Teramo)
—	MF	ITA	Mario Gargiulo (at Bassano)
—	MF	ITA	Massimiliano Gatto (at Pro Vercelli)
—	MF	ALB	Armando Vajushi (at Livorno)
—	MF	POL	Tomasz Kupisz (at Brescia)
—	MF	ITA	Lorenzo Marchionni (at Modena)
—	MF	ITA	Alessio Sestu (at Virtus Entella)
—	FW	BUL	Radoslav Kirilov (at Südtirol)
—			Yusupha Bobb (at Cittadella)
—			Lamin Jallow (at Cittadella)

Retired numbers

• 30 Jason Mayélé, left/right winger, 2001–2002 (posthumous)

Notable players

• See Category:A.C. Chievo Verona players

Former coaches

3

Colours and badge

The club's original colours were blue and white and not the current blue and yellow. The club's historic nickname is Gialloblu (from the club colours of yellow and blue) although throughout Italian football the Verona's team recognised in the past by most fans as "Gialloblu" are the oldest team from Verona – "Hellas Verona". The club is sometimes referred to today as the Mussi Volanti ("flying donkeys" in the Verona dialect of Venetian). Local supporters often call the club simply Ceo, which is Veronese for Chievo. The "Flying Donkeys" nickname was originally a derogatory term from a match chant sung by fans from crosstown rivals Hellas Verona, which said that "when donkeys'll fly, we'll have a derby in Serie A", of course sung before the 2 derbies attended in season 2001–02. However, with later successes by Chievo and contemporaneous Serie B and Serie C1 struggles for Hellas Verona, Chievo fans have now largely embraced the nickname as a badge of honour.

The current club crest represents Cangrande I della Scala, a medieval Lord of Verona.

Stadium

Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi is a stadium in Verona, Italy. It is the home of Chievo Verona also city rival Hellas Verona.

Inaugurated as a state-of-the-art facility and as one of Italy's finest venues in 1963, the stadium appeared excessive for a team (Hellas) that had spent the best part of the previous 35 years in Serie B. For the 1990 FIFA World Cup renovations included an extra tier and a roof to cover all sections, improved visibility, public transport connections, an urban motorway connecting the city centre with the stadium and the Verona Nord motorway exit and services.

Supporters

Within the city of Verona, Chievo are considered the second club to Hellas. Since their rise through the Italian leagues however they have built up their own fanbase with crowds that generally average between 9,000 and 13,000.

There are many different supporters groups which can be found in the stadium at every home match. The largest and noisiest of which is known as North Side.

External links

• Official website