History of UC Sampdoria

One day the hierarchs got the urge to merge Doria and Samp to make room for whoever they cared for the most, and they practically committed a crime of "lese personality" aggravating it with the mockery of the name given to the new creature born of the fatherhood.

Two goalkeepers of great class, Lusetti and Bonetti, three outspoken full-backs: Battaia, Sacchetti, Parena; six midfielders (by the way, Milani has been hanging around Genoa for a few days now...) Gramaglia, Bertoni, Bertani, Diotallevi, Sandroni, Castignani, plus the eventual purchase; a series of forwards led by Baldini, with Bassetto, Conti II, Carissimi, Di Piazza, Frugali, Castelli, Ventimiglia, Parodi, Braga, Parvis, Opisso.

"—Edgardo D'Apua, Il Secolo XIX, July 11, 1946[2] The gymnasts of Andrea Doria, founded in 1895, also began to broaden the disciplines they practiced, devoting themselves to soccer as well and occupying for this purpose the space in what is now Piazza Verdi, in front of which the Genoa Brignole station was being built.

On July 27, 1927, at the behest of the fascist regime, Andrea Doria and Sampierdarenese were merged, giving rise to Associazione Calcio La Dominante, which in 1930 assumed the name Foot Ball Club Liguria.

Sampierdarenese succeeded in returning to the top division at the end of the 1933-1934 season, but on July 15, 1937, after a meeting at the “Casa del Fascio,” it was forced to assume the name Associazione Calcio Liguria, while retaining its social colors, following the merger of Corniglianese and Rivarolese; Andrea Doria, meanwhile, followed its path in Serie C until its dissolution in 1941.

The result was an absolutely unique uniform, certainly the most original of those in the entire national football scene:[6] a blue jersey interspersed with two white stripes, one red and one black, with the coat of arms of Genoa (the cross of St. George) in the center.

The team's symbol, on the other hand, is composed of a bundle of blue-ringed stripes placed diagonally, in the center of which is a black silhouette depicting the face of a typical stylized Genoese fisherman with beard, a distinctive cap, a pipe and his hair blowing in the wind.

Despite the departure of striker Bassetto (196 appearances and 93 goals with Sampdoria), fans could only be happy with the summer market, with the arrival of players including Testa, a powerful center forward; Podestà, a good defender; Tortul, a talented midfielder; and Baldini, who returned and was “forgiven” after his years wearing the red and blue jersey of Genoa.

The eighth place achieved in the 1959-1960 season did not completely satisfy the ambitious president Ravano who, although at loggerheads with the fans for some excellent transfers, decided to buy yet another reject from Inter: after Cucchiaroni and Skoglund, the national team player Sergio Brighenti arrived in Genoa.

As a result, the South American turned out to be the only positive note of the season, while Toro, referred to at the beginning as the team's extra man, scored only three goals (including two on penalties): in the end, he moved to Modena, where he stayed for seven years.

The former Bologna and Fiorentina coach failed to pull off the miracle of saving Sampdoria from relegation: on the last day, the Genoese were defeated by Juventus, while SPAL, a direct competitor for salvation, drew, with a surprising comeback, against Brescia.

[14] On the third last day against Lazio in the away match, referee Bernardis from Trieste did not grant the blucerchiati a penalty, defined as "evident" by all the national press,[14] for a foul by goalkeeper Gori on Sampdorian center forward Ermanno Cristin.

The relegation to Serie B led President De Franceschini to resign: in his place came Arnaldo Salatti, who proceeded to confirm Bernardini and reinforce the team with some good players, among whom Roberto Vieri and forward Francesconi stood out.

The president, without giving exhaustive explanations, resigned at the end of that season, leaving his place to lawyer Mario Colantuoni, with whom a rather negative period began, made up of salvations reached on the last day.

Salvation was mainly due to the good defense, led by a stoic Battara, by then the team's longtime flagship player: the attack scored only 21 goals, making it one of the weakest in the top league; neither Francesconi nor Vieri were able to maintain their standards.

In that year, once again, Cristin demonstrated his good scoring prowess: his nine goals, along with Salvi's eight and Suarez's five, allowed Samp to make up for the unusual defensive deficiencies, an obvious consequence of Frustalupi's departure to Milan.

In the summer, Sampdoria, after the opening of an investigation, even risked being relegated to the second tier, but sports justice, even in the face of an actual lack of evidence and some journalistic inferences, condemned the team with a four-point deduction in the following championship, which, after several appeals, was reduced to three.

[62] Having gained entry to the final, the Dorians found themselves facing Barcelona: a Koeman goal in extra time bent the Ligurian resistance, but the defeat did not undermine the good things Sampdoria had accomplished during the season.

[99] The 2004-05 championship saw the doriani compete again for the continental cups, but in the final stages of the tournament the draw with the Friulians[100] and the defeat to Inter (in which the team hit the post three times)[101] made Sampdoria drop to fifth place, thus missing entry into the Champions League.

[206][207] The poor start to the season cost Walter Zenga his job and he was replaced by Vincenzo Montella at the November break;[208] the former Dorian striker led the team to salvation, with just 2 points more than third-last-placed Carpi.

At the end of the season Giampaolo left the Genoese team after 3 years characterized by good play and with the merit of having introduced many players such as Lucas Torreira, Bruno Fernandes, Patrik Schick, Milan Škriniar, Luis Muriel, Duván Zapata and Dennis Praet.

With Ranieri's confirmation, the following season was spent quietly, navigating in the standings always far from the relegation zone: Sampdoria ended the championship in 9th place with 52 points, after which the Roman coach (who had also negotiated a renewal with the club) announced his resignation.

[212] In the meantime, the club saw a progressive deterioration of its corporate situation: in 2019 a negotiation (also advocated by former owner Edoardo Garrone)[213] to sell Sampdoria to a US group, represented by former blucerchiato player Gianluca Vialli, had failed.

This setback came on top of the exhaustion of the resources the club had available in 2014 to guarantee business continuity, the backlash of the pandemic crisis and the vicissitudes of owner Massimo Ferrero, who resigned from the presidency in December 2021 (former player Marco Lanna was appointed to succeed him) following his arrest and subsequent indictment for certain offenses related to other companies he owned.

[217] In this situation, the team (built with few resources) played a poor season in 2021-2022, with a real risk of relegation, which was then avoided by the change of coach between Roberto D'Aversa and the returning Marco Giampaolo, who eventually finished in 15th place.

The corporate crisis also turned into a sporting one in the 2022-2023 season, which saw Sampdoria confined to the bottom three places from the very beginning: the exoneration of Giampaolo in favor of Dejan Stanković would not prevent the blucerchiati from mathematically being relegated to Serie B with four days to go before the end of the championship.

At the same time, at the beginning of 2023, the club, whose economic situation was by then clearly in deficit, was having difficulty meeting its obligations to its employees,[218] and requested and obtained from the Court of Genoa the opening of a 120-day negotiated settlement to try to restructure the debt (quantified in March 2023 at about 200 million euros)[219] and find a buyer.

[220] The Board of Directors, led by President Lanna, was in dialogue with several potential investors[214] and at the same time (also at their suggestion) tried to find solutions to restructure the debt[221] and to carry out a capital increase, even with external resources (a hypothesis that Ferrero personally opposed).

[222] The situation then led to the indignation of the supporters, who carried out various demonstrations against Ferrero and other members of the organisation, as well as against Edoardo Garrone and his family, who were accused of selling Sampdoria without sufficiently checking the seriousness of the buyer and of being reluctant to rush to the club's rescue,[223][213] and against the governing bodies of Italian football.

[224] In order to save the club (which, in May, was in real danger of being expelled from the league and ceasing to exist)[225] Gestio Capital and Aser Holding intervened in the person of owners Matteo Manfredi and Andrea Radrizzani (former Leeds Utd patron),[226] who, through the new company Blucerchiati srl.