 | ||||
| Full name | Società Sportiva Calcistica Ancona Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica[1] | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | I Dorici (The Dorians) I Biancorossi (The Red and Whites) | |||
| Founded | 2021 | |||
| Ground | Stadio del Conero,[2] Ancona, Italy | |||
| Capacity | 23,967 | |||
| Chairman | Vincenzo Guerini | |||
| Manager | Massimo Gadda | |||
| 2023–24 | Serie C Group B, 16th of 20 (excluded) | |||
| Website | https://www.usancona.com/ | |||
Società Sportiva Calcistica Ancona, commonly referred to asAncona, is anItalian football club based inAncona,Marche.
The club is the heir of the defunct formerSerie A clubAncona, with whom it shares its official historical logo. The continuation of football in Ancona goes back to 1905, when the original club was first founded.
Ancona has a long history of football clubs sharing the same red and white colours and a similar logo. Originally, the club was named Anconitana, but the name was changed to reflect the city of Ancona in the 1980s. Reaching the final of the1994 Coppa Italia and spending two seasons in the Serie A eleven years apart, the original club was refounded after a2004 relegation from the top flight in last place. This came after the club had loaded up on experienced players of high profile, such asMário Jardel,Dario Hübner andEusebio Di Francesco, without success. Six years later, the club was refounded again, demoting it from the second to fourth tier. In 2017, a third bankruptcy saw the refounded club drop out of the professional leagues.
The most recent club was founded in 2021 as the merger ofSerie C clubS.S. Matelica Calcio 1921, from the city ofMatelica, with Ancona-basedEccellenza club Anconitana.[3]
As part of the merger, all logos and naming rights of Matelica were given away toPrima Categoria club G.S. Corrado Fabiani Matelica, formally owned by chairman Mauro Canil's wife and which is now to be legally considered the heir of Matelica itself,[4] whereas, as part of the merger, Anconitana brought the original footballing logo, as well as the rights to use theStadio del Conero in the city ofAncona.[5] The new club's board will be the same as Matelica's, with Mauro Canil as majority shareholder and chairman, whereas Anconitana's original owner Stefano Marconi will be linked to Ancona-Matelica as the club's official main sponsor for the following five years.[5] The club board stated their aim to have the official name changed to just "Ancona" by 2022, pending approval by the Italian Football Federation.[3]
On 30 March 2022,Malaysian billionaire entrepreneur Tony Tiong, nephew ofTiong Hiew King, was announced as the new majority shareholder, after having acquired 95% of the club's shares.[6] By the end of the season, the club changed its denomination toUnione Sportiva Ancona, thus severing its association with Matelica altogether.[7] After two seasons, the club was excluded again from Serie C after the ownership failed to comply with the financial and legal requirements in time and then restarted fromSerie D with the denomination ofSSC Ancona ASD by means ofArticle 52 of NOIF.[8]
The team's colors are white and red.
Ancona play their home matches at the 25,000-capacity Stadio del Conero, located in the city ofAncona.
