Hellas Verona FC

[2] Founded in 1903 by a group of students at Liceo "Scipione Maffei", the club was named Hellas (the Greek word for Greece), at the request of a professor of classics.

The fact that the result came late during the last matchday of the season makes the sudden and unexpected end to the rossoneri'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 to Serie B during the summer months as a result of a scandal involving team president Saverio Garonzi.

Certainly, the additions of Hans-Peter Briegel in midfield and of Danish striker Preben Elkjær to an attack that already featured the wing play of Pietro Fanna, the creative abilities of Antonio Di Gennaro and the scoring touch of Giuseppe Galderisi were to prove crucial.

This unusual final table of the Serie A (with the most successful Italian teams of the time, Juventus and Roma, ending up much lower than expected) has led to many speculations.

That season emerging international talents such as Adrian Mutu, Mauro Camoranesi, Alberto Gilardino, Martin Laursen, Massimo Oddo, Marco Cassetti and coach Alberto 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.

The gialloblù 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.

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.

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, appointing Giovanni Galli in December as new director of football and Maurizio Sarri as new head coach.

For the 2008–09 season, Verona appointed former Sassuolo and Piacenza manager Gian 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.

After eliminating Rimini in the semi-finals (1–0; 0–0) Verona lost the final to Pescara (2–2 on home soil and 0–1 in the return match) and were condemned to a fourth-straight year of third division football.

The squad struggled in the early months and Giannini was eventually sacked and replaced by former Internazionale defender Andrea Mandorlini, who succeeded in reorganising the team's play and bringing discipline both on and off the pitch.

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 over Salernitana on 19 June 2011.

[14] The club's return to the top flight in the 2019–20 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-back Marash Kumbulla, Amir Rrahmani and goalkeeper Marco Silvestri, along with the consistent performances of midfielder Sofyan 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 winners Juventus 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 in Serie A, key players Amrabat, Rrahmani and Kumbulla were poached by Fiorentina, Napoli and Roma respectively, and loanee Matteo Pessina returned to Atalanta.

[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 midfielder Mattia Zaccagni, who was eventually called up to the Italy national team as a reward for his performances, as well as wing-backs Federico Dimarco and Davide Faraoni, were partly the reason for this achievement.

[19] Following another summer transfer window in which several of the club's star players were sold to Serie A rivals, namely Zaccagni transferring to Lazio, Marco Silvestri to Udinese and Dimarco returning to Inter, the beginning of the 2021-22 season proved to be much more difficult for Verona, as Di Francesco was fired and replaced with Igor Tudor after just three matches, all of which were defeats.

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.

The Scala family coat 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.

The name refers to the Scaligeri or della Scala aristocratic family, who were rulers of Verona during the Middle Ages and early Renaissance.

Once Chievo earned promotion to Serie A at the end of the 2000–01 season, their fans started calling the team i Mussi Volanti (The Flying Donkeys).

A 2014 story in the British football magazine Late 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.

January 26, 1958. A.C. Verona — Juventus FC 2–3, Matchday 18 of the 1957–58 Serie A . Juventus striker John Charles (center) in action versus Verona's defence.
Paolo Sirena scoring the first goal for Verona during a 5–3 victory over AC Milan on the last day of the 1972-73 Serie A season
A line-up of A.C. Hellas Verona in the 1975–76 season.
Osvaldo Bagnoli , Scudetto winning coach of Hellas Verona in 1985
Luisito Campisi playing for Hellas Verona in 2009
Hellas Verona badge between 1965-1984
Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi in 2022
The progress of Hellas Verona in the Italian football league structure since the first season of a unified Serie A (1929/30).
Verona shirt from the 1992–93 season