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| Full name | Unione Sportiva Avellino 1912 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Lupi (Wolves), Biancoverdi (White-greens), Irpini (Irpinians) | |||
| Founded | 1912; 113 years ago (1912) (first club) 1944; 81 years ago (1944) (asUS Avellino) 2009; 16 years ago (2009) (asAvellino Calcio) 2018; 7 years ago (2018) (asUS Avellino 1912) | |||
| Ground | Stadio Partenio, Avellino, Italy | |||
| Capacity | 26,308 | |||
| Chairman | Angelo Antonio D'Agostino | |||
| Manager | Raffaele Biancolino | |||
| League | Serie C Group C | |||
| 2023–24 | Serie C Group C, 2nd of 20 | |||
| Website | https://www.usavellino1912.com/ | |||
Unione Sportiva Avellino 1912, commonly referred to asUS Avellino 1912, is an Italian professionalfootball club based inAvellino,Campania. It competes inSerie C, the third tier ofItalian football.
It is the official continuity club of US Avellino 1912, known worldwide for having competed inSerie A for ten consecutive seasons, from1978–1979 to1987–1988. The team went through two major reboots: once, in 2009, when it went bankrupt, and then, in 2018, when it was excluded fromSerie B. In both cases, new clubs were founded to join theSerie D league.
The club was renamed asAvellino Calcio.12 Società Sportiva Dilettantistica in 2009, thenAssociazione Sportiva Avellino 1912 in 2010, and restored to the originalUnione Sportiva Avellino 1912 in 2015,[1] although initially taking the nameCalcio Avellino Società Sportiva Dilettantistica for the2018–2019 season.
The club was founded asU.S. Avellino on 12 December 1912[2] to give the town ofAvellino a footballing representative. The early history of the club is quite obscure as they only competed at a lower level against regional sides. Avellino competed inIV Divisione from 1913 until after the Second World War; today's equivalent of that level isSerie D.
For the earlier part of their history the club did not achieve anything of note, until being placed inSerie C for the 1945–46 post-War season. In the 1946–47 season they narrowly missed out on getting through to the interregional final, after finishing third in their group.
Avellino beat out the likes ofCatania,Reggina andMessina to win promotion toSerie B at the end of the 1940s. However, the club were accused ofmatch fixing and the federation relegated them toSerie D. Although they were promoted to Serie C after one season, Avellino were relegated to spend six consecutive seasons at Serie D level.
Eventually Avellino returned, but, in six seasons, and Avellino gained promotion to Serie C in three of them and were relegated twice.
Avellino were promoted toSerie B in 1973 and Serie A in 1978. A truly remarkable feat for a southern provincial side was a 10-year stay in Serie A (1978 to 1988), with the club holding a mid-table place for the majority of that period. Their best finish was 8th in 1987, with a team starringAngelo Alessio,Paolo Benedetti,Franco Colomba andDirceu.
The club tended to shift betweenSerie B andSerie C1 in the decade following relegation fromSerie A in 1988.
The club marked a surprisingSerie B return after defeating neighbors and football powerhouseNapoli in the 2004-05 Serie C1/Bplay-off finals. An unsuccessful 2005–06 campaign ended in a loss on relegation playoffs toAlbinoleffe (0–2, 3–2). The 2006–07 season, withGiuseppe Galderisi as head coach, then replaced byGiovanni Vavassori, ended in a second place in the Serie C1/B regular season; this was then followed by a successful campaign in the promotion play-offs, in which Avellino defeatedFoggia in the finals, being therefore promoted to Serie B once again. However, this was followed by Vavassori's resignations on 16 July 2007, shortly after his confirmation as Avellino boss,[3] being then replaced byMaurizio Sarri two days later.[4] Sarri himself resigned one month later, being replaced byGuido Carboni and laterAlessandro Calori. Despite this, the club did not manage to escape relegation, ending the season in 19th place. The club was however readmitted to Serie B later on to fill a league vacancy created byMessina's disbandment.
The team finished second from bottom inthe 2008–09 season and was therefore relegated again. On 9 July 2009, the Covisoc (Commissione di Vigilanza sulle Società Calcistiche, Vigilancy Commission on Football Clubs) organization announced that the team did not pass the financial requirements in order to be admitted to the league. The club was allowed to appeal the decision until 11 July 2009.[5] On 11 July, Avellino failed to appeal the exclusion.[6][7][8]
A new club founded in the summer 2009 asAvellino Calcio.12 S.S.D. restarts from Serie D, finishing 5th, but 4 August 2010 they were later admitted toLega Pro Seconda Divisione to fill vacancies. This ordeal saw them become the latest in a long line of Italian clubs that have faced severe financial difficulties, such as Napoli and Fiorentina.
In the 2010–11 season the team becameAssociazione Sportiva Avellino 1912 and played inLega Pro Seconda Divisione finishing 4th, being defeated byTrapani in the play-off final, but 4 August 2011 it was later admitted toLega Pro Prima Divisione, again, to fill vacancies.[9] In the season 2012–13 Avellino wonLega Pro Prima Divisione and the team obtained the promotion inSerie B, under managerMassimo Rastelli. In2014–2015, Rastelli led the team to the play-off semi-finals, when they are eliminated by the more prestigiousBologna team despite a 3–2 win away.
In 2018, Avellino was excluded from Serie B due to submitting a league membership paperwork that was deemed as incomplete, due to a late bank guarantee. Due to this, a new club was re-founded within days in order to submit application to play atSerie D instead. In 2019 Avellino won Serie D and theScudetto Serie D, reaching the promotion inSerie C for the next season. In2020–2021, they once again reached the play-off semi-finals, losing to Padova.
Its traditional colours are green and white.Avellino are nicknamed the "Lupi", which means wolf, and their club crest displays a wolf head.[10]
Updated 4 February 2025.[11]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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10 –
Adriano Lombardi,Midfielder (1975–79) –posthumous honor, number retired in 2007.
Antonio Vojak (1947)Oronzo Pugliese (1974–75)Giuseppe Baldini (1976–77)
Luís Vinício (1980–82)Giuseppe Marchioro (1982)Fernando Veneranda (1982–84)Ottavio Bianchi (1983–84)
Tomislav Ivić (1985–86)Luís Vinício (1986–88)Enzo Ferrari (1988)Eugenio Fascetti (1988–89)Nedo Sonetti (1989–90)Adriano Lombardi (1989–90)Bruno Bolchi (1991–92)Francesco Graziani (1991–92)Adriano Lombardi (1992–93)Giuseppe Papadopulo (1994–95)
Zbigniew Boniek (1994–96)Corrado Orrico (1995–96)Giuliano Zoratti (1996–97)Adriano Lombardi (1997–98)Giuliano Sonzogni (2001–02)Massimo Ficcadenti (2002)
Zdeněk Zeman (2003–04)Antonello Cuccureddu (2004–05)Franco Colomba (2005–06)Giuseppe Galderisi (2006–07)Giovanni Vavassori (2007)Maurizio Sarri (2007)Guido Carboni (2007–08)Alessandro Calori (2008)Giuseppe Incocciati (2008)Salvatore Campilongo (2008–09)Giovanni Bucaro (2011–12)Massimo Rastelli (2012–15)Attilio Tesser (2015–16)Walter Novellino (2016–18)| Level | Category | Participations | Debut | Last season | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1º | Serie A | 10 | 1978–79 | 1987–88 | 10 |
| 2º | Serie B | 19 | 1973–74 | 2017–18 | 16 |
| 3º | Serie C | 18 | 1945–46 | 2019–20 | 33 |
| Serie C1 | 14 | 1992–93 | 2012–13 | ||
| Lega Pro Seconda Divisione | 1 | 2010–11 | |||
| 4º | Seconda Divisione | 3 | 1930–31 | 1935–36 | 19 |
| Prima Divisione | 4 | 1940–41 | 1945 | ||
| Promozione | 2 | 1949–50 | 1951–52 | ||
| IV Serie | 5 | 1952–53 | 1956–57 | ||
| Interregionale | 2 | 1957–58 | 1958–59 | ||
| Serie D | 2 | 1961–62 | 1963–64 | ||
| 5º | Terza Divisione | 2 | 1929–30 | 1932–33 | 5 |
| Seconda Divisione | 1 | 1935–36 | |||
| Serie D | 2 | 2009–10 | 2018–19 | ||
