 | ||||
| Full name | Brescia CalcioS.p.A. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nicknames | Le Rondinelle (The Little Swallows) I Biancazzurri (The White and Blues) La Leonessa (The Lioness) | |||
| Founded | 17 July 1911; 114 years ago (17 July 1911) | |||
| Dissolved | 3 July 2025; 4 months ago (3 July 2025) | |||
| Ground | Stadio Mario Rigamonti | |||
| Capacity | 19,500 | |||
| 2024–25 | Serie B, 18th of 20 (relegated) | |||
| Website | bresciacalcio | |||
Brescia Calcio, commonly referred to asBrescia (Italian pronunciation:[ˈbreʃʃaˈkaltʃo]), was an Italian football club based inBrescia,Lombardy. The team last played inSerie B, the second tier ofItalian football.
The club held the record for the total number of seasons (66) and consecutive seasons (18, from1947–48 to1964–65) in Serie B, which they won four times. Their best finish inSerie A came in the2000–01 season when they placed eighth. At the beginning of the 21st century, led by1993 Ballon d'Or winnerRoberto Baggio, the club also qualified for theUEFA Intertoto Cup twice, reaching the finalin 2001 but being eliminated on theaway goals rule byParis Saint-Germain. During this era,Pep Guardiola, formerFC Barcelona captain and later a highly decorated manager, andAndrea Pirlo, a product of Brescia Calcio's youth sector who went on to win numerous trophies withAC Milan andJuventus, also played for the club.
The team's colours were blue and white. Its home ground was the 19,550-seater[1]Stadio Mario Rigamonti. Brescia had a long-standing rivalry withAtalanta from nearbyBergamo.[2][3]
The team was founded in 1911 asBrescia Football Club, joining theTerza Categoria division the same year. In 1913, Brescia was promoted to the First Division for the first time. Founding members ofSerie A in 1929-30, Brescia would play there for six of the next seven seasons. The club have since fallen out of the top two divisions only three times: in 1938, when they spent a single season inSerie C; in 1982, when they spent three seasons there; and 2025, after a controversial administrative relegation for alleged financial infringements. As of 2025, only 11 Italian clubs have played fewer seasons outside the top two divisions ofLega Calcio than Brescia (four)[citation needed], and no club has spent more seasons in Serie B than Brescia (66).[4]
Brescia won theAnglo-Italian Cup in 1994, the biggest achievement in their history to date. The club gained greater prominence in 2000 after signing formerFIFA World Player of the YearRoberto Baggio, who led Brescia to a seventh-place finish in the 2000–01 season, thus qualifying for theUEFA Intertoto Cup. Brescia then reached the finals, where they lost toParis Saint-Germain via theaway goals rule, drawing 0-0 away in the first leg[5] and 1–1 at home in the second leg.[6] Baggio spent four years at Brescia before retiring in 2004, during which time Brescia became widely known as "Baggio's Brescia"[citation needed]. During Baggio's four-year spell with Brescia, the club recorded its longest stay in Serie A; in the very first season after Baggio's retirement (2004–05), Brescia were relegated on the final day. They returned after beatingTorino 2-1 on aggregate in the2009–10 . In the2010–11 season, however, they were relegated back to Serie B. In the 2014–15 season, they were relegated toLega Pro after finishing second from last. However, afterParma's declaration of bankruptcy and demotion toSerie D, Brescia was among the teams selected to replace them in Serie B.[7] A new promotion to Serie A was secured in the2018–19 season, with two games to spare,[8] but the team got relegated in the next season.[9]
In the2024–25 season, Brescia avoided relegation places in Serie B by one point, yet they finished with a four-point deduction and subsequently declared bankruptcy after their president,Massimo Cellino, failed to settle approximately €3 million in debts.[10] However, on 7 June 2025, Brescia announced that it would not participate in the2025–26 Serie C season, due to ongoing financial strain.[11] On 3 July 2025, theItalian Football Federation (FIGC) officially confirmed that Brescia had been excluded from professional football, failing to receive a licence for Serie C.[12][13] After that, the club fully dissolved.
The first Brescia kit in 1911 was blue (the national colour) with a thick white vertical stripe down the middle, a design which returned for the club's centenary season in 2011. The first appearance of a white "V" was in 1927, added so that the team could useStadium, the newly built home of another team, Virtus. This style remained until 1940 when the "V" was removed and a plain blue shirt was used.
Substantial changes afterWorld War II saw the shirt become plain white with blue shorts. This was short-lived and, in 1954, the plain blue shirt returned. The white "V" also returned eventually in 1961 as a show of goodwill by the new chairman at the time.
The "V" disappeared again in 1969, replaced by a diagonal white sash, then returned, but much smaller, in 1974 for two years. The "V" was situated over the heart with the inclusion of the lioness, the symbol of the city of Brescia. The shirt remained plain blue until 1991, when the "V" returned and has been used ever since.[14]
The first badge appeared on Brescia kits in the 1980s; a blue crest with a golden outline featuring a lion. The city of Brescia is known asLeonessa d'Italia (the Lioness of Italy) afterten days of popular uprising that took place in the city in the spring of 1849 againstAustrian rule.
The crest was changed for the centenary of Brescia Calcio in 2011, incorporating a gold shield and laurel branches to celebrate the club's 100th anniversary, and updating the lettering to use a font in the style of the period when the team was founded. The lion was also updated in order to fix some errors in heraldic iconography (the absence of nails, muscle weakness and weak curvature of the tail), and to create a more toned and ferocious look.[15]
The first ground at which football was played in Brescia was Campo Fiera, where, in 1905, the English workers at the Tempini plant played on their breaks.
In 1911, in the wake of enthusiasm following the foundation of the new club, a fenced ground was built shortly after on Via Milano.[16]
In 1920 came the opening of the new ground on Via Cesare Lombroso, Brescia, which was used by the team until 1923. In 1923, the team moved into a larger, more modern facility located at Porta Venezia (then Via Naviglio), built for the town's sports club Virtus and simply called "Stadium".
It was in 1956 that the municipality had the idea to move the club to a stadium more suited to host Serie B matches, and began renovating the stands at the existing ground at Via Giovanni Novagani. This was completed in 1959 and Brescia began to play their home games in the newly-christenedStadio Mario Rigamonti (named after theTorino player,Mario Rigamonti, who died in theSuperga air disaster).
Over the years, the stadium has undergone several refurbishments (construction of roofing, press room, etc.), the most significant of which was in 2007 with the installation of new security measures.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
|
| Series | Years | Last | Promotions | Relegations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 23 | 2019–20 | - |  13 (1932,1936,1947,1968,1970,1981,1987,1993,1995,1998,2005,2011,2020) |
| B | 66 | 2024–25 |  12 (1933,1943,1965,1969,1980,1986,1992,1994,1997,2000,2010,2019) | 3 (1938,1982,2025) |
| C | 4 | 1984–85 | 2 (1939,1985) | never |
| 93 years of professional football in Italy since 1929 | ||||
| Founding member of theFootball League’sFirst Division in 1921 | ||||
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| Period | Kit manufacturer | Shirt sponsor |
|---|---|---|
| 1978–79 | Umbro[citation needed] | None |
| 1979–1981 | Tepa Sport[citation needed] | |
| 1981–82 | Umbro[citation needed] | Inoxriv |
| 1982–83 | Watergate | |
| 1983–1986 | Gazelle | Fin-Eco |
| 1986–1988 | Wuhrer | |
| 1988–89 | Watergate | |
| 1989–90 | UNICEF | |
| 1990–91 | Bontempi Sport | None |
| 1991–1994 | Uhlsport | CAB |
| 1994–95 | ABM | |
| 1995–96 | Polenghi | |
| 1996–97 | Brescialat | |
| 1997–98 | Erreà | Ristora |
| 1998–2001 | Garman | |
| 2001–2002 | Banca Lombarda | |
| 2002–2004 | Umbro | |
| 2004–2005 | Kappa | |
| 2005–2006 | Banca Lombarda (Banco di Brescia) | |
| 2006–2007 | ASICS | |
| 2007–2009 | UBI Banca (Banco di Brescia) – Bregoli | |
| 2009–2010 | Mass | UBI Banca (Banco di Brescia) – Bresciani |
| 2010–2011 | UBI Banca (Banco di Brescia) – Technologic (T-Logic) – Falar – Tescoma | |
| 2011–2012 | UBI Banca (Banco di Brescia) – Sama | |
| 2012–2013 | Givova | |
| 2013–2014 | Adidas | UBI Banca (Banco di Brescia)[17] – Tescoma |
| 2014–2015 | Joma | UBI Banca (Banco di Brescia) – Falar |
| 2015–2017 | Acerbis[18] | UBI Banca (Banco di Brescia) |
| 2017–2018 | UBI Banca[19] | |
| 2019–2025 | Kappa |
| Season | Round | Club | Home | Away | Aggregate | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Third Round |  Tatabánya | 2–1 | 1–1 | 3–2 | [20] |
| Semi-final |  Chmel Blšany | 2–2 | 2–1 | 4–3 | ||
| Final |  Paris Saint-Germain | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 (a) | ||
| 2003 | Second Round |  Gloria Bistrița | 2–1 | 1–1 | 3–2 | [21] |
| Third Round |  Villarreal | 1–1 | 0–2 | 1–3 |
