| Full name | Football Club Trapani 1905 srl | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname | I Granata (The Maroons) | |||
| Founded | 1905; 120 years ago (1905) | |||
| Ground | Stadio Polisportivo Provinciale, Erice, Italy | |||
| Capacity | 7,000 | |||
| Chairman | Valerio Antonini | |||
| Manager | Salvatore Aronica | |||
| League | Serie C Group C | |||
| 2024–25 | Serie C Group C, 11th of 20 | |||
| Website | www | |||
 Current season | ||||
Football Club Trapani 1905, commonly referred to asTrapani, is anItalian football club based inTrapani,Sicily.
They are nicknamed theGranata (the Maroons), after their kit colour.
The club's roots can be traced back to 1905;[1] on 2 April of that year, local newspaper the Gazzetta di Trapani ran anadvert requesting young people to form a football association for Trapani.[2] The club founded, by professor Ugolino Montagna and young native Abele Mazzarese to represent the West-Sicilian town was namedUnione Sportiva Trapanese. It is one of the oldest teams on the island, afterPalermo andMessina.
U.S. Trapanese's first president was Giuseppe Platamone, and the club played its games at Via Spalti. The club's first official game came againstPalermo in October 1908; the more experienced Palermitan team won emphatically, scoring 12 goals. The Trapanese bounced back, however, playing local derbies against teams fromMarsala andErice.
After World War I, in 1921, three local teams rose: Vigor, Bencivegna and Drepanum. During the1921–22 season, Vigor finished 6th in the Sicilian section of the national championship of the C.C.I. (Confederazione Calcistica Italiana). On 22 January 1923, a merger occurred between Vigor and Drepanum; the club decided to revive the previous nameU.S. Trapanese.
In June 1926, the club's name was changed toA.S. Trapani. In the 1930–31 season, under the nameJuventus Trapani, the club won promotion from III Divisione to II Divisione. The following season, they achieved promotion again, this time into the early 1930s equivalent ofSerie C. They finished 8th in Serie C in the 1942–43 season, but then football in Italy was put on hold for World War II.
Just after World War II, the club used the name A.S. Trapani for one season before changing its name toA.S. Drepanum. They were entered intoSerie C, which, at the time, was divided into many regional groups. For the 1947–48 season, they qualified for the new, smaller Serie C, even finishing aboveMessina. Unfortunately for the club, they were relegated toSerie D in the 1949–50 season after finishing second from bottom.
With formerSerie A playerIgnazio Arcoleo as head coach, Trapani experienced two consecutive promotions fromSerie D toSerie C1 in the early 1990s.
In 1995, a strong and qualified team composed mostly of young promising players such asMarco Materazzi and more experienced local footballers such asFrancesco Galeoto qualified to the promotion play-off, but ultimately lost toWalter Novellino'sGualdo in the semi-finals with a late goal scored on injury time. After that, Trapani experienced a slow but continuous decline despite attempts to repeat past successes: Arcoleo left Trapani to coachPalermo along with some of the best players, including Galeoto. The club then relegated toSerie C2 in 1997,Serie D in 2000 and evenEccellenza in the 2005–06 season, despite a late attempt by Arcoleo and former starGaetano Vasari to save the team from relegation. In addition, the club also received a 12-point deduction for the 2006–07 season following a match-fixing attempt recognized by the Football Federation. In its 2006–07 Eccellenza campaign, Trapani, coached by formerParma midfielderTarcisio Catanese, ended theregular season phase to eleventh place and escaped relegation after having won relegation play-offs to Terrasini in a 5–0 single-legged win. From 2007 onwards, Trapani competed in the Serie D with little success.
In 2009, chairman Vittorio Morace appointedRoberto Boscaglia as new head coach, intending to bring the club's return into professionalism; in his first season in charge, Trapani ended as runner-up behindMilazzo. However, later in August, due to the high number of resignations of clubs in the higher tiers, Trapani was admitted into the2010–11 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione (formerly Serie C2), thus ending the club's 13-year absence from the professional tiers.
In 2010–11, Trapani finished as runner-up in theLega Pro Seconda Divisione Group C and successively won the promotion play-offs toLega Pro Prima Divisione. In the first campaign in the third tier, Trapani surprised everyone by topping the league against all odds; an end-of-season crisis, however, led to the Sicilians being overtaken bySpezia in the penultimate week of the season and losing a direct promotion. In the subsequent promotion play-offs, after defeatingCremonese in the semi-finals, Trapani lost a two-legged final to fourth-placed outsidersLanciano. In the following season, however, Trapani were crowned champions (this time in group A) and finally promoted toSerie B for the first time ever.
In 2015–16, withSerse Cosmi as their coach, they finished in 3rd place, losing toPescara in the playoff final. However, they started off badly the following season, sacking Cosmi on 30 November with the club in last place. The appointment ofAlessandro Calori saw an improvement in form, and they ended the season in 19th place, sitting in the relegation play-off spots. Unfortunately, 18th placedTernana finished five points above the Granata, meaning the club were relegated to Serie C for the2017–18 season.
Trapani's first season return to the third tier, with Calori still in charge, saw theGranata ending in third place (behindUS Lecce andCatania) and then being eliminated at the playoff stage by eventual winnersCosenza.
During the summer of 2018, Trapani's ownership announced their intention to sell the club and reduce the budget due to financial and legal issues surrounding the parent company, Ustica Lines.Vincenzo Italiano was hired as the new head coach in place of Calori, withRaffaele Rubino as sporting director for the new season.[3] The season also saw the club being sold from the Morace family to the FM Service company, owned by Maurizio De Simone.[4] The club ended the season in second place, and had a successful campaign in the subsequent promotion playoffs, making it to the finals againstPiacenza after defeatingCatania in the semi-finals.
On 5 June 2019, just a few days after the first leg of the playoff finals, the Trapani playing squad announced their intention to send theirnotice of default after the new ownership had repeatedly failed to pay their salaries.[5] On 15 June 2019, Trapani defeated Piacenza 2–0 to win their second promotion to Serie B in the club's history.[6] The very next day, Rome-based property developer Giorgio Heller (who was already linked to the club in the past) announced his acquisition of a majority 80% share of the club.[7] The takeover was formally finalized on 21 June 2019, in time to allow the club to successfully register for the2019–20 Serie B season.[8]
However, after an unfavourable season that ended with immediate relegation to Serie C, Trapani were excluded altogether on 5 October 2020 due to outstanding financial issues.[9]
In the summer of 2021,Paceco-basedSerie D club Dattilo acquired the footballing rights of Trapani, including the logo, and renamed themselves asFootball Club Trapani 1905. In their debut season under the new denomination, Trapani ended in a mid-table finish. In April 2023, the club was bought for €1,240,000 byValerio Antonini.[10] Under his tenure, Trapani dominated the2023–24 Serie D Group I, without losing a single match in the league, winning promotion to Serie C immediately.
On 29 May 2024, Trapani also won theCoppa Italia Serie D title, defeatingFollonica Gavorrano in a two-legged final.[11]
Trapani's main rivals areMarsala 1912 andMazara, from the neighbouring cities ofMarsala andMazara del Vallo. A rivalry withPalermo also exists but has rarely been contested: Palermo and Trapani briefly played together inSerie C1 and renewed their rivalry in the 2013–14 Serie B campaign.
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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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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Heinrich Schönfeld (1930–33)
Achille Piccini (1949–50)
Ferenc Plemich (1953)Gastone Prendato (1955–57), (1961–62)Leandro Remondini (1962–63)Alberto Eliani (1972–73)Egizio Rubino (1977–79)
Washington Cacciavillani (1981–83)Mario Facco (1989–90)Ignazio Arcoleo (1992–95)Ivo Iaconi (1996–97)Ezio Capuano (1999–00)Tarcisio Catanese (2006–08)Roberto Boscaglia (2009–15)Serse Cosmi (2015–16)Vincenzo Italiano (2018–19)Francesco Baldini (2019–2021)
Media related toTrapani Calcio at Wikimedia Commons
