The initial staff comprised three Englishmen and nine natives of Palermo,[7] with Whitaker as honorary chairman, Edward De Garston as inaugural president and with red and blue as the original team colours.

[10] After a gap during the First World War, the club was refounded in 1919 as Unione Sportiva Palermo,[11] by a committee of young university students and sportsmen.

During the early 1920s, the club mainly competed in the Campionato Lega Sud, a football league in Southern Italy, reaching the semi-finals in 1924 before being knocked out by Audace Taranto, Alba Roma and Internaples.

The new Palermo squad featured players such as Czechoslovakian legend Čestmír Vycpálek who signed from Juventus alongside Conti, Carmelo Di Bella and Pavesi.

Several stars played for Palermo during this period, such as Argentine striker Santiago Vernazza (51 goals in 115 games with the Rosanero),[18] goalkeepers Roberto Anzolin and Carlo Mattrel, Giuseppe Furino and Franco Causio.

Despite this, Palermo reached two Italian Cup finals, both of which they narrowly lost: in 1974 to Bologna on penalty shoot-outs, and in 1979 to Juventus after extra time.

The 1985–86 season, however, which ended in the summer, was the last for Palermo FBC, as, having just saved themselves from relegation, the club was expelled by the football federation due to financial problems.

In the summer of 1987, after a year without professional football in Palermo, the club was re-founded bearing a new name, and began to play in Serie C2, which it promptly won.

The 2004–05 season, the first in Serie A for the Palermo club since 1973, ended with an excellent sixth place, securing qualification for the 2005–06 UEFA Cup for the first time in its history.

In the following season, despite an unimpressive eighth place in the Serie A table, Palermo reached the last 16 in the UEFA Cup as well as the Coppa Italia semi-finals.

A number of impressive signings were made to establish an ambitious team,[22] and a good beginning in the 2006–07 campaign appeared initially to confirm this.

The club successively established as a force in the mid-table part of the Serie A league, also winning a Campionato Nazionale Primavera national title in 2009.

Such season also launched new emerging stars such as midfielder Javier Pastore and goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu, who went on to become integral part of their respective international teams.

The 2010–11 season started with Delio Rossi still in charge of the club, and also marked Palermo's return into continental football in the form of the UEFA Europa League.

For the 2011–12 season, Delio Rossi was replaced by former Chievo boss Stefano Pioli, who was, however, sacked before the Serie A kickoff after being eliminated by Swiss minnows FC Thun in the Europa League third preliminary round; new head coach Devis Mangia, with no managerial experience other than at youth team and minor league level; despite that, Mangia turned Palermo fortunes by leading the Rosanero in fifth place thanks to an impressive string of six consecutive home wins, thus deserving a long-term deal at the club.

A string of poor results, however, led Palermo to three consecutive defeats, including elimination from the Coppa Italia and a disappointing loss in the Sicilian derby, persuading Zamparini to replace Mangia with the more experienced Bortolo Mutti.

For the 2012–13 season, Zamparini came with another staff revolution, appointing Giorgio Perinetti as the new director of football and Giuseppe Sannino as the manager, both coming from Siena.

With Iachini confirmed in charge, Palermo played a rather successful 2014–15 Serie A season, narrowly missing on a UEFA Europa League spot also thanks to the all-Argentine striking force of Paulo Dybala and Franco Vázquez.

Ballardini, who was originally confirmed as head coach, left his position after a draw at Inter Milan at the second matchday of the season and was replaced with Serie A newbie Roberto De Zerbi[30] who ended his stay after seven league losses in a row, with former club captain Eugenio Corini taking over.

[31] More managerial and staff changes followed with little luck and, on 27 February 2017, Zamparini stepped down as chairman of Palermo after 15 years in charge, announcing he had agreed in principle to sell his controlling stake to an unspecified Anglo-American fund,[32] led by Italian-American Paul Baccaglini who was named new club president on 6 March.

[35] Palermo's campaign in the 2017–18 Serie B aimed for an immediate return to the top flight, with Bruno Tedino as head coach and Fabio Lupo as director of football.

For the 2018–19 Serie B season, Palermo (with Rino Foschi back for a third time as sporting director) found themselves having to sell many players for financial reasons.

[50] On 23 July 2019, in compliance of Article 52 of N.O.I.F., Mayor of Palermo Leoluca Orlando confirmed six declarations of interests had been presented for a new phoenix club to be admitted in Serie D, the highest level of non-professional football in Italy, for the 2019–20 season.

[51] The next day, Orlando announced his choice of a bid by a company named "Hera Hora srl", jointly owned by entrepreneurs Dario Mirri (a Palermo native, and Renzo Barbera's nephew) and a Sicilian-American, Tony DiPiazza.

On 12 June 2022, Palermo were promoted to Serie B after defeating Padova 2–0 on aggregate, thus returning to the Italian second division just three years after being excluded from the league.

The follow-up season saw Palermo aiming for direct promotion; however, inconsistency in league performances led to the dismissal of Corini and the appointment of Michele Mignani as new head coach for the remainder of the campaign.

In a personal letter Airoldi wrote on 2 February 1905 to English club councillor Joseph Whitaker, he defined pink and black poetically as "colours of the bitter and the sweet", a choice he amusingly asserted to be suited for a team characterised by "results as up and down as a Swiss clock", noting also the fact that red and blue were a very commonly used choice of colours around Italy at the time.

When the club was refounded in 1941 following a merger with Juventina Palermo, they started dressing in light blue shirts on the pitch, but switched back to the very popular pink and black only one year later.