Associazione Calcio
ChievoVerona (more commonly called
ChievoVerona or simply Chievo) is
an Italian
professional
football club named after and
based in Chievo, a suburb of 2800 inhabitants in Verona
, Veneto, and owned by Paluani, a cake company and the inspiration for their original
name, Paluani Chievo. The club is nicknamed
alternatively gialloblu, Mussi volanti or
Ceo, and shares its stadium with Hellas Verona which is the 42,160 seater
Marcantonio
Bentegodi
stadium. Chievo slipped into the relegation
zone on the final match day of 2006-2007 and was demoted to
Serie B, but subsequently rebounded to
clinch promotion back to the top-flight in their first year in the
cadetteria.
History
Early years
The team was founded in 1929 by a small number of football fans
from the small borough of Chievo, a Verona neighbourhood. Initially
the club was not officially affiliated to the Italian Football
Federation, but played under the denomination "Ond Chievo" imposed
by the fascist regime several amateur tournament and friendly
matches. The formal debut in an official league is dated November
8, 1931. The team colours at the time were blue and white. However,
Chievo disbanded in 1936 because of economic woes, and the team
returned to play in 1948 after
World War
II, being registered in the regional league of "Seconda
Divisione" (Second Division). In 1957 the team moved to the
"Carlantonio Bottagisio" parish field, where Chievo played until
1986. In 1959, after the restructuring of the football leagues,
Chievo was admitted to play the "Seconda Categoria" (Second
Category), a regional league placed next-to-last in the Italian
football pyramid. That year, Chievo changed its denomination to
"Cardi Chievo", after the new sponsor, and was quickly promoted to
the "Prima Categoria", which it left in 1962 after having
experienced its first relegation ever.
Series of promotions
In 1964, Luigi Campedelli, a businessman and owner of the Paluani
company, is named new Chievo chairman. Under Campedelli's
presidency, Chievo climbed the entire Italian pyramid, reaching the
Serie D after the 1974/1975 season. Under
the name "Paluani Chievo", the team is promoted to
Serie C2 in 1986.
After this promotion, Chievo was forced to
move to the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi, the main venue in Verona; another promotion, to
Serie C1, then arrived in 1989. In 1990, the team finally
changed its name to the current one, "A.C. ChievoVerona".
In 1992, President Luigi Campedelli, who returned at the helm of
the club two years before, died of a heart attack, and his son
Luca Campedelli, aged just 23,
became the new chairman. Luca Campedelli, the youngest chairman of
all Italian professional football clubs, promoted
Giovanni Sartori as Director of
Football and named
Alberto Malesani
the new head coach. Under Malesani, the team astonishingly won the
Serie C1 and was promoted to
Serie B, where
city rival
Hellas Verona was
playing at the time. In 1997, after Malesani signed for
Fiorentina,
Silvio
Baldini was appointed new head coach. The following season,
with
Domenico Caso as new coach, saw
the first dismissal ever in the presidency of Luca Campedelli, with
Caso fired and replaced with
Lorenzo
Balestro.
In 2000/2001,
Luigi Del Neri was
signed as new coach, and led Chievo to a historic promotion to
Serie A, the first-ever in the team's
history, ending its Serie B run in third-place.
Serie A times (2001-2007)
In its 2001/2002 Serie A debut, to everyone's great surprise the
small and unconsidered Chievo, most critics' choice for an instant
return to Serie B, quickly became the most astonishing team in the
league, playing spectacular and entertaining football and even
leading the top division for six consecutive weeks, finally ending
the season with a highly respectable fifth place, qualifying the
team to play in the
UEFA Cup.
In 2002/2003, Chievo debuted at the European level but were
eliminated in the first round against
Red Star Belgrade. The team finished the
Serie A season in seventh place, again proving itself one of the
most valued Serie A teams. The 2003/2004 season, the last with Del
Neri at the helm, saw Chievo ending in ninth place.
The 2004/2005 season is remembered as one of the toughest ever in
Chievo's history.
Mario Beretta, a
Serie A novice from
Ternana, was
named new coach: after a good start which brought Chievo to a third
place behind
Juventus and
AC Milan, the team slowly lost positions in the
Serie A table. Three matches before the end of the league, Chievo
was third from last, a position which would relegate it to Serie B.
As a last resort Beretta was fired and
Maurizio D'Angelo, a highly respected
former Chievo player, was appointed temporarily to replace him as
coach. Morale improved, and two wins and a tie from the final three
matches proved just enough to keep Chievo in Serie A.
In 2005/2006,
Giuseppe Pillon of
Treviso FBC was appointed as new
coach. The team experienced a throwback to the successful Del Neri
era, both in style of play and results, and Chievo consequently
gained a place in the next UEFA Cup, ending the season in a solid
seventh place. However, because of the
football scandal involving several
top-class teams, all placed before Chievo in the 2005/2006 season,
the Flying Donkeys had a chance of playing the next
Champions League preliminary
phase.
On July 14, 2006, the verdict in the scandal was made public.
Juventus,
AC
Milan and
Fiorentina, who had all
originally qualified for the
2006-07 Champions League, and
Lazio, who had originally qualified for
the
2006-07 UEFA Cup, were all
banned from
UEFA competition for the 2006/07
season, although AC Milan were allowed to enter the
Champions League after their appeal to
FIGC.
Chievo took up a place in the third
qualifying stage of the competition along with AC Milan and faced
Bulgarian
side Levski
Sofia. Chievo lost the first leg 2-0 in Sofia
and managed
a 2-2 home draw on the second leg. Levski advanced to the
Champions League group stage on a 4-2 aggregate score, and Chievo
was knocked out. As a Champions League third round qualifying
loser, Chievo was placed in the
UEFA Cup
final qualifying round.
On August 25, 2006 Chievo was drawn to face
Portuguese
Braga. The first
leg, played on September 14 in
Braga, ended in
a shock 2-0 win for the Portuguese side.
The return match,
played on September 28 in Verona, was won by
Chievo 2-1. However, the Italian side lost 3-2 on aggregate
and was knocked out of any further European competitions.
On October 16, 2006, following a 1-0 defeat against
Torino F.C., head coach Giuseppe Pillon was
fired, and replaced by
Luigi Del
Neri, one of the original symbols of the
miracle
Chievo, who had led the club to Serie A in 2002.
On May 27, 2007, the last match day of the 2006-07 Serie A season,
Chievo was one of five teams in danger of falling into the last
undecided relegation spot. Needing only a tie against Catania, a
direct competitor in the relegation battle, Chievo lost 2-0 playing
in the neutral field of Bologna. Simultaneous wins by Parma, Siena
and Reggina condemned Chievo to Serie B for the 2007-08 season
after six seasons in the senior league.
Even as a successful Serie A team they don't have the level of
support the real "Gialloblu" team of Verona, Hellas have. During
the local derby games, when it's supposed to be Chievo playing at
home at their shared stadium, the Chievo fans have to go to the
away end of the stadium. The team only has a small support in the
city, managing only 4-5000 fans and are mainly kept afloat by money
from television rights.
A Year with the Cadetti (2007-08)
Chievo bounced back quickly from the disappointment of their last
matchday relegation in 2006/07, going in search of an immediate
promotion back to the top flight. After the expected departure of
several top-quality players (i.e.,
Semioli,
Lanna,
Brighi,
Sammarco,
Bogdani among them), as well as the manager
(
Luigi Del Neri parted ways with the
club, and
Giuseppe Iachini
replacing Del Neri) and captain (
Lorenzo
D'Anna giving way to
Sergio
Pellissier at the end of the transfer window), a new squad was
constructed, most notably including the arrivals of midfielders
Maurizio Ciaramitaro and
Simone Bentivoglio, defender
Cesar, and forward
Antimo Iunco. This new incarnation of
the 'gialloblu' were crowned Winter Champions (along with
Bologna), en route to a 41st matchday
promotion after a 1-1 draw at
Grosseto left them 4 points clear of
third-place
Lecce with one match
remaining. Furthermore, they were conferred the "Ali della
Vittoria" trophy on the final matchday of the season, their first
league title of any kind in 14 years.
Back in Serie A (2008-09)
In their first season back to the top flight, Chievo immediately
struggled in the league, and this resulted to the dismissal of
Iachini on November, and his replacement with former
Parma boss
Domenico
Di Carlo. After Di Carlo's appointment, Chievo managed a
remarkable resurgence that led the
gialloblu out of the
relegation zone after having collected just 9 points from their
first 17 matches.
Highlight matches included a 3–0 defeat of
Lazio (who then won the 2008–09 Coppa Italia title) at
the Stadio
Olimpico
, and a
thrilling 3–3 draw away to Juventus in
which captain and long-time Chievo striker Sergio Pellissier scored a late equaliser
to complete his first career personal hat-trick. A series of
hard-fought draws against top clubs
Roma,
Inter and
Genoa in the final stretch of the season
solidified
Ceo's position outside the drop zone and Serie
A status was finally confirmed on matchday 37 with a home draw
against
Bologna.
Current squad
As of 14 September, 2009
Out on loan
Ronaldo
Retired numbers
Notable former players
Former Coaches
Colours and badge
The clubs historic colours were blue and white and not blue and
yellow. Throughout Italian football the only team recognised by
most fans as "Gialloblu" are the original team of Verona "Hellas
Verona".The club's historic nickname is
gialloblu (from
the club colors of yellow and blue), but is more often referred to
today as the
mussi volanti ("flying donkeys" in the Verona
dialect of
Venetian). Local
supporters often call the club simply
Ceo, which is
Veronese for Chievo. The "flying donkeys" nickname was originally a
derogatory term from a match chant sung by fans from crosstown
rivals
Hellas Verona, who claimed
Chievo had stolen Hellas' colours, name, and stadium. Hellas fans
also said that "donkeys would fly before Chievo made it to Serie
A". However, with later successes by Chievo and contemporaneous
Serie B and
Serie C1
struggles for Hellas Verona, Chievo fans have now largely embraced
the nickname as a badge of honour.
The current club crest represents instead
Cangrande I della Scala, an ancient
seignor from Verona.
Supporters
The team have very weak support in the city of Verona with no
recognised "Ultras" as most Italian clubs have.Even during their
most successful seasons the crowds at the "Bentegodi" stadium were
small.As they enjoy Serie A status and their famous city rival
Hellas are in the third division they have 6000 less season ticket
holders than their lowly rivals.
For the 2008/09 season, Chievo had now in actual fact over taken
their local rivals for season ticket holders. Chievo have slowly
increased their support each season, and have a total of 8,081
season ticket holders for the 08/09 campaign, whereas their rivals
Verona have a tally of 7,890 season ticket holders.
At the end of the 2008/09 season, Chievo had an average crowd
attendance of 13,352.
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