Soccer
in Catania
Since 1946
The Italian football championship restarted in 1945 after the Second World War. "C.C. (Club Calcio) Catania" was born in 1946, it was and still is
(now Calcio Catania spa) the most important football team in the city. Its uniform is composed of red and blue shirts, blue shorts, thick black socks with a red-blue line. This team played and still plays its home-matches at the "Cibali" stadium, that has a capacity of about 36,000 people and is one of the biggest in Sicily.
Catania represented Sicily in the first division (Serie A) for some years in the past and has a lot of supporters all over Sicily, especially in the eastern part.
Catania played in the first division ("Serie A") for nine years. The first time was in the 1954/1955 season. At the end of this championship
Catania finished 12th but unfortunately were forced to withdraw from the league by the
Lega Nazionale. Then the team played six running championships in the first division from 1960/1961 to 1965/1966, and later two others, one in the 1970/1971 season and the other in the 1983/1984 season. It faced all the most important Italian teams like
International,
Juventus and
Milan; sometimes it won against these teams:
Catania-Inter 2-0 (1960/'61), Catania-Milan 4-3 (1960/'61) and
Catania-Juventus 3-1 (1964/'65) are some of the most important scores of its history. People such as Bruno Pizzul and Claudio Ranieri wore the shirt of Catania; now Pizzul is a commentator of
RAI for the most important football matches that are televised and Ranieri is a famous
coach.
During 1993
Catania, that in that year was in the third division (Serie C1/b), was deleted by
FIGC (Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio) from the Italian professional championships for some problems of society of C.C. Catania, but probably this condemnation was unjust. On that occasion another Sicilian team, 'Atletico Leonzio' of Lentini, moved to Catania to substitute the Catania one. This team changed its name from 'Atletico Leonzio' to 'Catania 1993' and then to 'Atletico Catania'.
In 2001 Atletico Catania (the uniform was red and blue, then it changed to yellow and grey)
ended the activity in the professional championships after 13 years (twice they
played to obtain the Serie B), now there's a new team (Atletico
Catania 3000, playing in lower championships, the uniform is white and blue); Catania took a new lease of life (now it's "Calcio Catania spa") and
is playing in "Serie B" and the aim is to reach the "Serie
A" in a few time. The supporters of
Catania are some of the most passionate in Italy. At the end of the 1982/1983 season (Catania were in Serie B) about 40,000 supporters from Sicily went to Rome to see the
Catania team, that won and returned to Serie A.
PRINCIPALI SOCIETĄ DI CALCIO ITALIANE
CALCIO
CATANIA - HISTORY OF CHAMPIONSHIPS
last
update: September 2005
|
Home |
Arte e Cultura | Catania |
Cinema | Sport |
Webmaster | Umorismo |
Guestbook |