subject: Fiorentina Tickets [print this page] Author: Tyler Long Author: Tyler Long
ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as simply Fiorentina, is a professional Italian football club from Florence, Tuscany. Founded by a merger in 1926, Fiorentina have played at the top level of Italian football for the majority of their existence; only four clubs have played in more Serie A seasons. After climbing back up the Italian football system in the early 2000s, Fiorentina are currently competing in the Serie A.
Foundation to World War IIAssociazione Calcio Fiorentina was founded in the autumn of 1926 by local noble and National Fascist Party member Luigi Ridolfi, who initiated the merger of two older Florentine clubs, CS Firenze and PG Libertas. The aim of the merger was to give Florence a strong club to rival those of the more dominant Italian Football Championship sides of the time from North-West Italy. Also influential was the cultural revival and rediscovery of Calcio Fiorentino, an ancestor of modern football that was played by members of the Medici family.
First scudetto and '50-'60s
In 1950 Florentina started to achieve consistent top-five finishes in the domestic league. The team consisted of great players such as well-known goalkeeper Giuliano Sarti, Sergio Cervato, Francesco Rosella, Guido Gratton, Giuseppe Chiappella and Aldo Scaramucci, but above all the attacking duo of Brazilian Julinho and Argentinian Miguel Montuori. This team won Florentina's first scudetto (Italian championship) in 1955-56, 12 points ahead of second-place Milan. Second scudetto and '70s
While the 1960s did result in some trophies and good Serie A finishes for Fiorentina, nobody believed that the club could challenge for the title. The 1968-69 season started with Milan as frontrunners, but on match day 7 they lost to Bologna and were overtaken by Gigi Riva's Cagliari Calcio. Fiorentina, after an unimpressive start, then moved to the top of the Serie A, but the first half of their season finished with a 2-2 draw against Varese, leaving Cagliari as outright league leader. Pontello era
In 1980 Fiorentina was bought by Flavio Pontello, from a rich house-builder family. He quickly changed the team's anthem and logo, leading to some complaints by the fans, but he started to bring in high-quality players such as Francesco Graziani and Eraldo Pecci from Torino, Daniel Bertoni from Sevilla, Daniele Massaro from Monza and a young Pietro Vierchowod from Sampdoria. The team was built around Giancarlo Antognoni, and in Serie A 1981-82 Fiorentina were involved in an exciting duel with rival Juventus. After a bad injury to Antognoni, the league title was decided on the final day of the season, when Fiorentina were denied a goal against Cagliari and were unable to win. Juventus won the title with a disputed penalty, and the rivalry between the two teams erupted. Cecchi Gori era
The first season under Cecchi Gori's ownership was one of settling, after which the new chairman started to sign some good players like Brian Laudrup, Stefan Effenberg, Francesco Baiano and, most importantly, Gabriel Batistuta, who became an iconic player for the team during the 1990s. In 1993, however, Mario Cecchi Gori died and was succeeded as chairman by his son Vittorio Cecchi Gori. Della Valle era
The club was promptly re-established in August 2002 as Associazione Calcio Fiorentina e Florentia Viola with shoe and leather entrepreneur Diego Della Valle as new owner, and was admitted into Serie C2, the fourth tier of Italian football. The only player to remain at the club in its new incarnation was Angelo Di Livio, whose commitment to club's cause further endeared him to the fans. Helped by Di Livio and 30-goal striker Christian Rigan, the club won its Serie C2 group with considerable ease, which would normally have led to a promotion to Serie C1. Badge
The official emblem of the city of Florence, a red giglio on a white field, has been pivotal in the all-round symbolism of the club.
Over the course of the club's history they have had several badge changes, all of which incorporated Florence's giglio in some way. The first one was nothing more than the city's coat of arms, a white shield with the red fleur-de-lis inside. It was soon changed to a very stylized fleur-de-lis, always red, and sometimes even without the white field. The most common symbol, adopted for about twenty years, had been a white lozenge with the flower inside. During the season they were Italian champions, the lozenge disappeared and the flower was overlapped with the scudetto. Kit and colours
When Fiorentina was founded in 1926, the players wore red and white halved shirts derived from the colour of the city emblem. The more well-known and highly distinctive purple kit was adopted in 1928 and has been used ever since, giving rise to the nickname La Viola ("The Purple (team)"). Tradition has it that Fiorentina got their purple kit by mistake after an accident washing the old red and white coloured kits in the river. The Champions League tickets of all matches are now available for sale. The Fiorentina tickets for its matches around the World are for sale at ticket4football.com, you can buy the http://www.ticket4football.com/champions-league-tickets/1694/1699/champions-league-final-bernabeu-22-may-2010-tickets.aspx">Champions League final Tickets also here.About the Author:
