A.C. ChievoVerona

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 (FIGC), but nonetheless 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, however, due to 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 1974–75 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. ChievoVerona."

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. It was during these years that the nickname "mussi volanti" ("flying donkeys") was born. It originated from supporters of their crosstown rivals Hellas, who would mock long-suffering Chievo supporters that Chievo will only be promoted if "donkeys could fly" (equivalent of the English language falsism "if pigs could fly", denoting an impossible dream).^[2]

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 team history that it had reached the top tier of Italian football.

Mussi Volanti (2001–2007)

In its 2001–02, Chievo's Serie A debut season, the team was most critics' choice for an instant return to Serie B. However, they 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. Chievo's impressive performance inspired a 2002 book about soccer economics titled "Fenomeno Chievo. Economia, costume, società" by Marco Vitale.^[3]

In 2002–03, 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 2003–04 season, the last with Delneri at the helm, saw Chievo finish ninth.

The 2004–05 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 strong start that brought Chievo to third behind Juventus and Milan, the team slowly lost position in the league table. With three matches remaining in 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 draw from the final three matches proved just enough to keep Chievo in Serie A.

In 2005–06, 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 seventh and gaining a berth in the UEFA Cup. However, because of the football scandal involving several top-class teams, all of which finished higher than Chievo in the 2005–06 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, 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 Milan were allowed to enter the Champions League after their appeal to the FIGC. Chievo took up a place in the third qualifying stage of the competition along with 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, they were drawn to face Portuguese side Braga. The first leg, played on 14 September in Braga, ended in a 2–0 win for the Portuguese. 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, 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 the 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 draw 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 top flight.

Even as a relatively-successful Serie A team the club, which averages only 9,000 to 10,000 fans^[4] and is kept afloat mainly by money from television rights, does not have the same number of fan supporters as Hellas, the oldest team in Verona. 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 "theirs", 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 Franco Semioli, Salvatore Lanna, Matteo Brighi, Paolo Sammarco and Erjon 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 midfielders Maurizio Ciaramitaro and Simone Bentivoglio, defender César 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 14 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.^[5] After Di Carlo's appointment, Chievo managed a remarkable resurgence that led the gialloblu out of the relegation zone after having collected just nine 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 longtime 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, Internazionale 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 lineup earned safety the following season with four 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

As of 3 September 2018.^[6]

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

No. Position Player 1 GK Adrian Šemper (on loan from Dinamo Zagreb) 3 DF Strahinja Tanasijević 4 MF Nicola Rigoni 5 DF Federico Barba 8 MF Ivan Radovanović (vice-captain) 9 FW Mariusz Stępiński 10 FW Manuel Pucciarelli (on loan from Empoli) 11 MF Mehdi Léris 13 MF Sofian Kiyine 14 DF Mattia Bani 15 DF Luca Rossettini (on loan from Genoa) 16 GK Andrea Seculin 17 MF Emanuele Giaccherini 19 MF Musa Juwara 20 FW Filip Đorđević

No. Position Player 21 MF Mauro Burruchaga 22 MF Joel Obi 23 MF Valter Birsa 25 FW Sergej Grubac 27 MF Fabio Depaoli 29 DF Fabrizio Cacciatore 31 FW Sergio Pellissier (captain) 40 DF Nenad Tomović 44 DF Paweł Jaroszyński 55 MF Emanuel Vignato 56 MF Përparim Hetemaj (3rd captain) 67 GK Elia Caprile 69 FW Riccardo Meggiorini 70 GK Stefano Sorrentino

Other players under contract

As of 19 September 2018

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

No. Position Player — DF Boštjan Cesar — DF Luca Di Minico — DF Nicolas Frey — DF Maurice Glarey — DF Gianni Manfrin

No. Position Player — DF Tommaso Polo — DF Alessandro Roma — DF Michele Rigione — MF Antonio Cinelli

On loan

As of 5 September 2018

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

No. Position Player — GK Alessandro Confente (at Reggina until 30 June 2019) — DF Andrea Magrini (at Pontedera until 30 June 2019) — DF Davide Mansi (at Qormi until 30 June 2019) — DF Giovanni Nuti (at Gubbio until 30 June 2019) — DF Ansoumana Sané (at Pro Patria until 30 June 2019) — DF Davide Savi (at Mosta until 30 June 2019) — DF Edoardo Sbampato (at Alessandria until 30 June 2019) — DF Matteo Solini (at Robur Siena until 30 June 2019) — DF Michele Troiani (at Piacenza until 30 June 2019) — DF Martin Valjent (at Mallorca until 30 June 2019) — MF Yusupha Bobb (at Cuneo until 30 June 2019) — MF Nicola Danieli (at Virtus Verona until 30 June 2019)

No. Position Player — MF Giovanni Di Noia (at Carpi until 30 June 2019) — MF Matteo Gallo (at Mosta until 30 June 2019) — MF Luca Garritano (at Cosenza until 30 June 2019) — MF Victor da Silva (at Fermana until 30 June 2019) — FW Damir Bartulovič (at Albissola until 30 June 2019) — FW Michael Fabbro (at Robur Siena until 30 June 2019) — FW Andrea Isufaj (at Lucchese until 30 June 2019) — FW Lamin Jallow (at Salernitana until 30 June 2019) — FW Bismark Ngissah (at Viterbese until 30 June 2019) — FW Alejandro Rodríguez (at Empoli until 30 June 2019) — FW Ali Sowe (at CSKA Sofia until 30 June 2019) — FW Arthur Yamga (at Châteauroux until 30 June 2019)

UEFA Champions League

Season	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2006–07	Third qualifying round	Levski Sofia	2–2	0–2	2–4

UEFA Cup

Season	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2002–03	First round	Red Star Belgrade	0–2	0–0	0–2
2006–07	First round	Braga	2–1 (a.e.t)	0–2	2–3