 | ||||
| Full name | Associazione Calcio ChievoVerona SSDARL | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nicknames | I Mussi Volanti ("The Flying Donkeys" inVenetian) Céo ("Chievo" in Venetian) Squadra della Diga (Dam Team) Clivensi | |||
| Founded | 6 September 1929; 96 years ago (1929-09-06) 1948; 77 years ago (1948) (refounded) 10 May 2024; 18 months ago (2024-05-10) (refounded) | |||
| Ground | Stadio Aldo Olivieri,Verona | |||
| Capacity | 2,900 | |||
| President | Sergio Pellissier | |||
| Head coach | Fabrizio Cacciatore | |||
| League | Serie D Group B | |||
| 2024–25 | Serie D Group B, 7th of 20 | |||
| Website | chievoverona1929 | |||
 Current season | ||||
Associazione Calcio ChievoVerona, commonly referred to asChievoVerona or simplyChievo (Italian pronunciation:[ˈkjɛːvo],locally[ˈkjeːvo]), is anItalian football club named after and representingChievo, a suburb of 4,500 inhabitants inVerona,Veneto. It is owned since 2024 by the team's former captainSergio Pellissier, representing a group of almost 800 stakeholders created through acrowdfunding program - the first case in Italian football. The team plays in theSerie D, the fourth level ofItalian football.
The club was founded in 1929 and refounded two times during its history in 1948 and 2024. It is the only football team coming from the lowest level of Italian football succeeding in climbing the whole amateur and professional pyramid until reachingSerie A for the first time in2001–02 andEuropean competitions the year after. It currently plays at the Stadio Aldo Olivieri.
During its years as a professional club, Chievo shared the 38,402-seatStadio Marcantonio Bentegodi stadium with its cross-town rivalsHellas Verona.
The team was founded in 1929 by a small number of football fans fromChievo, a Veronafrazione.[1] Initially, the club was not officially affiliated to theItalian Football Federation (FIGC), but nonetheless played several amateur tournaments and friendly matches under the denominationOpera Nazionale Dopolavoro Chievo, a title imposed by thefascist 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 ofSeconda Divisione (Second Division). In 1957, the team moved to the field "Carlantonio Bottagisio", where they played until 1986. In 1959, after the restructuring of the football leagues, Chievo was admitted to play theSeconda Categoria (Second Category), a regional league placed next-to-last in the Italian football pyramid. That year, Chievo changed its name toCardi Chievo after a new sponsor and was quickly promoted to thePrima Categoria, from which it experienced its first-ever relegation in 1962.
In 1964, Luigi Campedelli, a businessman and owner of the Paluani company, was named the new Chievo chairman. Under Campedelli's presidency, Chievo climbed through the Italian football pyramid, reaching theSerie D after the 1974–75 season. Under the namePaluani Chievo the team was promoted toSerie C2 in 1986. Due to promotion, Chievo was forced to move to theStadio 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 sonLuca Campedelli, aged just 23, became the new and youngest chairman of an Italian professional football club. Campedelli promotedGiovanni Sartori to director of football and namedAlberto Malesani as the new head coach. Under Malesani, the team astonishingly won the Serie C1 and was promoted toSerie B, where city rivalHellas Verona was playing at the time. In 1997, after Malesani signed forFiorentina,Silvio Baldini was appointed the new head coach. The following season, withDomenico Caso as the coach, saw the first dismissal of a coach during the presidency of Luca Campedelli, with Caso being fired and replaced withLorenzo Balestro. It was during these years that the nickname"mussi volanti" ("flying donkeys") was born. It originated from supporters of their crosstown rivalsHellas, who would mock long-suffering Chievo supporters that Chievo will only be promoted if "donkeys could fly" (the equivalent of the English languagefalsism "if pigs could fly," denoting an impossible dream).[2]
In2000–01,Luigi Delneri was signed as coach and led Chievo, by virtue of its third-place finish in Serie B, to promotion toSerie A, the first time in team history that it had reached the top tier of Italian football.
In2001–02, 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, often playing 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 theUEFA Cup. Chievo's impressive performance inspired a 2002 book about soccer economics titled "Fenomeno Chievo. Economia, costume, società" by Marco Vitale.[3]
In2002–03, Chievo debuted at the European level but were eliminated in the first round byRed Star Belgrade. The team finished the Serie A season in seventh place, again proving itself one of the better Serie A teams. The2003–04 season, the last with Delneri at the helm, saw Chievo finish ninth.
The2004–05 season is remembered as one of the toughest ever in Chievo's history.Mario Beretta, a Serie A novice fromTernana, was named coach, but after a strong start that brought Chievo to third behindJuventus andMilan, 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, andMaurizio 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 enough to keep Chievo in Serie A.
In2005–06,Giuseppe Pillon ofTreviso 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 thefootball 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 nextChampions League preliminary phase.
On 14 July 2006, the verdict in the scandal was made public. Juventus, Milan and Fiorentina, who had all initially qualified for the2006–07 Champions League, andLazio, who had initially qualified for the2006–07 UEFA Cup, were all banned fromUEFA competition for the 2006–07 season. However, 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 sideLevski Sofia. Chievo lost the first leg 2–0 inSofia 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.[4] 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 sideBraga. The first leg, played on 14 September inBraga, 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.[5]
On 16 October 2006, following a 1–0 defeat againstTorino, head coach Giuseppe Pillon was fired and replaced by Luigi Delneri, one of the original symbols of themiracle 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 againstCatania, a direct competitor in the relegation battle, Chievo lost 2–0 playing on a neutral field inBologna. Wins byParma,Siena andReggina condemned Chievo to Serie B for the 2007–08 season after six seasons in the topflight.
Chievo bounced back quickly from the disappointment of their relegation on the last matchday of 2006–07, searching for an immediate promotion return to the topflight. After the expected departure of several top-quality players, includingFranco Semioli,Salvatore Lanna,Matteo Brighi,Paolo Sammarco andErjon Bogdani, the manager Delneri also parted ways with the club.Giuseppe Iachini replaced him and the captain,Lorenzo D'Anna, gave way toSergio Pellissier at the end of the transfer window. A new squad was constructed, most notably including the arrivals of midfieldersMaurizio Ciaramitaro andSimone Bentivoglio, defenderCésar and forwardAntimo Iunco. This new incarnation of thegialloblu were crowned winter champions (along with Bologna), en route to a 41st matchday promotion after a 1–1 draw atGrosseto left them four points clear of third-placeLecce 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.
In their first season return to the topflight, Chievo immediately struggled in the league, resulting in the dismissal of Iachini in November and his replacement with former Parma bossDomenico Di Carlo.[6] After Di Carlo's appointment, Chievo managed a remarkable resurgence that led thegialloblu 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 the2008–09 Coppa Italia title) at theStadio Olimpico, and a thrilling 3–3 draw away to Juventus in which captain and longtime Chievo striker Sergio Pellissier scored a late equalizer to complete his first career hat-trick. A series of hard-fought draws against top clubsRoma,Internazionale andGenoa in the final stretch of the season solidifiedCeo's position outside the drop zone and Serie A status was finally confirmed on matchday 37 with a home draw against Bologna. An essentially unchanged line-up earned safety the following season with four matchdays to spare.
Lorenzo D'Anna remained as coach of the club for the2018–19 season after replacingRolando Maran during the 2017–18 season. On 13 September, Chievo were deducted 3 points after being found guilty of false accounting on exchanging players withCesena.[7] President Luca Campedelli was banned for three months as a result of the scheme.[8] Chievo were officially relegated on 14 April 2019 after a 3–1 home loss toNapoli.[9]
In July 2021, Chievo was expelled from Serie B for the2021–22 season for being unable to prove its financial viability due to outstanding tax payments.[10] The club argued that there was an agreement in place during the COVID-19 pandemic that allowed them to spread the payments out over a longer period.[11] However, after three unsuccessful appeals, the decision to bar Chievo Verona from registering to Serie B was upheld, withCosenza taking their place in Serie B.[12][13][14]
Over the next months following the club's exclusion, former captainSergio Pellissier led the search for a new ownership group to allow aphoenix club to compete in Serie D under the Chievo name.[15] However, on 21 August, Pellissier announced in an Instagram post that no owners were found in time for the Serie D registration deadline.[16][17] The original Chievo club has in the meantime appealed to theCouncil of State against its exclusion and is currently registered in no division, albeit still with the right to apply for a spot in an amateur league ofVeneto in the following weeks.[18] Campedelli eventually opted to keep the club alive as a youth team for the 2021–22 season,[19] while Pellissier decided insteadto found a new club himself, which was admitted toTerza Categoria at the very bottom of theItalian football league system;[20] the club, originally named FC Chievo 2021, was then renamed toFC Clivense following a legal warning from AC ChievoVerona.[21]
On 10 May 2024, Sergio Pellissier and the owners of Clivense, by then in theSerie D league, successfully acquired the logo and naming rights of the original ChievoVerona club in an auction.[22] Later on 29 May, Clivense formally changed its denomination to AC ChievoVerona, thus becoming the legal heir to the original club, albeit maintaining white and blue as its colours.[23]
The official crest of the club depicts since 1998Cangrande della Scala, ruler ofVerona during medieval times, the shape of it taking inspiration from a historical statue located in the old town. The logo, coloured in yellow and blue, shows the full name of the club and the year of foundation. It was confirmed as Chievo's logo after a survey among the club's stakeholder in June 2024.[24]
Being founded by amateur football lovers in 1929 as an after-work sport club, at that time encouraged by thefascist regime, the first crest of Chievo included a fasces. Since 1959, after adopting yellow-blue colours, the club used the shape of a Swiss shield with different official denominations during the years, including some private company names sponsoring the club. During the 1980s, president Luigi Campedelli, a businessman owning the cake company Paluani, used the commercial logo of the company as official crest, showing often the full name on the official football shirt.[25]
Since the 1990s, after reaching professional leagues and after changing the official name into A.C. ChievoVerona, the crest included for the first time the shape ofCangrande della Scala and boasted a letter V, symbolizing the pride of representing the whole city. In 2001, the logo took its actual aspect including Fraktur font and the foundation year, until its last modernization in 2021.
In the period 2001-2021 an alternative logo, representing a white ladder on a burgundy background, was in use both on shirts and club's activities, inspired by the historical logo of theProvince of Verona and already used by the club in the 1930s after winning the province champion's title in the local leagues.
This is a gallery of the evolution of Chievo's crest since its foundation:[26]
Chievo has worn two different colours patterns during its history: in the early foundation years until 1956 a white/blue combination, with occasional use of white/light blue and red-blue; from 1956 until 2021 a yellow-blue pattern in different styles, inspired by the crest ofVerona and already used by the main football team of the cityHellas Verona. After the refoundation of 2024 the club decided to keep the white-blue combination of the origins, already used byClivense since 2021.
These are the most iconic football kits worn over the years:[27]
        1929-30 |  1931-32 |    1948-49 |    1959-60 |  1961-62 |    1967-68 |
    1980-81 |    1984-85 |   1994-95 |      2001-02 |      2013-14 |     2024-25 |
The club's historic nickname is Gialloblu (from the club colours of yellow and blue), sharing it with the more famous local rivals Hellas Verona. Local supporters often call the club Ceo, which is Venetian for Chievo. The club is also sometimes referred to as the I Mussi Volanti ("The Flying Donkeys" in the Verona dialect of Venetian). "The Flying Donkeys" nickname was originally used by fans from crosstown rivals Hellas to mock Chievo. The two clubs first met in Serie B in the mid-1990s, with Hellas chanting Quando i mussi volara, il Ceo in Serie A – "Donkeys will fly before Chievo are in Serie A." However, once Chievo earned promotion to Serie A at the end of the 2000–01 Serie B season, Chievo fans started to call themselves "The Flying Donkeys".[28]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Jason Mayélé,left/right winger, 2001–2002 (posthumous)
Sergio Pellissier,left/right winger, 2000–2019 (retired in recognition of his career[29])Note: this list includes players that have reached international status.
Francesco AcerbiAmauri
Daniel AnderssonSimone BaroneMassimo MarazzinaAndrea Barzagli
Erjon Bogdani
Oliver Bierhoff
Valter Birsa
Albano Bizzarri
Michael BradleyMatteo BrighiBoštjan CesarBernardo Corradi
Rinaldo CruzadoDario Dainelli
Boukary DraméMauro Esposito
Marcelo Estigarribia
Ivan Fatić
Gelson Fernandes
Giannis FetfatzidisStefano FioreAlessandro GamberiniMassimo Gobbi
Jonathan de Guzmán
Përparim HetemajBojan Jokić
Radoslav Kirilov
Kamil KosowskiNicola Legrottaglie
Christian ManfrediniJason Mayélé
Stephen Makinwa
John MensahVictor ObinnaSergio PellissierSimone PepeSimone Perrotta
Mauricio PinillaGiampiero Pinzi
Ivan RadovanovićFlavio RomaEugenio CoriniFredrik Risp
Mamadou SamassaNikos Spyropoulos
Samir UjkaniSauli Väisänen
Martin Valjent
Mario Yepes
The Clivense fan base has a few groups within it, but the best known are the North Side 94, a group of fans born in 1994 together with the promotion of the club to theSerie B. The supporters' group has given full support and to Sergio Pellissier's Clivense after the exclusion of ChievoVerona from all federal championships in 2021.
ChievoVerona shared since its promotion to theSerie C2 in 1986 theStadio Marcantonio Bentegodi with rival team Hellas Verona. Since the refoundation in 2024 the club plays its home games at Stadio Aldo Olivieri inVerona. During the three previous yearsFC Clivense was based at Stadio Comunale (Phoenix Arena for sponsorship reasons) inSan Martino Buon Albergo.
| Season | Round | Club | Home | Away | Aggregate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006–07 | Third qualifying round | Levski Sofia | 2–2 | 0–2 | 2–4 |
| 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 |
