ACF Fiorentina

History

The club was founded in autumn 1926 by Luigi Ridolfi Vay da Verrazzano, a local noble and member of the National Fascist Party, who merged two older Florentine clubs, CS Firenze and PG Libertas, to create a strong side to compete with dominant teams from Northwest Italy. The merger was also influenced by a cultural revival of Calcio Fiorentino, an early form of football played by the Medici family. After a difficult start and three seasons in lower divisions, Fiorentina reached Serie A in 1931, the same year their new stadium opened, originally named after Giovanni Berta.

The team strengthened with players like Uruguayan Pedro Petrone, finished fourth, but were relegated the next season, though they quickly returned. In 1941 they won their first Coppa Italia, but World War II hindered further success. From 1950, consistent top-five league finishes led to the first scudetto in 1955–56, twelve points ahead of Milan. The following year Milan took the title, and Fiorentina became the first Italian club to reach a European Cup final, losing 2–0 to Real Madrid after a disputed penalty.

They were runners-up in the next three league seasons. In 1960–61, the club won the Coppa Italia and the first UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, defeating Rangers. After several runner-up finishes, Fiorentina placed fourth to sixth in the mid-1960s, but won the Coppa Italia and Mitropa Cup in 1966.

Colours and badge

The club's emblem has always incorporated the red fleur-de-lis on a white field from the city of Florence's coat of arms. The first badge was simply the city's shield, later replaced by a stylised red fleur-de-lis, sometimes without the white background. For about twenty years, the most common symbol was a white lozenge containing the flower; when the team won the league, the lozenge was dropped and the flower overlapped with the scudetto. In 1980, owner Flavio Pontello introduced a logo combining half the city emblem with half the letter 'F', which was disliked for its commercial appearance and resemblance to a halberd rather than a fleur-de-lis.

From 1992 to 2002, the badge was a kite-shaped double lozenge with gold borders: the outer lozenge had a purple background with white 'AC' and red 'F', and the inner lozenge was white with a gold border and the red Giglio of Florence. After the 2008 financial crisis and the club's resurrection, the new entity could not use the same logo; the comune granted Florentia Viola use of the stylised coat of arms. Diego Della Valle acquired the current logo in a judicial auction for €2.5 million, the most expensive logo in Italian football.

The original 1926 kit was red and white halved shirts, derived from the city emblem. The distinctive purple kit was adopted in 1928, giving the club the nickname La Viola; tradition says the colour came from an accident washing the old red and white kits in the river.

Fiorentina as a company

A.C. Fiorentina S.p.A. could not register for the 2002–03 Serie B season due to financial difficulties, leading to the transfer of the sports title to a new company under Article 52 of N.O.I.F., while the old company was liquidated. The club had relied heavily on windfall profits from player sales, often using player swaps or cash-plus-player deals that increased amortisation costs. For example, Marco Rossi joined for Lire 17 billion in 2000 while Lorenzo Collacchioni moved to Salernitana for Lire 1 billion, yielding a profit of Lire 997 million but adding Lire 1 billion in amortisation.

In 1999, Emiliano Bigica was swapped with Giuseppe Taglialatela, valued at Lire 10 billion. The operating income for 2000–01, excluding player trading profits, was minus Lire 113,271,475,933 (minus €58,499,835). Sales of Francesco Toldo and Rui Costa in June 2001 brought a profit of Lire 134.883 billion (€69.661 million), but without financial support from owner Vittorio Cecchi Gori, the club was forced to wind up due to its large operating income imbalance.