Full name | ACF Fiorentina S.p.A. |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | Viola (Purple), Gigliati (Lilies) |
Founded |
|
Ground | Stadio Artemio Franchi |
Capacity | 43,147 |
Owner | Diego Della Valle |
President | Mario Cognigni |
Head coach | Paulo Sousa |
League | Serie A |
2015–16 | Serie A, 5th |
Website | Club home page |
ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as simply Fiorentina [fjorenˈtiːna], is a professional Italian football club from Florence, Tuscany. Founded by a merger in 1926, and refounded in 2002 following bankruptcy, 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.
Fiorentina has won two Italian Championships, in 1955–56 and again in 1968–69, as well as six Coppa Italia trophies and one Supercoppa Italiana. On the European stage, Fiorentina won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1960–61 and lost the final one year later. They finished runners-up in the 1956–57 European Cup, losing against Real Madrid, and also came close to winning the 1989–90 UEFA Cup, finishing as runners-up against Juventus after losing the first leg in Turin and drawing in the second one in Avellino.
Since 1931, the club have played at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, which currently has a capacity of 47,282. The stadium has used several names over the years and has undergone several renovations. Fiorentina are known widely by the nickname Viola, a reference to their distinctive purple colours.
Associazione 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 Northwest 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.