History of ACF Fiorentina

In 1908 a group of people including Oreste Gelli founded "Firenze Football Club", that played their matches at grounds called Prato del Quercione, at Parco delle Cascine.

Finally, in 1910 "Palestra Ginnastica Fiorentina Libertas" (already founded in 1877 for other sports) was born from an internal split in "Firenze Football Club".

The members of Libertas were often referred to as "ghiozzi rossi", because they frequently had to jump into the ditch that bordered the field to pick up the ball.

It's important to point out that this event was made easier by the rising fascist regime, which didn't like divisions in Italian cities, even in sport.

In Fiorentina and Roma's case, the main authors of these mergers were Luigi Ridolfi Vay da Verrazzano and Italo Foschi, both provincial fascist leaders, while for Ambrosiana-Inter, the request was brought forward by Benito Mussolini himself.

On 3 July 1926 (7 July according to some sources) "PGF Libertas Firenze" played their last official match (last match of "Campionato Nazionale di II Divisione") against Prato with the following line-up: Sbrana, Farina, Posteiner, Barigozzi, Magnifico, Salvatorini, Mazzacurati, Focosi, Csapkay, Segoni II, Baldini.

Fiorentina ha avuto il torto di cominciare un po' tardi gli allenamenti della squadra.

But in 1929 a mistake during the washing of a set jerseys given to Fiorentina by Colligiana meant the red dye ran into the white, creating a shade of purple.

The next year the team, always in "Prima Divisione", moved to easier Girone Sud ("Group South") reaching the second place at the end of the season only behind Bari.

Fiorentina's goalkeeper, Pieri, was replaced by Sernagiotto after two dreadful performances: a 0–3 home defeat against Ambrosiana and a 0–11 away loss against Juventus in Turin.

Success in the Coppa Italia was repeated in 1975, but from then until the late 1990s the club found itself in the doldrums, culminating in a season in Serie B (second division) in 1993–1994.

2001 heralded major changes for Fiorentina, as the terrible state of the club's finances was revealed; they were unable to pay wages and had debts of around US$50 million.

This form of bankruptcy (sports companies cannot exactly fail in this way in Italy, but they can suffer a similar procedure) meant that the club was refused a place in Serie B for the 2002–03 season, and as a result, effectively ceased to exist.

So the club was promptly re-established in August 2002 as Florentia Viola with a new owner, Diego Della Valle, and was admitted into Serie C2, the fourth tier of Italian football.

The combination of defence by captain Dario Dainelli and Czech international regular Tomáš Ujfaluši, midfield by Cristian Brocchi, wing by Martin Jorgensen, playmaking by Stefano Fiore and key marksman Luca Toni with Sebastian Frey as goalkeeper proved to be an outstanding force in Serie A. Fiorentina officially regained their status as an Italian elite, especially with Toni himself having scored an amazing 31 goals in just 34 appearances, the first player to pass the 30 goal mark since Antonio Valentin Angelillo in the 1958–59 season – which has seen him claim the European Golden Boot.

[2] After the start of the season, upon appealing to the Italian courts, Fiorentina's penalization was reduced to 15 points from 19, which was still far heavier than club officials had hoped for.

The combination of World Cup winner Luca Toni and Romanian international Adrian Mutu proved to be one of Serie A's most proficient strike partnerships, scoring 31 goals between them.