retired_mayca

ACF Fiorentina is an Italian football club based in Florence (Firenze), Tuscany. The club's traditional colors were originally red and white but were changed to purple and white in 1928; since then, the club has been generally known as "La Viola" (the purple ones). The club usually plays at the 47,282-capacity all-seater 'Comunale' Stadium "Artemio Franchi".
Fiorentina
logo






* Status: Professional
* Reputation: Continental
* World Ranking: 2nd
* Chairman Status: Loves the club
* Star Players: -
* Favoured Personnel: Francesco Toldo, Diego Della Valle
* Fierce Rivals: Pisa, Siena, Juventus, Roma, Lazio
* Other Rivals: Bologna, Empoli, Atalanta, Inter, Milan
* Finances: Okay
* Estimated Value: 57m
* Stadium: Artemio Franchi, Florence
* Planned Expansion: -
* Stadium Capacity: 47350 all-seater
* Reserve Stadium: -
* Training Facilities: Good training facilities
* Youth Facilities: Average youth facilities + Youth Academy
* Continental Competition: None
* Media prediction: 12th
* Squad Average Age: 25
* Squad Personality: Ambitious



A few other good info:

Transfer Budget (Season): 4 535 172 pounds
Transfer Budget (Remaining): 4 535 172 pounds
% of transfer revenue made available: 80%
Sponsors: 3 year deal at £2.18M per season. Ends 2008
Loans Outstanding: -






The club was founded on August 26, 1926 by the merger of Libertas and Club Sportivo Firenze. The club won its first trophy in 1939-40 with the Coppa Italia and its first scudetto (Italian championship) in 1955-56, the club were runners-up in the four following seasons. In the 1960-61 season the club won the Coppa Italia again and was also successful in Europe, winning the first Cup Winners' Cup against Rangers.

In the 1960s the club won the Coppa Italia and the Mitropa Cup in 1966 and were league champions again in the 1968-69 season. In 1974 the Viola won the Anglo-Italian League Cup. Success in the Coppa Italia was repeated in 1975, but from then until the late 1990s the club found itself in the doldrums, culminating in a season in Serie B (second division) in 1993-1994. Upon return to Serie A the club again proved able in the cup competitions, winning the Coppa Italia again in 1996 and 2000 and the Italian SuperCoppa.

2001 heralded major changes for Fiorentina, as the terrible state of the club's finances was revealed; they were unable to pay wages and had debts of around USD 50 million. The club owner, Vittorio Cecchi Gori, was able to raise some more money, but even this soon proved to be insufficient resources to sustain the club. Then, Fiorentina were relegated at the end of the 2001-02 season and went into judicially controlled administration in June 2002. This form of bankruptcy (sports companies cannot exactly fail in this way in Italy, but they can suffer a similar procedure) meant that the club was refused a place in Serie B for the 2002-03 season, and as a result, effectively ceased to exist.

The club was promptly re-established in August 2002 as Florentia Viola with a new owner, Diego Della Valle, and was admitted into Serie C2, the fourth tier of Italian football. The only player to remain at the club as they began their new life was Angelo Di Livio, whose commitment to the cause of resurrecting the club further endeared him to the fans. Helped by Di Livio, the club won its regional section in Serie C2 with considerable ease at the end of the 2002-03 season, which would normally have led to a promotion to Serie C1. However, due to the bizarre Caso Catania (Catania Case) the club skipped Serie C1 and was admitted into Serie B. This was only possible because the Italian Football Federation chose to resolve the Catania situation by increasing the number of teams in Serie B from 20 to 24. In the 2003 off-season, the club also bought back the right to use the Fiorentina name and the famous shirt design, and re-incorporated itself as ACF Fiorentina. Matches were still being played at the Artemio Franchi stadium.
Image:Stadium Artemio Franchi Florence 15.jpg
Fiorentina Tifosi at the Comunale

The club's unusual double promotion was not without controversy, with some suggesting that Fiorentina did not deserve it; however, the club remained in Serie B and managed to finish the 2003-04 season in sixth place. This achievement placed the Viola in a two-legged playoff against Perugia (the 15th-place finisher in Serie A) for a position in Serie A. Fiorentina completed their remarkable comeback by winning the match 2-1 on aggregate, with both goals scored by Enrico Fantini, to gain promotion back to Serie A. In their first season back in Italian football's top flight, the club struggled to avoid relegation, securing survival only on the last day of the season, and avoiding a relegation playoff only on head-to-head record against Bologna and Parma. In 2005-06, their form greatly improved, and they had apparently qualified for the 3rd Qualifying round of the Champions League by earning the 4th place in the Serie A with 74 points. The combination of Jorgensen, Fiore and key marksman Luca Toni with Frey in goal has proved to be dominant with Toni himself having scored an amazing 31 goals in just 34 appearances, the first player to pass the 30 goal mark since Antonio Valentin Angelillo in the 1958-59 season - which has seen him claim the European Golden Boot. However, on July 14, 2006 Fiorentina were relegated to Serie B due to their involvement in the 2006 Serie A match fixing scandal and given a 12 point penalty. However, on appeal, the team was reinstated to the Serie A, albeit with a 19 point penalty for the 2006-07 season. The team also lost their UEFA Champions League 2006-07 place.[1]. After the start of the season, upon appealing to the Italian courts, Fiorentina's penalization was reduced to 15 points from 19, which was still far heavier than club officials had hoped for.

Honours

Serie A winners

* 1955/56
* 1968/69

Coppa Italia winners

* 1939/1940
* 1960/1961
* 1965/1966
* 1974/1975
* 1995/1996
* 2000/2001


Coppa Italia runner-up

* 1958
* 1959/1960
* 1970/1971
* 1998/1999 [2]

Cup Winners' Cup winners

* 1960/1961 [3]

Cup Winners' Cup runners up

* 1961/1962 [4]

Champions' League runners up

* 1956/57

UEFA Cup runners up

* 1989/1990

Current first team squad

As of March 27, 2007[1][2]
No. Position Player
1 GK Sebastien Frey
2 DF Per Krøldrup
3 DF Dario Dainelli (captain)
4 MF Marco Donadel
5 DF Alessandro Gamberini
6 DF Alessandro Potenza
8 MF Michele Pazienza (on loan from Udinese)
10 FW Adrian Mutu
11 MF Fabio Liverani
13 DF David Enrique Mateo (from youth team)
15 MF Andrea Paolucci (from youth team)
17 MF Manuele Blasi (on loan from Juventus)
18 MF Riccardo Montolivo
19 MF Massimo Gobbi
20 MF Martin Jørgensen

No. Position Player
21 DF Tomáš Ujfaluši
22 MF Zdravko Kuzmanović
23 DF Manuel Pasqual
25 MF Dario D'Ambrosio (from youth team)
26 MF Filipe Ribeiro Gomes (from youth team)
27 FW Samuel Di Carmine (from youth team)
28 GK Cristiano Lupatelli
29 FW Giampaolo Pazzini
30 FW Luca Toni
32 DF Davide Brivio (from youth team)
33 GK Niccolò Manfredini (from youth team)
34 FW Matthias Lepiller (from youth team)
81 MF Mario Alberto Santana
83 FW Reginaldo

Out on loan
FW Guilherme Raymundo do Prado (at Spezia)
FW Valeri Bojinov (at Juventus)
DF Christian Maggio (at Sampdoria)
GK Vlada Avramov (at Treviso)

retired_mayca

sorry but it was copied and pasted from wiki, so there may be some little unwanted text left in

retired_mayca

just signed franco di santo from the audax italiano for £1.2m, good back up for toni and pazzini, plus pazzini is out for 4 months anyway, touted as the next alfredo di stefano too

michaeldc

Nıce to see the Vıola flyıng agaın. The squad ıs amazıng, easıly tıtle contenders wıthout the defıcıt, but I thınk a new rıght-back ıs needed, plus a back up strıker. I´ve sıgned Nelson, but ı´m lookıng for a new strıker. wıll look at dı santo...

retired_mayca

yeah shame about the points deduction, but they do have quality players like frey, toni and pazzini, i think survival is my main goal for this season then push on for a mid table finish/european qualification for next season

retired_mayca

just entered the january transfer window in my first season, 9th in the league so not doing that badly, might be selling montolivo to chelsea for £5.3m which in my opinion is very good business, will be able to get a few quality players for that price, but the question is who?

michaeldc

keep montolıvo, great prospect, and 5.3m ıs nowhere near enough to get a replacement who wıll mature the same way.

You can sneak ınto europe vıa ıntertot wıth luck, or even make ıt to the top four (agaın wıth luck). However, you wıll need a lot of depth to do so.

Get Van der Meyde ıf poss as he ıs good on the rıght (better than santana).

retired_blondechan

Do not sell Montolivio for as little as £5million. He becomes an absolutely brilliant player! In 2 years you could easily sell him for £20million.

I played a season and a bit as Fiorentina but got quite bored after a while. 1st season you should aim for europe as you have a good enough squad despite the points deduction. I finished 4th first season. For you non-Eu player try and sign Andreas Guardardo the Mexican he was brilliant for me. You need some full backs as if Pasqual or Ufalusi get injured your in trouble. Try and sign Cassini from Palermo in January. He's a young RB that becomes superb and can also play LB.

retired_mayca

into my second season, finished 4th but got knocked out of champions league qualifying round by shaktar, so im now in the euro cup group stage currently 3rd, 2nd in the league, DIDNT sell montolivo, but bought regginaldo and blasi, just need a few more defenders and a new striker because toni wants to leave dam him!
so i only have pazzini, di santo (brilliant striker) and some more youngsters so i'll need a new striker

retired_Brian 121

just started with fiorentina an sold a good few players like a clear out an brought in barzagli felipe rullo amd now looking for somebody to partner pazzini long term as toni will be gone in the summer..