Brescia Calcio

History

The club was founded in 1911 as Brescia Football Club and entered Terza Categoria that same year. Promotion to the First Division came in 1913, and Brescia was a founding member of Serie A in 1929–30, playing there for six of the next seven seasons. The team has fallen outside the top two divisions only three times: a single season in Serie C in 1938, three seasons there starting in 1982, and an administrative relegation in 2025. As of 2025, only 11 Italian clubs have spent fewer seasons outside the top two tiers than Brescia (four), and no club has more Serie B seasons (66).

The Anglo-Italian Cup was won in 1994, the club's biggest trophy. Greater prominence came in 2000 with the signing of Roberto Baggio, who led Brescia to seventh place in 2000–01 and qualification for the UEFA Intertoto Cup. Brescia reached the final, losing to Paris Saint-Germain on away goals after 0–0 and 1–1 draws. Baggio retired in 2004 after four years, during which the club achieved its longest Serie A stay; the season after his retirement, Brescia was relegated on the final day.

Promotion returned after beating Torino in the 2009–10 playoffs, but relegation followed in 2010–11. In 2014–15, the team finished second from last in Serie B and was relegated to Lega Pro, but was later selected to replace Parma in Serie B after Parma's bankruptcy. A promotion to Serie A was secured in 2018–19 with two games to spare, but relegation came the next season.

Colours and badge

The first Brescia kit in 1911 was blue with a thick white vertical stripe, a design reused for the centenary season in 2011. A white "V" first appeared in 1927, added so the team could use the Stadium ground of another club, Virtus. This style lasted until 1940, when a plain blue shirt was adopted. After World War II, the shirt became plain white with blue shorts, but by 1954 the plain blue shirt returned.

The white "V" came back in 1961 as a goodwill gesture by the new chairman. It disappeared in 1969, replaced by a diagonal white sash, then returned smaller in 1974 for two years, placed over the heart with a lioness, the city symbol. The shirt remained plain blue until 1991, when the "V" returned and has been used ever since. The first badge appeared in the 1980s: a blue crest with a golden outline featuring a lion, referencing Brescia's nickname Leonessa d'Italia from the 1849 uprising.

For the centenary in 2011, the crest was changed to include a gold shield and laurel branches, updated lettering in a period font, and a more toned, ferocious lion with corrected heraldic details.

Stadium

The earliest football in Brescia was played at Campo Fiera in 1905 by English workers. After the club's 1911 founding, a fenced ground was built on Via Milano. In 1920, a new ground opened on Via Cesare Lombroso, used until 1923, when the team moved to a larger facility at Porta Venezia called "Stadium," built for Virtus. In 1956, the municipality began renovating the stands at the existing ground on Via Giovanni Novagani to host Serie B matches. Completed in 1959, the stadium was named Stadio Mario Rigamonti after the Torino player who died in the Superga air disaster. Subsequent refurbishments included roofing and a press room, with major security upgrades in 2007.