Football faces death in calcio birthplace

MILAN (Reuters) -- The city which was the birthplace of the original game of calcio effectively waved goodbye to its professional football club on Thursday.

After 76 years of history, during which they won the Italian title twice as well as the European Cup Winners Cup, Florence club Fiorentina, were refused registration by the Italian Football Federation.

The club, relegated from Serie A last season, are already in administration and bankruptcy now looks a formality.

The only hope Florence has of a professional team is if a new club is formed and handed a chance to play in the lower divisions.

Even if that happens, it could be years before top flight football is seen again at the Stadio Comunale Artemio Franchi.

A stadium that just three seasons ago was hosting Champions League games is now destined either to lie idle or host a few thousand die-hard fans watching regional football.

It was precisely to get Florence football out of such circumstances that, in 1926, Luigi Ridolfi, a local aristocrat from a grand old Tuscan family, who had fallen in love with the game during his travels to England, persuaded the two major clubs in Florence to merge and form Fiorentina.

The city was famed for giving birth to calcio -- a rough and tumble game with few rules played in the streets -- but Florence was slow to pick up on the English rules when they became popular across Europe in the late 19th century.

Success of merger

Ridolfi's success in merging two local teams, Libertas and Club Sportivo, enabled the city to compete on a national and later international level, and the foundation of the club launched decades of passion and excitement for Florence.

A new stadium was inaugurated in 1931 with the visit of Austrian side Admira Wacker and was also the debut of the first of Fiorentina's many South American players, Uruguayan striker Pedro Petrone, know as l'Artillero, "The Gunner."

The first trophy came in 1940 with an Italian Cup win after defeating AC Milan, Lazio and Juventus before victory over Genoa in the final.

The Serie A title came in 1956 with a team that conceded just six goals at home all season but which, like many Fiorentina sides, was famed for its attacking flair.

Argentine striker Miguel Montuori, nicknamed "Pecos Bill" due to his obsession with cowboy comics, was the star of the side, going on to score 72 goals in 162 appearances before injury cut his career short at the age of 29.

That first title-winning side also featured Brazilian winger Julinho Botelho, a 1954 World Cup winner whose magical skills earned him an eternal place in the hearts of Fiorentina fans.

Julinho quit Florence in 1958 due to homesickness and the picture of him leaving the field after his final game against Padova, tears streaming down his face, is tucked away in scrapbooks across Tuscany.

Excellent Italians

But the Fiorentina of the 1950's were built on the foundations of excellent Italian players -- when Italy played Yugoslavia in 1957 there were no fewer than nine Viola in the starting lineup.

Fiorentina reached the 1957 European Cup final where they lost 2-0 to Real Madrid in front of 125,000 fans in Madrid.

European honours finally came in 1961 with a European Cup Winners Cup victory over Glasgow Rangers for a team inspired by goalscoring Swedish winger Kurt Hamrin.

It was not until 1969, though, that the Italian title was won again with a team featuring four strikers and the inspirational sweeper Giuseppe Brizi.

But that squad was allowed to break up and the 1970's were a decade of frustrating mediocrity, relieved only by the creative skills of midfielder Giancarlo Antognoni.

The 1980's saw Fiorentina back in contention for the title, pipped to the scudetto in controversial fashion by Juventus on the final day of the 1981-82 season.

Juventus became the most hated rivals for the Florence club after they bought the exciting youngster Roberto Baggio to the club in 1990 -- Baggio went on to be European Footballer of the Year.

In 1993 Fiorentina were relegated to Serie B for the first time since World War Two but Argentine striker Gabriel Batistuta stuck with the club and helped ensure a swift return to the top flight.

Club president Mario Cecchi Gori had died the previous season, leaving the club to his son Vittorio.

Vittorio almost achieved the title win that had eluded his father when in 1998 the team, coached by Giovanni Trapattoni, led by four points at Christmas, but injury robbed the side of Batistuta and Brazilian Edmundo went partying in Rio.

With debts mounting Batistuta left to AS Roma in the summer of 2000 and the next season midfielder Rui Costa and Francesco Toldo were sold in an attempt to balance the books.

Relegation to Serie B followed but this time there was no one to buy the remaining assets, leaving Cecchi Gori unable to pay off the debtors and the city of Florence desperately needing the qualities of another Luigi Ridolfi.

Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.