AC Perugia Calcio

AC Perugia Calcio
	AC Perugia Calcio
Basic data
Surname	Associazione Calcistica Perugia Calcio
Seat	Perugia
founding	1905 (AC Perugia) ; 2005 re-establishment ; 2010 re-establishment
Colours	White-red
president	Roberto Damaschi
Website	acperugiacalcio.it
First soccer team
Head coach	Alessandro Nesta
Venue	Renato Curi Stadium
Places	28,000
league	Series B
2019/20	16th place
home	Away

The Associazione Calcistica Perugia Calcio ( AC Perugia Calcio for short ) is an Italian football club from the Umbrian university town of Perugia . The club colors are red and white. In the summer of 2010, the club was re-established as ASD Perugia Calcio and continued the game in the fifth-class Serie D , although it would have been athletically qualified for the Lega Pro Prima Divisione , but due to the poor financial situation, the participation in the professional operation was not registered. In the 2013/14 season, Perugia won the league title in the Lega Pro Prima Divisione B and returned to Serie B after nine years . Perugia last played there in 2004/05 .

Club history

The Associazione Calcio Perugia ( AC Perugia for short ) was founded in 1905, renamed SS Perugia in 1913 and again received the old name AC Perugia in 1919. 1975 succeeded Perugia promotion to the top division of the country, the Serie A . In the season 1978/79, the team remained undefeated, but was due to the high number of draws only runner-up behind AC Milan . The runner-up is the greatest success on a national level to date. In the 1980s, sport continued to decline. The involvement in a betting scandal resulted in a deduction of five points for the 1980/81 season , Perugia was relegated at the end of the season.

In the 1985/86 season , Perugia was still playing in Serie B, the club was again proven to be involved in a betting scandal. The forced relegation to Serie C2 , the fourth highest division, was the result. In 1991, the Roman entrepreneur Luciano Gaucci took over the club and led him back from the third division to Serie A. In the 1997/98 season , a one-year interlude in Serie B followed .

In the summer of 2003, Perugia won the UEFA Intertoto Cup in the final against VfL Wolfsburg under coach Serse Cosmi . In 2004 AC Perugia had to leave the highest Italian league after failing in the relegation. At the end of the 2004/05 season , after the club was defeated in the relegation game for participation in the Serie A Torino Calcio , financial problems were brought to light that led to the license refusal. A successor association called Perugia Calcio SpA was founded, the entrepreneur Vincenzo Silvestrini became its president .

In the 2010/11 season, the club played in Serie D after the club had secured league maintenance in the Lega Pro Prima Divisione at the end of the 2009/10 season in eleventh place , but due to the poor financial situation, they withdrew from professional operations and did not register to participate in Lega Pro . The club was then re-established as ASD Perugia Calcio and played in the 2010/11 season in the fifth-rate Serie D, Girone E, where he took first place in 2010/11 and was promoted to the Lega Pro Seconda Divisione . With the return to professional operation, the club name was changed accordingly; the addition Dilettantistica as a synonym for the temporary amateur status was removed and replaced by the neutral name Calcistica . In the 2011/12 season, Perugia Calcio won the championship of the fourth highest Italian league and secured the second consecutive promotion. In addition, Perugia won the Supercoppa di Lega di Seconda Divisione for the first time .

Currently (since the 2014/15 season), AC is back in Serie B, the second highest Italian league.

Anecdotes

In 2002 and 2003, AC Perugia made headlines through several incidents:

The signing of the Libyan soccer player As-Saadi al-Gaddafi , son of Libyan President Muammar al-Gaddafi , caused a sensation. Gaddafi only participated in a single game. After the positive result of a doping A sample and the refusal of a B sample, he was suspended in November 2003.

Also in 2003, AC Perugia hired the former Canadian athlete Ben Johnson as a fitness coach. Johnson's gold medal won at the 1988 Olympic Games had been stripped of him after a positive doping test, and another doping case in 1993 resulted in a life ban.

When AC Perugia announced its intention in 2003 to be the first men's football club to include female players in the squad, there was only planning. After the Swedish internationals Victoria Svensson and Hanna Ljungberg had rejected such offers, club boss Gaucci made the German national player Birgit Prinz an offer worth around one million euros. Prince also refused.

After the South Korean Ahn Jung-hwan, who was then loaned to AC Perugia, scored the “golden goal” against Italy in the 2nd round of the 2002 World Cup in Japan / Korea and paved South Korea's entry into the quarter-finals, club president Luciano Gaucci told the Italian sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport : "I will not pay the salary of a player who ruined Italian football." Although Perugia later withdrew this statement, the Italian issue was over for Ahn.

Stadion

AC Perugia plays in the Stadio Renato Curi , which was built in 1975 and has a capacity of 28,000. The stadium was named after former player Renato Curi , who died in 1977 during a league game.