Torino F.C.
From Freepedia
| Image:Torino FC Logo.png | |
| Full name | Torino Football Club |
| Nickname(s) | Granata, Toro |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Ground | Stadio Delle Alpi, Turin, Italy |
| Capacity | 69,040 |
| Chairman | Urbano Cairo |
| Manager | Giovanni De Biasi |
| League | Serie B |
| 2004-05 | Serie B, 4th |
Torino Football Club is one of the most popular Italian football clubs, based in Turin. Torino are nicknamed I Granata (the Garnet Reds) from the colour of the team shirts, or Il Toro (the Bull), from the abbreviation of the team name, that is also the city name of Turin in Italian language. The club was known as A.C. Torino until 1970, and as Torino Calcio from 1970 to 2005.
The club was founded in 1890 as Internazionale Torino, becoming FC Torino in 1906. They were denied their first Championship by the outbreak of World War I and lost their second chance in 1926-27 due to an alleged irregularity. Torino won its first scudetto, the Italian Championship, the following year and, between 1942 and 1949, won other five scudetti led by its captain, midfielder Valentino Mazzola.
On May 4, 1949, all but one player (who was out for an injury) of the legendary "Grande Torino" (Great Turin), widely considered the best ever team in Italian football history, were killed when their plane crashed into the hills of Superga, on the outskirts of Turin. The club never recovered, after a decade of mediocre seasons they were relegated in 1959, although they returned to Serie A within a year.
By the early Sixties and until the late Eighties, Torino has always got good results in Serie A, including another Scudetto in the 1975-76 season. Since the end of the Eighties, they have rotated between Serie A and Serie B, the top two divisions with little success, except a Coppa Italia in 1993 and a Mitropa Cup win in 1991.
In 2005, Torino placed 3rd in Serie B, promoting the club back to Serie A. However, the FIGC, the governing body of Italian football, expelled both Torino and F.C. Messina from Serie A, due to both clubs' financial problems; but, while Messina was re-admitted by a civil court of appeal, Torino was not and cancelled from italian sport panorama. Thanks to Lodo Petrucci (a special law which allows a club that is direct heir of a cancelled one to participate one division below the old one), a new club was founded, having the current name, which clearly recalls the originary one, and admitted to play the next season again in Serie B.
But in its worse seasons too, Torino has often reached good results in epic matches (the so-called "derbies") against the other Turin team, Juventus.
Since 1990 the club have played in the 69,040 capacity Stadio Delle Alpi, shared with Juventus. The stadium is unpopular with the fans and clubs. Prior to 1990 the clubs shared the Stadio Comunale for thirty years, Torino moving there from the Stadio Filadelfia, the home of the "Grande Torino". Torino will open a new, smaller ground of its own, Stadio Grande Torino (ex stadio comunale), in 2006.
Noted past players include Valentino Mazzola (captain of the "Grande Torino"), Giorgio Ferrini, Gigi Meroni, Francesco Graziani, Paolino Pulici (three times Serie A best scorer), Leovegildo Lins Gama, nicknamed Junior (one of the players in the Brazilian national team of the 1980s), Roberto Cravero, Gianluigi Lentini, Enzo Scifo, Martin Vazquez and Denis Law.
Achievements
- Italian League Champions - 7 times
- Mitropa Cup
- Winners in 1990-91.
External links
- Image:Symbole-it.png Official Website
- Image:Symbole-it.png A fans' website
- Image:Symbole-it.png A news website
| Serie B |
| Albinoleffe | Arezzo | Atalanta | Avellino | Bari | Bologna | Brescia | Catania | Catanzaro | Cesena | Cremonese Crotone | Mantova | Modena | Pescara | Piacenza | Rimini | Ternana | Torino | Triestina | Hellas Verona | Vicenza |
