Robur Siena

Robur Siena
	Robur Siena
Basic data
Surname	Società Sportiva Robur Siena
Seat	Siena , Italy
founding	1904 ; 2014 (newly founded)
Colours	White black
president	Anna Durio
Website	robursiena.it
First soccer team
Head coach	Michele Mignani
Venue	Stadio Comunale Artemio Franchi
Places	15,725
league	Series C , Group A
2018/19	6th place
home	Away

The Società Sportiva Robur Siena , just Robur Siena (formerly AC Siena ), is an Italian football club from Siena , a city in Tuscany . After its temporary dissolution due to financial difficulties in 2014, the club was re-founded and joined the fourth-class Serie D at the beginning of the 2014/15 season . He was immediately promoted to the third- tier Lega Pro , in which Robur Siena will play from the 2015/16 season.

The traditional club colors are black and white. The club plays its home games in the Stadio Comunale Artemio Franchi (not to be confused with the Stadio Artemio Franchi of the same name in Florence ), near Piazza Gramsci .

history

The beginnings

A group of youngsters from Siena founded the sports club Sportiva Mens Sana in Corpore Sano in 1904 . The club colors were white and black, the colors of the Sienese city flag. The founders are also said to have been avid chess players , which was another reason for the colors white and black. A few years later the football department was created; However, this quickly developed into the most important department of the association.

In 1908 the Sportiva Mens Sana was renamed in Corpore Sano in Sportiva Robur , at the same time the club also played its first friendly matches against soccer teams from the region. At that time, the poor condition of Piazza d'Armi was used as the playing field because the club suffered from chronic financial problems. At that time, the club was a pure amateur club, which - according to the first name - was primarily about physical exercise. This only changed in 1921 with the first participation in the national championship, which ended with a triumphant promotion to a higher league. With a few exceptions, the players at the time all came from Siena and its surroundings. This led to the fact that the people of Siena began to identify with the club to an ever greater extent. In the early 1930s, Sportiva Robur became the football club with the largest number of fans in Tuscany.

First successes

In the 1933/34 season, the name of the club was changed a second time; henceforth one called itself Associazione Calcio Siena (Robur 1904) (abbreviated AC Siena ). This happened because of the custom at the time to insert the name of the city from which the respective club came into the club name. In the following season, Sampoli, the then president of AC Siena, hired the then famous soccer coach Bachmann . With him success quickly set in and so AC Siena rose to Serie B for the first time on July 21, 1935 with a 7-0 victory over Reggina Calcio .

Bad luck with injuries and the fact that some players had to join the army due to the Italian-Ethiopian War were the reason that they were relegated again in the following season.

Successful pre-war years

However, President Sampoli set himself the goal of getting back to Serie B as soon as possible. This was achieved in the 1937/38 season, when at the end of the season with twelve points ahead of runner-up Ravenna Calcio rose for the second time in Serie B.

On this occasion, a new stadium was built for the next season, which was inaugurated on December 8, 1938 and named after Rino Dauss . It was not until many years later that it was given the current name Stadio Comunale Artemio Franchi .

The first few years in the new stadium were crowned with success, with highlights including a win in the derby against their big rivals Fiorentina and a near promotion to Serie A , where they failed with one point in the 1938/39 season .

Once again, however, a war prevented AC Siena from being successful. In the early 1940s, the club was one of the strongest Italian teams, which was also proven in a memorable game against the then dominating FC Bologna , in which they only narrowly had to admit defeat after a hard-fought game. Already celebrated in the media as the team of the future, Siena caught up with the Second World War , which meanwhile also took place in Italy and made it impossible to continue the championship.

Crash into series IV

After the war, the Italian leagues resumed gaming in 1945, but for the time being in two regional divisions, each of which played its own championship ( see also: Serie A ).

So that there were enough clubs for the southern championship , the best clubs from central and southern Italy were promoted to the highest league of the southern championship in the last Serie B season , including AC Siena. The team finished this season in eighth place, but the North and South championships were abolished after one season and replaced by an all-Italian championship. Since the top teams at the time were all based in northern Italy, the seven best-placed teams from the southern championship were transferred to Serie B, the remaining clubs relegated to Serie C - including Siena.

As a result, AC Siena played for a few seasons in the Italian third division before a new change took hold and Serie C was downsized. The best three teams in each of the Series C divisions therefore continued to play in Series C, while the other teams were relegated to the fourth division, Series IV . Siena met that fate again after missing third place by just one point.

Danilo Nannini's presidency

In the mid-1950s, Danilo Nannini , a member of the well-known Sienese baker family Nannini (father of Gianna Nannini ) and former AC Siena player, took over the management of the club. Under his patronage, the club rose back to Serie C in 1956 after defeating FC Empoli in the playoff. However, the President Danilo Nannini soon noticed that his team could not keep up financially with the other teams. That is why he pursued a transfer policy that was unusual at the time: He was looking for players for his team who had not yet made their breakthrough at their Serie A and Serie B clubs and could be recruited accordingly at low cost.

This transfer policy, which was soon successful, was subsequently to be further imitated, especially by teams from southern Italy. In the 1958/59 season, AC Siena was even able to play for promotion to Serie B after a sensational season. In the playoff against Ozo Mantova , however, they lost, so that the remaining in the third division was initially sealed.

At the end of the 1960s, the now criticized Danilo Nannini resigned from the office of President after Siena was relegated again to the fourth division, which was now called Serie D.

Unsuccessful years

After a short time without a president, Beneforti, a former sports doctor, was named the new president. He immediately began redesigning the club. Success came a few years later when Siena rose back to Serie C in the 1975/76 season. Once again, Siena had bad luck: Once again, Serie C was restructured and only the first twelve teams were allowed to remain in the league; Siena in thirteenth place (two points behind on the saving twelfth place) unhappily relegated again.

Danilo Nannini was then elected for a second term as president; with him returned the AC Siena in the 1981/82 season back to the C1 series . In the mid-1980s, the association changed hands and Danilo Nannini was deposed by a number of Roman entrepreneurs, led by the later president, the Roman lawyer Max Paganini . Under his leadership, the sporting situation for AC Siena stabilized in the third Italian division.

1997 Claudio Corradini replaced President Max Paganini after he had acquired his shares in the association. He promised to return AC Siena to the second division, but he did not succeed by far - on the contrary, you had to be happy to keep relegation.

The renaissance of AC Siena

In the summer of 1999 a new group of investors took over the association. With her, the success set in immediately, because in the following season, AC Siena was first in its division and rose again to Serie B after almost 50 years.

AC Siena fans celebrated this 'historic' moment extensively. In the following season you could easily assert yourself in Serie B, but there were some disagreements in the management team. As a result, the investor Pasorello sold his shares in Paolo de Luca , who subsequently managed to acquire the majority of the shares in the association. In terms of sport, the last few years have also been successful, so that after promotion to Serie A in 2003, the club celebrated the 100th anniversary of the club in Serie A and managed to stay in league - albeit just under 14th. Nevertheless, the club's management decided to dismiss the coach Mario Beretta and entrust this office to Andrea Mandorlini for the 2007/08 season , but on November 12, 2007, after a home defeat against the table neighbors in the relegation battle AS Livorno, he was exchanged for Beretta again. Marco Giampaolo then worked as a trainer until November 2009. From November 23, 2009 Alberto Malesani was tasked with staying up . After a 1: 2 home defeat on May 2, 2010 against US Palermo , the relegation of the Tuscan team to Serie B was certain two game days before the end of the season. Antonio Conte took over the team for the 2010/2011 season . Since January 15, 2010, Club President has been Massimo Mezzaroma. At the end of the 2010/2011 season, the immediate resurgence could be celebrated.

bankruptcy

For the 2014/15 season, the club no longer received a license due to debts of 70 million euros. Because of this, AC Siena had to file for bankruptcy and then broke up. Club owner Massimo Mezzaroma, who had been running the club since 2010, resigned in early July 2014. The successor club Robur Siena Società Sportiva Dilettantistica entered the fourth-class Serie D in 2014/15 and made it to the third-class Lega Pro . In addition, the national amateur championship (Poule Scudetto, Campione d'Italia di Serie D) was won.