F.C. Pro Vercelli 1892

Pro Vercelli

Full name	Football Club Pro Vercelli 1892 s.r.l.
Nickname(s)	Bianche Casacche (White Shirts), Leoni (Lions)
Founded	1892 (as sport club S.G. Pro Vercelli) 1903 (as football division U.S. Pro Vercelli Calcio) 2010 (refounded)
Ground	Stadio Silvio Piola, Vercelli, Italy
Ground Capacity	8,000
President	Massimo Secondo
Head Coach	Cristiano Scazzola
League	Serie B
2013-14	Lega Pro Prima Divisione/A, 2nd (promoted)
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Football Club Pro Vercelli 1892, commonly known as Pro Vercelli, is an Italian association football club based in Vercelli, Piedmont.^[1] Mostly renowned as one of the most successful teams in the early football era of Italy, with seven national titles (all won between 1908 and 1922), they currently play in the Serie B league.

History

Early league successes and decline

The origins of football in Vercelli go back to 1892 when it was founded as Società Ginnastica Pro Vercelli (Pro Vercelli Gymnastics Society), and 1903 with its Football Division.

The first official match for the football division of S.G. Pro Vercelli took place on 3 August 1903 against the Forza e Costanza.

The club won seven Italian Football Championships from 1908 to 1922: 1908, 1909, 1910–11, 1911–12, 1912–13, 1920–21, 1921–22.

The introduction of professionalism in Italian football, and the rise of teams from larger industrial and business cities such as Milan and Turin, led Pro Vercelli to a slow but continuous decline. They played Serie A for their last time to date in 1934–35, and went ultimately relegated also from second division (Serie B) in 1947–48, starting a long period out of the two top divisions of Italian football, even being relegated to Italy's amateur league, Serie D, in multiple times. They regained professional status for good after winning promotion and the Scudetto Dilettanti in the season 1993-94.

Bankruptcy and the new Pro Vercelli

In the early 2000s, Pro Vercelli also had to challenge crosstown rivalry from a new team, A.S. Pro Belvedere Vercelli (with the colors yellow and green), founded in the summer of 2006 as a merger between A.S. Trino Calcio (based in Trino, Piedmont), who played in Serie D and minor league team P.G.S. Pro Belvedere, founded in 1912.

In the Serie D 2006–07 season, the team finished 9th in Girone A. A year later, in the Serie D 2007–08 season, the team finished 3rd in the same division, qualifying for the Serie D playoffs. It won its way to the group stage of the tournament, but failed qualify as one of the top 5 teams of the playoffs, all of which were later promoted to Lega Pro Seconda Divisione.

In the Serie D 2008–09 season, Pro Belvedere finished first in Girone B, winning direct promotion to Lega Pro Seconda Divisione. Their debut season into professional football also featured, for the first time in the club's history, a crosstown derby with Pro Vercelli, but was not particularly successful, with the team lying in second-last place for most of the time in the 2009-10 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione, and promotion winning coach Luca Prina being replaced by the more experienced Gianfranco Motta.

Pro Belvedere were relegated after only one season but re-admitted to fill a number of vacancies in the league; at the same time, due to large debts, Pro Vercelli was not allowed to participate in the 2010-11 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione and so folded. In order to keep the old Pro Vercelli alive, Pro Belvedere changed its name to U.S. Vercelli Calcio and weeks later acquired honours and trademarks from the old Pro Vercelli, being thus allowed to switch its denomination to the current one, as well as to maintain the historical names and colors of the original team.^[1]

In the season 2010–11 the team played in Lega Pro Seconda Divisione ranking 3rd and was eliminated from Pro Patria in the semifinal of the play-off, but on 4 August 2011 it was later admitted to Lega Pro Prima Divisione to fill vacancies.^[2]

New successes: back to Serie B after 64 years

In the season 2011-12 of Lega Pro Prima Divisione the club was promoted to Serie B after 64 years, beating Carpi 3-1 in the final return of the play-off after the 0-0 of the first round.^[3]

The club had a very unsuccessful return to Serie B - finishing 21st of 22 teams and with a goal difference of -30, the worst in the league. Their placing in the league meant that they were relegated to Lega Pro Prima Divisione.

In Girone A of Lega Pro 1, Pro Vercelli missed out on an immediate automatic promotion back to Serie B by a single point, finishing second in the league to Virtus Entella and eight points above third placed Südtirol. Striker Ettore Marchi starred throughout the season, scoring 15 goals. In the promotion playoffs, Pro Vercelli eliminated FeralpiSalò, Savona and ultimately defeated Südtirol in the final, thus returning back to Serie B after only one season.

Colors and badge

The historical color of the shirts of Pro Vercelli is white.

Current squad

As of 28 January 2015.^[4]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Sergio Viotti (on loan from Chievo) 2 MF Matteo D'Alessandro 3 DF Umberto Germano 4 DF Mattia Bani 5 DF Francesco Cosenza 6 DF Luca Milesi (on loan from Atalanta) 7 FW Davide Luppi 8 MF Manuel Scavone 9 FW Ettore Marchi 10 MF Gianni Fabiano 11 DF Matteo Liviero (on loan from Juventus) 12 GK Entonjo Elezaj 14 MF Simone Emmanuello 15 DF Stefano Negro 16 MF Mattia Sprocati (on loan from Parma) 17 MF Francesco Ardizzone

No. Position Player 18 MF Niccolò Belloni (on loan from Inter) 19 MF Ronaldo Pompeu (on loan from Empoli) 20 MF Gianluca Musacci (on loan from Parma) 21 MF Luca Castiglia (on loan from Juventus) 22 GK Danilo Russo 23 FW Daniele Ragatzu 24 MF Jakub Hromada 25 DF Massimiliano Scaglia 26 DF Mohamed Coly 27 FW Cristian Bunino 28 MF Riccardo Secondo 29 DF Michele Ferri 30 MF Nunzio Di Roberto (on loan from Varese) 32 FW Giacomo Beretta (on loan from Milan)

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player DF Nazzareno Belfasti (at FeralpiSalò) MF Donato Disabato (at Carrarese) MF Giuseppe Ruggiero (at Gorica)

Honours

• Italian Football Championship
  • Champions 7: 1908, 1909, 1910–11, 1911–12, 1912–13, 1920–21, 1921–22
  • Runners-up 1: 1909–10
• Serie B
  • Winners 1: 1907
• Serie D
  • Winners 4: 1956-57, 1970–71, 1983–1984, 1993–1994
• Scudetto Dilettanti:
  • Winners 1: 1993-94

References

External links

• (Italian) Official site
• (Italian) Information page in Italian. Game reports, articles, stats, polls and a guestbook.
• (Italian) A photographic site. Pictures of Pro Vercelli.

Serie B 2014–15 clubs Avellino Bari Bologna Brescia Carpi Catania Cittadella Crotone Frosinone Latina Livorno Modena Perugia Pescara Pro Vercelli Spezia Ternana Trapani Varese Vicenza Virtus Entella Virtus Lanciano Former clubs Acireale Alba Trastevere AlbinoLeffe Alessandria Alzano Virescit Ancona Arezzo Arsenale Taranto Ascoli Picchio Atalanta Barletta Biellese Bolzano Brindisi Cagliari Campobasso Carrarese Casale Casertana Castel di Sangro Catanzaro Cavese Centese Cesena Chievo Como Cosenza Crema Cremonese Derthona Empoli Fanfulla Fermana Fidelis Andria Fiorentina Fiumana Foggia Forlì Gallaratese Gallipoli Genoa Grion Pola Grosseto Gubbio Juve Stabia Juventus L'Aquila Lazio Lecce Lecco Legnano Licata Liguria Lucchese Maceratese Magenta Mantova Marzotto Massese M.A.T.E.R. Matera Messina Mestre Milan Molinella Monfalcone Monza Napoli Nocerina Novara Padova Palermo Parma Pavia Piacenza Piombino Pisa Pistoiese Portogruaro Potenza Prato Pro Gorizia Pro Patria Pro Sesto Ravenna Reggiana Reggina Rieti Rimini Roma Salernitana Sambenedettese Sampdoria Sampierdarenese Sanremese Sassuolo Savoia Savona Scafatese Seregno Sestrese Siena Siracusa Sorrento SPAL Suzzara Taranto Torino Trani Treviso Triestina Udinese Venezia Verona Viareggio Vigevano Vita Nova Vogherese Statistics Records

Serie B seasons Serie B seasons 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 1945–46 postwar season† Serie B-C in Northern Italy Serie A-B in Southern Italy †Championships recognized as official by the Italian Football Federation

Football in Italy Overview National association League system List of clubs List of venues Records Scudetto Capocannoniere International Italy Under-21 Under-20 Under-19 Under-18 Under-17 Under-16 Under-15 Italy women Leagues Lega Serie A Lega Serie B Lega Pro Lega Nazionale Dilettanti Lega Calcio (defunct) League competitions Serie A Serie B Lega Pro Serie D Eccellenza Promozione Prima Categoria Seconda Categoria Terza Categoria Lega Pro Prima Divisione (defunct) Lega Pro Seconda Divisione (defunct) Cup competitions Coppa Italia Supercoppa Italiana Coppa Italia Lega Pro Supercoppa di Lega di Prima Divisione Supercoppa di Lega di Seconda Divisione Coppa Italia Serie D Coppa Italia Dilettanti Youth competitions Campionato Nazionale Primavera Coppa Italia Primavera Supercoppa Primavera Torneo di Viareggio Campionato Nazionale Dante Berretti Women's competitions Serie A Coppa Italia Awards Oscar del Calcio AIC Italian Football Hall of Fame Miscellaneous Totonero 1980 Totonero 1986 2004–10 Italian football scandal 2006 Italian football scandal 2011–12 Italian football scandal Foreign Serie A players Foreign Serie B players Seasons 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15

Original Italian Serie A clubs, 1929–30 Alessandria Bologna Brescia Cremonese Genoa (as Genova 1893) Internazionale (as Ambrosiana) Juventus Lazio Livorno Milan Modena Napoli Padova Pro Patria Pro Vercelli Roma Torino Triestina