Under coach Vincenzo Guerini, the club's rise was meteoric: 5th place in 1990 and promotion was achieved two years later.

Although they would finish 17th and were relegated after just one year, the club nonetheless played in some memorable high-scoring games including a 3–0 home win over Inter.

In October 2007 it was reported that Centro Sportivo Italiano (CSI), run by the Vatican's Conference of Bishops, had purchased an 80% share in the club.

The report read: "It is a way to moralise football, to bring some ethics to a sector that is going through a deep crisis of values," said Ancona Archbishop Edoardo Menichelli, who recently played a benefit game against an Italy national team of singers.

[2] Yet in a Reuters report on 11 October 2007, both the Vatican Secretary of State and the Pope endorsed the move, quoted as saying respectively: Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone praised the project in a statement read at its presentation, saying it was designed to 'bring out the human and spiritual values in sport'.

Pope Benedict XVI also encouraged the team after receiving a shirt with his name and the number 16 on from them at a general audience in St Peter's Square[3] The club has had several Papal connections.

The 'Project Soccer' initiative was blessed by Pope Benedict XVI with a letter sent by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to the Centro Sportivo Italiano.

The club, however, managed to submit application for a place in Terza Categoria, the lowest level of the Italian football league system.