Full name | Genoa Cricket and Football Club S.p.A. |
---|---|
Nickname(s) |
I Rossoblu (The Red and Blues) Il Grifone (The Griffin) Il Vecchio Balordo (The Old Fool) |
Founded | 1893 |
Ground | Stadio Luigi Ferraris |
Capacity | 36,599 |
President | Enrico Preziosi |
Manager | Andrea Mandorlini |
League | Serie A |
2015–16 | Serie A, 11th |
Website | Club home page |
Genoa Cricket and Football Club, commonly referred to simply as Genoa (Italian pronunciation: [ˈd͡ʒɛːnoa]), is a professional Italian football and cricket club based in the city of Genoa, Liguria. Established on 7 September 1893, it is Italy's oldest football team currently active and the fourth overall.
During their long history, Genoa have won the Italian Championship nine times. Genoa's first title came at the inaugural championship in 1898 and their most recent was in 1923–24. They also won the Coppa Italia once. Historically, Genoa is the fourth most successful Italian club in terms of championships won.
This slew of early successes may lie at the origin of the love professed for the team by the godfather of Italian sports journalists Gianni Brera (1919–92), who, despite having been born nowhere near Genoa, always declared himself a supporter of the team. Brera went as far as creating the nickname Vecchio Balordo (Old Fool or Cranky Old One) for Genoa.
The club has played its home games at the 36,536 capacity Stadio Luigi Ferraris since 1911. Since 1946, the ground has been shared with local rivals Sampdoria. Genoa has spent most of its post-war history going up and down between Serie A and Serie B, with two brief spells in Serie C.
The club was founded on 7 September 1893 as Genoa Cricket & Athletic Club. In its earliest years, it principally competed in athletics and cricket. Association football was secondarily practised. Since the club was set up to represent England abroad, the original shirts worn by the organisation were white, the same colour as the England national team shirt. At first Italians were not permitted to join as it was a British sporting club abroad. Genoa's activities took place in the north-west of the city in the Campasso area, at the Piazza d'Armi. The men who initially handled the management of the club were;