Vicenza

Vicenza, founded in 1902 by a group of citizens led by Professor Tito Buy, headmaster of the Lioy High School, and by physical education teacher Antonio Libero Scarpa, it is one of the oldest football clubs in Italy. The formation of the first board of directors took place on 9 March 1902, while the competitive debut took place on 18 May 1903 in a friendly match valid for the Provincial Championship for Schools.

The professional debut dates back to the 1910–11 season: ACIVI (as Vicenza was called for its first fifty years, acronym of Associazione del Calcio in Vicenza) inaugurated its new Borgo Casale ground on 12 February 1911 with a great victory over Bologna and in March finished the Veneto-Emilia round with a full score, qualifying for the final for the title. However, it had to succumb, both away and at home, to Pro Vercelli which was in its golden years.

Vicenza challenged Pro Vercelli in the double final of the 1910–1911 First Category championship.

In the years before the First World War it took part to several national finals of northern Italy, which were played between the winners of the regional groups. Vicenza thus met Bologna, Juventus, Milan and Inter several times, establishing itself among the best Italian teams.

Vicenza began in the First Category in the 1920s competing in various regional groups. In 1921-22 it joined the schism of the great teams, going to play in the C.C.I. championship: it finished last in group A, a result that condemned it to having to play and win the inter-divisional qualifiers against teams from the Second Division to escape relegation. When the Compromesso Colombo was implemented, it faced the inter-divisional qualification round which it lost against Derthona, thus leaving the top national division. In the 1924–25 season Vicenza won the elimination round of the Second Division after play-offs with Udinese and Olympia Fiume, but was then disqualified and downgraded to last place due to the irregular positions of the Hungarians Horváth and Molnár; however, it was not relegated because thanks to the Italian Football Federation. Unprepared for the transformations that were launching Italian football towards professionalism, it was overwhelmed by the various tournament restructurings, leading to the 1929 plummeting to the fourth level of the national football pyramid.

The 1930s were years of redemption for the biancorossi, after a decade to forget. In 1932–1933 the team was promoted to Serie B, where it remained for two seasons, while trying again and again to gain promotion to Serie A. In that period the "biancorossi" churned out talents of the calibre of the Umberto brothers and above all Romeo Menti, captain "Neno" Rossi, Bruno Camolese, Luigi Chiodi, Giovanni Costa, and the star Piero Spinato, the club's top scorer to this day. In the 1939–1940 season promotion to Serie B arrived with a clear advantage over the second team. On 8 September 1935 a new stadium along the Bacchiglione river had been inaugurated, leaving the Borgo Casale pitch, the inaugural match was against the Hungarian team Soroksár with a 16-year-old Romeo Menti making his professional debut. After his death during the 1949 Superga air disaster, the stadium in Vicenza would be named in his honor.

At the beginning of the 1940s Vicenza conquered the top national division, thanks also to a midfield that went down in history as one of the best of the era formed by: Osvaldo Fattori (later at Inter), Alfonso Santagiuliana (who also played for Grande Torino) and Luigi Abeni (whose career was cut short by illness).

Vicenza's Serie A 1942–1943 season ended with a historic escape from relegation, won on the last day by defeating Juventus 6–2 in Turin on Easter Sunday 1943. After 8 September they took part in the Veneto round of the 1944 War championship, but renounced the national finals. After the Second World War, Vicenza returned to play in Serie A, after the mixed championship of 1946. In the 1946–1947 Serie A, when the single-round championship returned, Vicenza surprisingly placed fifth (the team's best scorer was Bruno Quaresima from Vicenza); the following year, however, the team finished last (the only time in the history that Vicenza ended at the bottom of the table) and was relegated. In 1949 Vicenza came close to an immediate return to Serie A, but it slipped away by one point. This was followed by several seasons in Serie B in which it placed in mid-table, and which were characterised by economic problems.

On 26 June 1953 an event occurred that would change the history of the Vicenza club for many decades: the old ACIVI was bought by the Schio-based wool producing giant, Lanerossi, founded in the 19th century by Alessandro Rossi. This was not the first case of football sponsorship in Italy, which was still forbidden at the time, but instead a so-called coupling, i.e. a real takeover: the football club became a rib of the textile company, even carrying its name and symbol - the R - on its shirts (sponsorship would only be allowed in the early 1980s). The logo remained on the red and white shirts until the 1988–1989 season, but has made a return since the 2000s as it has become a de facto symbol of the Vicenza football club even following the company's departure.

Luís Vinício and Giulio Savoini, were Lanerossi's flag-bearers in the early 50s two players who would go down in history as some of the club's best.

The injection of confidence and, above all, cash allowed Vicenza to set up a team that soon, after a season of adjustment, returned to Serie A in 1955 after seven seasons, with coach Aldo Campatelli and many goals from Enrico Motta. On their return to the top division Vicenza achieved a surprising escape from relegation with a ninth-place finish. The glory of the first team was complemented by winning the famous Viareggio tournament in 1954 and 1955, twice in a row. From the Viareggio team came players such as Azeglio Vicini, Sergio Campana, Renzo Cappellaro, Mario David, Mirko Pavinato, Luigi Menti and many others who later wore the biancorossa shirt in Serie A. In the second half of the 1950s, the offensive department was strengthened with the addition of two South Americans, first Américo Murolo and, in the following season, Francisco Lojacono, as well as the Vicenza-born Renzo Cappellaro.

At the turn of the decade Vicenza placed with two consecutive seventh places, and in 1960–1961 the coach Roberto Lerici (a former biancorosso player in the 1950s) won the Seminatore d'oro award for best coach of the season. Lanerossi maintained its characteristics of a provincial club, careful about budgets, that valorised young players, produced from its youth sector or coming from other teams, maintaining a strong nucleus of flagship players, and occasionally welcoming great players at the end of their careers, such as Giovan Battista Fabbri and Paolo Rossi, respectively coach and striker of Lanerossi in the second half of the 1970s.

In 1962, the arrival of 30-year-old Brazilian centre forward Luís Vinício brought further lustre to the team. In the 1963–1964 Serie A season Vicenza rose to first place in the league table for three consecutive matches, taking sixth place at the end of the championship. Luis Vinicio in the 1965–1966 season, his best season, was the league's top scorer's with 25 goals (it would take twenty-six years for a Serie A player to score that many: it would be Marco van Basten in 1991–1992). Lanerossi finished that season fifth.

However, great results were followed by years in which relegation was risked, often escaping it on the last match day. Among the most risky escapes from relegation, a historic one was that of 1972–1973, in which Lanerossi seemed doomed, but with three victories in the last three match days managed to climb the slope up to play a relegation match against Atalanta, winning it thanks to an own goal by Atalanta. Luck deserted Lanerossi in 1975 when, in their 20th consecutive Serie A championship, they were relegated to Serie B.

After an opaque 1975–76 season in which they even risked relegation to Serie C, Lanerossi went into the 1976–77 season with little hope. However, the new coach, Giovan Battista Fabbri had an intuition: he transformed the young Paolo Rossi (who lead the Italian National Football Team to winning the 1982 Fifa World Cup and during which he won the Golden Boot and Golden Ball, in the same season he was also awarded the Balon d'Or) from a right winger with poor prospects into an excellent centre forward, leading Vicenza to promotion to Serie A. After a hesitant start, the red and whites proved to be overwhelming, thanks to Rossi's goals, the safety of libero Giorgio Carrera, the plays of Franco Cerilli and Giancarlo Salvi, Mario Guidetti in midfield, and the unstoppable Roberto Filippi.

Only Juventus did better than Lanerossi. The team finished the championship in 2nd place and made it to the UEFA Cup: it is still the best ever result by a newly promoted team in the history of the Italian top division. Paolo Rossi became the new phenomenon of Italian football: in December 1977 he was called up for the national team and at the end of the season he won the title of top scorer with 24 goals, a significant figure for a 16-team tournament. In June 1978 Rossi was part of the Italian team at the World Cup in Argentina, where the Azzurri finished fourth and the centre forward scored three goals.

On his return to Italy, the agreement of the player's co-ownership with Juventus had to be addressed, in retrospect a fundamental crossroads in the Biancorossi's future at the end of the 1970s. The deal was only resolved at the trade deadline, with record sums never committed before in a single football market session: Farina offered as much as 2,612,510,000 lire to secure the other half of Pablito's card. The considerable sums proved problematic for Vicenza's shrunken coffers, who were now forced to sell some of Fabbri's other best elements in order to recoup their investment in "Mr. Five Billion" Rossi, as well as facing discontent from the rest of the squad due to the different economic treatment reserved for them. In this difficult context, Farina's plans failed in the short space of a season: in its European debut, the team was eliminated in the first round of the 1978–1979 UEFA Cup by Czechoslovakia's Dukla Praga, while in Serie A, after never having found a real rhythm of play, it slowly slipped to the bottom of the table to an unthinkable relegation. Lanerossi thus found themselves in Serie B and, two years later, even in C1; meagre consolation was the winning, in the 1981–1982 season, of the Coppa Italia of Serie C.

A young Roberto Baggio, born and raised in the province of Vicenza, made his professional football debut with Vicenza in the 1984–1985 championship after years in their youth sector. He would later become one of the best Italian football players in history.

On 16 June 1985, even with the young star Roberto Baggio absent due to injury, on the neutral pitch of the Franchi in Florence, Vicenza, led by coach Bruno Giorgi, returned to Serie B after winning the promotion play-offs against Piacenza. The following season, it gained a third place in Serie B seemily reopening the doors of Serie A for Vicenza, however, the CAF annulled the club's promotion due to the club's involvement in a betting scandal: the blow was so strong for the Vicenza that in 1987 they fell back into Serie C1.

In the summer of 1989 the club, taken over by Pieraldo Dalle Carbonare, changed its name, bidding farewell to Lanerossi and its R, and becoming Vicenza Calcio. In the 1989–1990 season the team risked relegation to Serie C2, in a troubled year marked by three coaching changes. On 7 June 1990 Vicenza, led by flag-bearer Giulio Savoini, escaped relegation in a play-off match against Prato on the neutral pitch of the Mazza stadium in Ferrara, with the support of an exodus of "biancorossi" fans who invaded the Estense city. In 1990–1991 coach Giuseppe Caramanno was exonerated and Antonio Pasinato took over, but not even he managed to get Vicenza back into Serie B, a goal achieved two seasons later with Renzo Ulivieri. In 1993–1994, the Tuscan coach, despite not having any great strikers, managed to save Vicenza with a choral game that was to be the team's hallmark throughout that period. Even his successor, Francesco Guidolin, adopted a strategy aimed at emphasising the skills of the group and the play of the whole team rather than that of individual players. The following year, the performances of captain Giovanni Lopez, full-back Gilberto D'Ignazio Pulpito and centre-back Domenico Di Carlo brought Vicenza back to the top flight, where they finished ninth.

On Thursday 29 May 1997 Vicenza celebrated a historic victory of the 1996–97 Coppa Italia.

After a very positive Serie A season, in which Vicenza were able to achieve memorable victories against the "big three" Juventus, Inter and Milan, as well as being the league leaders for several weeks, the team catalysed national interest thanks to it being a revelation in the Coppa Italia, culminating in the final against Napoli: in the first leg, played at the San Paolo, the "biancorossi" lost 1–0, but in the return match, on 29 May 1997 at the Romeo Menti Stadium in Vicenza, Giampiero Maini immediately levelled the score; it then went into extra time where Maurizio Rossi and Alessandro Iannuzzi scored the historic goals at the end of the match sealing a 3–0 final score and winning Vicenza the most important trophy in its history.

In the summer of 1997, the ENIC Group (English National Investment Company) owned by Joe Lewis, took over the majority of the red and white club: Vicenza thus became the first Italian team to have foreign ownership. As holders of the Coppa Italia, the "biancorossi" earned the right to play in the Italian Super Cup, which they lost to Juventus on 23 August 1997 at the Stadio delle Alpi in Turin. In the 1997–1998 season, after their eighth-place finish the year before, Vicenza saved themselves from relegation without any problems, but let themselves down a little in the Serie A, distracted by their commitment in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup where, on the contrary, they surprised by reaching the semi-finals, losing only to Chelsea, who would later win the competition. Decisive in the European competition was the contribution of Pasquale Luiso, who would win top scorer of the cup.

With Guidolin's farewell, the following year marked the end of a cycle, with a relegation to Serie B followed by immediate promotion back to the top league thanks to their win of the 1999–2000 Serie B championship, with coach Edoardo Rejaon and a prolific striker group in which Gianni Comandini, the usual Pasquale Luiso and the young Cristian Bucchi stood out. Their stay in Serie A lasted only a year, however, as the 2000–2001 season ended with relegation, this would be Vicenza's last season in Italy's top league.

In December 2004 the club returned into the hands of local entrepreneurs when Sergio Cassingena became president. From this moment on, Vicenza's history saw a decade in Serie B made up of last-minute escapes from relegations and three relegations to Serie C, two of which, in 2005 and 2012, were later annulled due to sporting offences committed by other teams.

In 2013 this relatively successful decade ended with the definitive downgrading to Italy's third league due to cyclical financial problems, which led to a heavy deficit for the club. During the years in Serie C Vicenza was coached by the former "biancorosso" captain Giovanni Lopez. At the end of the 2013–2014 championship Vicenza lost the play-out against Savona to stay in Serie B, but was reinstated in Serie B as replacement for the bankrupt Siena. In the 2014–2015 Serie B the team rose to third place almost reaching Serie A, but fatally losing the play-offs against Pescara.

In 2017, the "biancorossi", were taken over by a new group of businessmen from Vicenza, relegated to Serie C, a fact that further exacerbated the club's economic crisis.

Declared bankrupt and placed on temporary administration, in 2018 Vicenza even risked relegation to Serie D, but managed to save itself by winning the relegation matches against Santarcangelo. Having definitively ceased activities, the club's sporting title was withdrawn by the Italian Football Federation.

At the end of the season, entrepreneur Renzo Rosso (president of the OTB Group and founder of Diesel) bought the corporate branch of Vicenza Calcio and assigning it to another football team he owned, Virtus Bassano, which, thanks to a federal procedure, moved from Bassano del Grappa to Vicenza and changed its name to L.R. Vicenza Virtus, becoming the de facto heir of the historical Vicenza football tradition. Vicenza could thus remained in Serie C and enrolled in the 2018–2019 championship using the Bassano's sporting roster. The first year of Rosso's management ended with the qualification to the first round of the play-offs, played in Ravenna ending with a 1-1: this meant the elimination of the Vicentini due to the worst placement in the standings.

The 2019–2020 regular season, under the guidance of coach Domenico Di Carlo, a former biancorosso player, due to the early suspension of the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Vicenza was declared the winner of the Serie C division B (being first before the season ending) by the Federal Council of the Italian Football Federation, marking the official promotion of the club to Serie B.

The 2020–2021 season saw the "biancorossi" achieve an easy escape from relegation to Serie C; meanwhile, on 9 February 2021, the shareholders' meeting approved the change of the club's name to L.R. Vicenza.

In the 2021–2022 season, Vicenza found themselves at the back of the table, the season showed disagreements between the fan groups and the club, with the supporters expressing their disappointment for the lack of results and the absence of dialogue, while the management repeatedly retaliated harshly to them, pointing out the considerable investments made. Vicenza managed to avert direct relegation only on the last day of the regular season, but the descent to Serie C was finally sanctioned by a play-out loss against Cosenza.

The following season in Serie C the team performed below expectations, suffering many defeats that finally deprived them of the chance to fight for direct promotion; at the same time, however, on 12 April Vicenza won the 50th edition of the Coppa Italia Serie C against Juventus Next Gen.

The 2023/2024 season opened with new Coach Aimo Diana at the helm of the red and white team; after a first half of the season which was extremely below expectations, the exit from the Coppa Italia of Serie C against Rimini and a fan base in full protest, the arrival of Coach Stefano Vecchi on the bench changed things, with a record 23 consecutive useful results. The streak was interrupted by the defeat in the play-off final against Carrarese missing a Serie B promotion yet again.