Founded in 1903 by a group of students at Liceo "Scipione Maffei", the club was namedHellas (the Greek word for Greece), at the request of a professor ofclassics.[3] At a time in which football was played seriously only in the larger cities of northwestern Italy, most of Verona was indifferent to the growing sport. However, when in 1906 two city teams chose the city's Roman amphitheatre as a venue to showcase the game, crowd enthusiasm and media interest began to rise.
During these first few years, Hellas was one of three or four area teams playing at a municipal level while fighting against city rivals Bentegodi to become the city's premier football outfit. By the 1907–08 season, Hellas was playing against regional teams, and an intense rivalry withVicenza that has lasted to this day was born.
January 26, 1958. A.C. Verona —Juventus FC 2–3, Matchday 18 of the1957–58 Serie A. Juventus strikerJohn Charles (center) in action versus Verona's defence.
From 1898 to 1926, Italian football was organised into regional groups. In this period, Hellas was one of the founding teams of the early league and often among its top final contenders. In 1911, the city helped Hellas replace the early, gritty football fields with a proper venue. This allowed the team to take part in its first regional tournament, which until 1926, was the qualifying stage for the national title.
In 1919, following a return to activity after a four-year suspension of all football competition in Italy during World War I, the team merged with city rival Verona and changed its name to Hellas Verona. Between 1926 and 1929, the elite "Campionato Nazionale" assimilated the top sides from the various regional groups. Hellas Verona joined the privileged teams, yet struggled to remain competitive.
Serie A, as it is structured today, began in 1929, when theCampionato Nazionale turned into a professional league. Still an amateur team, Hellas merged with two city rivals, Bentegodi and Scaligera, to form AC Verona. Hoping to build a first class contender for future years, the new team debuted in Serie B in 1929. It would take thegialloblu 28 years to finally achieve their goal. After first being promoted to Serie A for one season in 1957–58, in 1959, the team merged with another city rival (called Hellas) and commemorated its beginnings by changing its name to Hellas Verona AC.
Coached byNils Liedholm, the team returned to Serie A in 1968 and remained in the elite league almost without interruption until 1990. Along the way, it scored a famous 5–3 win in the 1972–73 season that costMilan thescudetto (the Serie A title). The fact that the result came late during the last matchday of the season makes the sudden and unexpected end to therossoneri's title ambitions all the more memorable.
In 1973–74, Hellas finished the season in fourth-last, just narrowly avoiding relegation, but were nonetheless sent down toSerie B during the summer months as a result of a scandal involving team president Saverio Garonzi. After a year in Serie B, Hellas returned to Serie A.
In the 1975–76 season, the team had a successful run in theCoppa Italia, eliminating highly rated teams such asTorino,Cagliari andInternazionale from the tournament. However, in their first ever final in the competition, Hellas were trounced 4–0 byNapoli.
A line-up of A.C. Hellas Verona in the 1975–76 season.
Under the leadership of coachOsvaldo Bagnoli, in 1982–83 the team secured a fourth-place in Serie A (its highest finish at the time) and even led the Serie A standings for a few weeks. The same season Hellas again reached the Coppa Italia final. After a 2–0 home victory, Hellas then travelled toTurin to playJuventus but were defeated 3–0 after extra time.
Further disappointment followed in the 1983–84 season when the team again reached the Coppa Italia final, only to lose the Cup in the final minutes of the return match against defending Serie A championsRoma.
The team made its first European appearance in the1983–84 UEFA Cup and were knocked out in the second round of the tournament bySturm Graz. Hellas were eliminated from the1985–86 European Cup in the second round by defending champions and fellow Serie A side Juventus after a contested game, the result of a scandalous arbitrage by the French Wurtz, having beatenPAOK of Greece in the first round.[4]
In 1988, the team had their best international result when they reached the UEFA Cup quarterfinals with four victories and three draws. The decisive defeat came from German sideWerder Bremen.
Osvaldo Bagnoli,Scudetto winning coach of Hellas Verona in 1985
Although the1984–85 season squad was made up of a mix of emerging players and mature stars, at the beginning of the season no one would have regarded the team as having the necessary ingredients to make it to the end. Certainly, the additions ofHans-Peter Briegel in midfield and of Danish strikerPreben Elkjær to an attack that already featured the wing play ofPietro Fanna, the creative abilities ofAntonio Di Gennaro and the scoring touch ofGiuseppe Galderisi were to prove crucial.
To mention a few of the memorable milestones on the road to thescudetto: a decisive win against Juventus (2–0), with a goal scored by Elkjær after having lost a boot in a tackle just outside the box, set the stage early in the championship; an away win overUdinese (5–3) ended any speculation that the team was losing energy at the midway point; three straight wins (including a hard-fought 1–0 victory against a strong Roma side) served notice that the team had kept its polish and focus intact during their rival's final surge; and a 1–1 draw inBergamo againstAtalanta secured the title with a game in hand.
Hellas finished the year with a 15–13–2 record and 43 points, four points ahead ofTorino with Internazionale andSampdoria rounding out the top four spots. This unusual final table of theSerie A (with the most successful Italian teams of the time, Juventus and Roma, ending up much lower than expected) has led to many speculations. The 1984–85 season was the only season when referees were assigned to matches by way of a random draw. Before then each referee had always been assigned to a specific match by a special commission of referees (designatori arbitrali). After the betting scandal of the early 1980 (theCalcio Scommesse scandal), it was decided to clean up the image of Italian football by assigning referees randomly instead of picking them, to clear up all the suspicions and accusations always accompanying Italy's football life. This resulted in a quieter championship and in a completely unexpected final table.
In the following season, won again by Juventus, the choice of the referees went back in the hands of thedesignatori arbitrali. In 2006, amajor scandal in Italian football revealed that certain clubs had been illegally influencing the referee selection process in an attempt to ensure that certain referees were assigned to their matches.
These were more than mere modest achievements for a mid-size city with a limited appeal to fans across the nation. But soon enough financial difficulties caught up with team managers. In 1991 the team folded and was reborn as Verona, regularly moving to and fro between Serie A and Serie B for several seasons. In 1995 the name was officially returned to Hellas Verona.[5][6]
After a three-year stay, their last stint in Serie A ended in grief in 2002. That season emerging international talents such asAdrian Mutu,Mauro Camoranesi,Alberto Gilardino,Martin Laursen,Massimo Oddo,Marco Cassetti and coachAlberto Malesani failed to capitalise on an excellent start and eventually dropped into fourth-to-last place for the first time all season on the final match day, enforcing relegation into Serie B.[5]
Following the 2002 relegation to Serie B, team fortunes continued to slip throughout the decade. In the 2003–04 season Hellas Verona struggled inSerie B and spent most of the season fighting off an unthinkable relegation toSerie C1. Undeterred, the fans supported their team and a string of late season wins eventually warded off the danger. Over 5,000 of them followed Hellas to Como on the final day of the season to celebrate.
In 2004–05, things looked much brighter for the team. After a rocky start, Hellas put together a string of results and climbed to third spot. Thegialloblù held on to the position until January 2005, when transfers weakened the team, yet they managed to take the battle for Serie A to the last day of the season.
The2006–07 Serie B seemed to start well, due to the club takeover byPietro Arvedi D'Emilei, which ended nine years of controversial leadership under chairmanGianbattista Pastorello, heavily contested by the supporters in his later years at Verona. However, Verona was immediately involved in the relegation battle, andMassimo Ficcadenti was replaced in December 2006 byGiampiero Ventura. Despite a recovery in the results, Verona ended in an 18th place, thus being forced to play a two-legged playoff against 19th-placedSpezia to avert relegation. A 2–1 away loss in the first leg at La Spezia was followed by a 0–0 home tie, and Verona were relegated to Serie C1 after 64 years of play in the two highest divisions.
Verona appointed experienced coachFranco Colomba for the new season with the aim to return to Serie B as soon as possible. However, despite being widely considered the division favourite, thegialloblù spent almost the entire season in last place. After seven matches, club management sacked Colomba in early October and replaced him with youth team coach (and former Verona player)Davide Pellegrini.[7] A new owner acquired the club in late 2007, appointingGiovanni Galli in December as new director of football andMaurizio Sarri as new head coach. Halfway through the 2007–08 season, the team remained at the bottom of Serie C1, on the brink of relegation to the fourth level (Serie C2). In response, club management sacked Sarri and brought back Pellegrini. Thanks to a late-season surge thescaligeri avoided direct relegation by qualifying for the relegation play-off, and narrowly averted dropping toLega Pro Seconda Divisione in the final game, beatingPro Patria 2–1 on aggregate. However, despite the decline in results, attendance and season ticket sales remained at 15,000 on average.
For the 2008–09 season, Verona appointed formerSassuolo andPiacenza managerGian Marco Remondina with the aim to win promotion to Serie B. However, the season did not start impressively, with Verona being out of the playoff zone by mid-season, and club chairman Pietro Arvedi D'Emilei entering into a coma after being involved in a car crash on his way back from a league match in December 2008. Arvedi died in March 2009, two months after the club was bought by new chairman Giovanni Martinelli.
The following season looked promising, as new transfer players were brought aboard, and fans enthusiastically embraced the new campaign. Season ticket figures climbed to over 10,000, placing Verona ahead of several Serie A teams and all but Torino in Serie B attendance.[8] The team led the standings for much of the season, accumulating a seven-point lead by early in the spring. However, the advantage was gradually squandered, and the team dropped to second place on the second-last day of the season, with a chance to regain first place in the final regular season match againstPortogruaro on home soil. Verona, however, disappointed a crowd of over 25,000 fans[9] and, with the loss, dropped to third place and headed towards the play-offs. A managerial change for the post-season saw the firing of Remondina and the arrival ofGiovanni Vavassori. After eliminatingRimini in the semi-finals (1–0; 0–0) Verona lost the final toPescara (2–2 on home soil and 0–1 in the return match) and were condemned to a fourth-straight year of third division football.
Former1990 World Cup starGiuseppe Giannini (a famous captain of Roma for many years) signed as manager for the 2010–11 campaign. Once again, the team was almost entirely revamped during the transfer season. The squad struggled in the early months and Giannini was eventually sacked and replaced by former Internazionale defenderAndrea Mandorlini, who succeeded in reorganising the team's play and bringing discipline both on and off the pitch. In the second half of the season, Verona climbed back from the bottom of the division to clinch a play-off berth (fifth place) on the last day of the regular season. The team advanced to the play-off final after eliminatingSorrento in the semi-finals 3–1 on aggregate. Following the play-off final, after four years of Lega Pro football, Verona were promoted back to Serie B after a 2–1 aggregate win overSalernitana on 19 June 2011.
On 18 May 2013, Verona finished second in Serie B and were promoted to Serie A after an eleven-year absence.[10] Their return to the top flight began against title contenders Milan and Roma, beating the former 2–1 and losing to the latter 3–0. The team continued at a steady pace, finishing the first half of the season with 32 points and sitting in sixth place, eleven points behind the closestUEFA Champions League spot—and tied with Internazionale for the finalUEFA Europa League spot. Verona, however, ultimately finished the year in tenth.
During the2015–16 season, Verona had not won a single match since the beginning of the campaign until the club edgedAtalanta 2–1 on 3 February 2016 in a win at home; coming twenty-three games into the season.[11] Consequently, Verona were relegated from Serie A.[12]
In the2016–17 Serie B season, Hellas Verona finished second on the table and were automatically promoted back to Serie A. Hellas lasted one season back in the top division after finishing second last during the2017–18 Serie A season and were relegated back to Serie B.[13] At the end of the2018–19 season, Hellas finished in fifth position and achieved promotion back to Serie A after defeatingCittadella 3–0 in the second leg of theirpromotion play-off to win 3–2 on aggregate.[14]
The club's return to the top flight in the2019–20 Serie A season, in which it was considered a strong relegation candidate at the beginning of the campaign, was a successful one, with a ninth-placed finish. Heavily reliant on the defensive solidity of 20-year-old centre-backMarash Kumbulla,Amir Rrahmani and goalkeeperMarco Silvestri, along with the consistent performances of midfielderSofyan Amrabat, Verona was a surprise contender for Europa League qualification but fell out of the race after a downturn in form after the coronavirus break which temporarily halted the season.[15] A 2–1 win at home against eventual title winnersJuventus in February was a highlight of a season in which the club achieved 10 clean sheets and punched towards the higher end of the table despite its modest budget.[16]
Ahead of Verona's second consecutive year inSerie A, key players Amrabat, Rrahmani and Kumbulla were poached byFiorentina,Napoli andRoma respectively, and loaneeMatteo Pessina returned to Atalanta. This left the club with a heavily weakened squad and it was once again expected to struggle in the league prior to the season-opening match.[17] Despite these losses in the transfer window, Verona again finished in the top half of the league table, ending the season in 10th place with 45 points. Successful breakout seasons for attacking midfielderMattia Zaccagni, who was eventually called up to theItaly national team as a reward for his performances, as well as wing-backsFederico Dimarco andDavide Faraoni, were partly the reason for this achievement.[18] At the end of the season, coachIvan Jurić was appointed byTorino following his two impressiveSerie A seasons with Verona, with theGialloblu replacing him withEusebio Di Francesco.[19]
Following another summer transfer window in which several of the club's star players were sold to Serie A rivals, namely Zaccagni transferring toLazio, Marco Silvestri toUdinese and Dimarco returning toInter, the beginning of the2021-22 season proved to be much more difficult for Verona, as Di Francesco was fired and replaced withIgor Tudor after just three matches, all of which were defeats. This poor early-season form had left the club at the bottom of the table. Under the guidance of Tudor, the team regains competitiveness obtaining in the next eight matches three wins – including victories with Lazio and Juventus – four draws and only one defeat.[20]
The team's colours are yellow and blue. As a result, the clubs most widely used nickname isgialloblù literally "yellow-blue" in Italian. The colours represent the city itself and Verona'semblem (a yellow cross on a blue shield) appears on most team apparel. Home kits are traditionally blue, sometimes of a navy shade, combined with yellow details and trim, although the club has used a blue and yellow striped design on occasion. Two more team nicknames areMastini (themastiffs) andScaligeri, both references toMastino I della Scala of theDella Scala princes that ruled the city during the 13th and 14th centuries.
The Scala familycoat of arms is depicted on the team's jersey and on its trademark logo as a stylised image of two large, powerful mastiffs facing opposite directions, introduced in 1995.[21] In essence, the term "scaligeri" is synonymous with Veronese, and therefore can describe anything or anyone from Verona (e.g.,Chievo Verona, a different team that also links itself to the Scala family – specifically toCangrande I della Scala).
Since 1963, the club have played at theStadio Marc'Antonio Bentegodi, which has a capacity of 39,211.[22] It is the eighth-largest stadium in Italy by capacity. The stadium is named after the historic benefactor of Veronese sport,Marcantonio Bentegodi.
The ground was shared with Hellas's rivals,Chievo Verona[23] until 2021.[24] It was used as a venue for some matches of the1990 FIFA World Cup and renovations prior to the tournament included an extra tier and a roof to cover all sections, improved visibility, public transport connections, an urban motorway connecting the city centre with the stadium and the Verona Nord motorway exit and services.
Hellas, founded in 1903, were traditionally the main club in Verona. Chievo, founded in 1929, historically represented the small Verona suburb of the same name, using a small parish field as their home ground, and did not become a professional side until 1986. At that time, Chievo became tenants of Hellas at the Bentegodi, and began rising up the league ladder. By the mid-1990s, Chievo had joined Hellas in Serie B, creating the derby. During the teams' early Serie B meetings, Hellas supporters taunted Chievo with the chantQuando i mussi volara, faremo el derby in Serie A – "Donkeys will fly before we’ll have a derby in Serie A." Once Chievo earned promotion to Serie A at the end of the2000–01 season, their fans started calling the teami Mussi Volanti (The Flying Donkeys). A 2014 story in the British football magazineLate Tackle remarked that "Hellas fans didn’t so much have their words rammed down their throat as forced through every orifice with a barge pole."[25]
In the season2001–02, both Hellas Verona and the city rivals of Chievo Verona were playing in theSerie A. The first ever derby of Verona in Serie A took place on 18 November 2001, while both teams were ranked among the top four. The match was won by Hellas, 3–2. Chievo got revenge in the return match in spring 2002, winning 2–1. Verona thus became the fifth city in Italy, afterMilan,Rome,Turin andGenoa to host a cross-town derby in Serie A.[26]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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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