Hellas Verona FC
Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Hellas Verona, is an Italian professional football [List of Association football|football clubs in Italy|club] based in Verona, Veneto, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won the Serie A championship in the 1984–85 season.
The club has been associated with politically far-right ultras since at least the 1970s, and has repeatedly had racist incidents occur in the stands over the decades, including an incident in 1996 in which an effigy representing Dutch player Maickel Ferrier was hung from the stadium railing with a banner reading "Negro, get out of here" by fans wearing Ku Klux Klan attire. The club was repeated fined in the 2010s and 2020s for fans in the stands racially abusing players on the pitch.
In January 2025, it was announced that the club had been acquired by American private equity Presidio Investors.
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History
Origins and early history
Founded in 1903 by a group of students at Liceo "Scipione Maffei", the club was named Hellas, at the request of a professor of classics. At a time in which football was played seriously only in the larger cities of northwestern Italy, most of Verona was indifferent to the growing sport. However, when in 1906 two city teams chose the city's Roman amphitheatre as a venue to showcase the game, crowd enthusiasm and media interest began to rise.During these first few years, Hellas was one of three or four area teams playing at a municipal level while fighting against city rivals Bentegodi to become the city's premier football outfit. By the 1907–08 season, Hellas was playing against regional teams, and an intense rivalry with Vicenza that has lasted to this day was born.
From 1898 to 1926, Italian football was organised into regional groups. In this period, Hellas was one of the founding teams of the early league and often among its top final contenders. In 1911, the city helped Hellas replace the early, gritty football fields with a proper venue. This allowed the team to take part in its first regional tournament, which until 1926, was the qualifying stage for the national title.
In 1919, following a return to activity after a four-year suspension of all football competition in Italy during World War I, the team merged with city rival Verona and changed its name to Hellas Verona. Between 1926 and 1929, the elite "Campionato Nazionale" assimilated the top sides from the various regional groups. Hellas Verona joined the privileged teams, yet struggled to remain competitive.
Serie A, as it is structured today, began in 1929, when the Campionato Nazionale turned into a professional league. Still an amateur team, Hellas merged with two city rivals, Bentegodi and Scaligera, to form AC Verona. Hoping to build a first class contender for future years, the new team debuted in Serie B in 1929. It would take the gialloblu 28 years to finally achieve their goal. After first being promoted to Serie A for one season in 1957–58, in 1959, the team merged with another city rival and commemorated its beginnings by changing its name to Hellas Verona AC.
Success in the 1970s and 1980s
Coached by Nils Liedholm, the team returned to Serie A in 1968 and remained in the elite league almost without interruption until 1990. Along the way, it scored a famous 5–3 win in the 1972–73 season that cost Milan the scudetto. The fact that the result came late during the last matchday of the season makes the sudden and unexpected end to the rossoneri's title ambitions all the more memorable.In 1973–74, Hellas finished the season in fourth-last, just narrowly avoiding relegation, but were nonetheless sent down to Serie B during the summer months as a result of a scandal involving team president Saverio Garonzi. After a year in Serie B, Hellas returned to Serie A.
In the 1975–76 season, the team had a successful run in the Coppa Italia, eliminating highly rated teams such as Torino, Cagliari and Internazionale from the tournament. However, in their first ever final in the competition, Hellas were trounced 4–0 by Napoli.
Under the leadership of coach Osvaldo Bagnoli, in 1982–83 the team secured a fourth-place in Serie A and even led the Serie A standings for a few weeks. The same season Hellas again reached the Coppa Italia final. After a 2–0 home victory, Hellas then travelled to Turin to play Juventus but were defeated 3–0 after extra time.
Further disappointment followed in the 1983–84 season when the team again reached the Coppa Italia final, only to lose the Cup in the final minutes of the return match against defending Serie A champions Roma.
The team made its first European appearance in the 1983–84 UEFA Cup and were knocked out in the second round of the tournament by Sturm Graz. Hellas were eliminated from the 1985–86 European Cup in the second round by defending champions and fellow Serie A side Juventus after a contested game, the result of a scandalous arbitrage by the French Wurtz, having beaten PAOK of Greece in the first round.
In 1988, the team had their best international result when they reached the UEFA Cup quarterfinals with four victories and three draws. The decisive defeat came from German side Werder Bremen.
1984–1985 ''Scudetto''
Although the 1984–85 season squad was made up of a mix of emerging players and mature stars, at the beginning of the season no one would have regarded the team as having the necessary ingredients to make it to the end. Certainly, the additions of Hans-Peter Briegel in midfield and of Danish striker Preben Elkjær to an attack that already featured the wing play of Pietro Fanna, the creative abilities of Antonio Di Gennaro and the scoring touch of Giuseppe Galderisi were to prove crucial.To mention a few of the memorable milestones on the road to the scudetto: a decisive win against Juventus, with a goal scored by Elkjær after having lost a boot in a tackle just outside the box, set the stage early in the championship; an away win over Udinese ended any speculation that the team was losing energy at the midway point; three straight wins served notice that the team had kept its polish and focus intact during their rival's final surge; and a 1–1 draw in Bergamo against Atalanta secured the title with a game in hand.
Hellas finished the year with a 15–13–2 record and 43 points, four points ahead of Torino with Internazionale and Sampdoria rounding out the top four spots. This unusual final table of the Serie A has led to many speculations. The 1984–85 season was the only season when referees were assigned to matches by way of a random draw. Before then each referee had always been assigned to a specific match by a special commission of referees. After the betting scandal of the early 1980, it was decided to clean up the image of Italian football by assigning referees randomly instead of picking them, to clear up all the suspicions and accusations always accompanying Italy's football life. This resulted in a quieter championship and in a completely unexpected final table.
In the following season, won again by Juventus, the choice of the referees went back in the hands of the designatori arbitrali. In 2006, a major scandal in Italian football revealed that certain clubs had been illegally influencing the referee selection process in an attempt to ensure that certain referees were assigned to their matches.
Between Serie A and Serie B
These were more than mere modest achievements for a mid-size city with a limited appeal to fans across the nation. But soon enough financial difficulties caught up with team managers. In 1991 the team folded and was reborn as Verona, regularly moving to and fro between Serie A and Serie B for several seasons. In 1995 the name was officially returned to Hellas Verona.After a three-year stay, their last stint in Serie A ended in grief in 2002. That season emerging international talents such as Adrian Mutu, Mauro Camoranesi, Alberto Gilardino, Martin Laursen, Massimo Oddo, Marco Cassetti and coach Alberto Malesani failed to capitalise on an excellent start and eventually dropped into fourth-to-last place for the first time all season on the final match day, enforcing relegation into Serie B.
Decline and Serie C (2002–2011)
Following the 2002 relegation to Serie B, team fortunes continued to slip throughout the decade. In the 2003–04 season Hellas Verona struggled in Serie B and spent most of the season fighting off an unthinkable relegation to Serie C1. Undeterred, the fans supported their team and a string of late season wins eventually warded off the danger. Over 5,000 of them followed Hellas to Como on the final day of the season to celebrate.In 2004–05, things looked much brighter for the team. After a rocky start, Hellas put together a string of results and climbed to third spot. The gialloblù held on to the position until January 2005, when transfers weakened the team, yet they managed to take the battle for Serie A to the last day of the season.
The 2006–07 Serie B seemed to start well, due to the club takeover by Pietro Arvedi D'Emilei, which ended nine years of controversial leadership under chairman Gianbattista Pastorello, heavily contested by the supporters in his later years at Verona. However, Verona was immediately involved in the relegation battle, and Massimo Ficcadenti was replaced in December 2006 by Giampiero Ventura. Despite a recovery in the results, Verona ended in an 18th place, thus being forced to play a two-legged playoff against 19th-placed Spezia to avert relegation. A 2–1 away loss in the first leg at La Spezia was followed by a 0–0 home tie, and Verona were relegated to Serie C1 after 64 years of play in the two highest divisions.
Verona appointed experienced coach Franco Colomba for the new season with the aim to return to Serie B as soon as possible. However, despite being widely considered the division favourite, the gialloblù spent almost the entire season in last place. After seven matches, club management sacked Colomba in early October and replaced him with youth team coach Davide Pellegrini. A new owner acquired the club in late 2007, appointing Giovanni Galli in December as new director of football and Maurizio Sarri as new head coach. Halfway through the 2007–08 season, the team remained at the bottom of Serie C1, on the brink of relegation to the fourth level. In response, club management sacked Sarri and brought back Pellegrini. Thanks to a late-season surge the scaligeri avoided direct relegation by qualifying for the relegation play-off, and narrowly averted dropping to Lega Pro Seconda Divisione in the final game, beating Pro Patria 2–1 on aggregate. However, despite the decline in results, attendance and season ticket sales remained at 15,000 on average.
For the 2008–09 season, Verona appointed former Sassuolo and Piacenza manager Gian Marco Remondina with the aim to win promotion to Serie B. However, the season did not start impressively, with Verona being out of the playoff zone by mid-season, and club chairman Pietro Arvedi D'Emilei entering into a coma after being involved in a car crash on his way back from a league match in December 2008. Arvedi died in March 2009, two months after the club was bought by new chairman Giovanni Martinelli.
The following season looked promising, as new transfer players were brought aboard, and fans enthusiastically embraced the new campaign. Season ticket figures climbed to over 10,000, placing Verona ahead of several Serie A teams and all but Torino in Serie B attendance. The team led the standings for much of the season, accumulating a seven-point lead by early in the spring. However, the advantage was gradually squandered, and the team dropped to second place on the second-last day of the season, with a chance to regain first place in the final regular season match against Portogruaro on home soil. Verona, however, disappointed a crowd of over 25,000 fans and, with the loss, dropped to third place and headed towards the play-offs. A managerial change for the post-season saw the firing of Remondina and the arrival of Giovanni Vavassori. After eliminating Rimini in the semi-finals Verona lost the final to Pescara and were condemned to a fourth-straight year of third division football.
Rising again and Serie A comeback (2012–present)
Former 1990 World Cup star Giuseppe Giannini signed as manager for the 2010–11 campaign. Once again, the team was almost entirely revamped during the transfer season. The squad struggled in the early months and Giannini was eventually sacked and replaced by former Internazionale defender Andrea Mandorlini, who succeeded in reorganising the team's play and bringing discipline both on and off the pitch. In the second half of the season, Verona climbed back from the bottom of the division to clinch a play-off berth on the last day of the regular season. The team advanced to the play-off final after eliminating Sorrento in the semi-finals 3–1 on aggregate. Following the play-off final, after four years of Lega Pro football, Verona were promoted back to Serie B after a 2–1 aggregate win over Salernitana on 19 June 2011.On 18 May 2013, Verona finished second in Serie B and were promoted to Serie A after an eleven-year absence. Their return to the top flight began against title contenders Milan and Roma, beating the former 2–1 and losing to the latter 3–0. The team continued at a steady pace, finishing the first half of the season with 32 points and sitting in sixth place, eleven points behind the closest UEFA Champions League spot—and tied with Internazionale for the final UEFA Europa League spot. Verona, however, ultimately finished the year in tenth.
During the 2015–16 season, Verona had not won a single match since the beginning of the campaign until the club edged Atalanta 2–1 on 3 February 2016 in a win at home; coming twenty-three games into the season. Consequently, Verona were relegated from Serie A.
In the 2016–17 Serie B season, Hellas Verona finished second on the table and were automatically promoted back to Serie A. Hellas lasted one season back in the top division after finishing second last during the 2017–18 Serie A season and were relegated back to Serie B. At the end of the 2018–19 season, Hellas finished in fifth position and achieved promotion back to Serie A after defeating Cittadella 3–0 in the second leg of their promotion play-off to win 3–2 on aggregate.
The club's return to the top flight in the 2019–20 Serie A season, in which it was considered a strong relegation candidate at the beginning of the campaign, was a successful one, with a ninth-placed finish. Heavily reliant on the defensive solidity of 20-year-old centre-back Marash Kumbulla, Amir Rrahmani and goalkeeper Marco Silvestri, along with the consistent performances of midfielder Sofyan Amrabat, Verona was a surprise contender for Europa League qualification but fell out of the race after a downturn in form after the coronavirus break which temporarily halted the season. A 2–1 win at home against eventual title winners Juventus in February was a highlight of a season in which the club achieved 10 clean sheets and punched towards the higher end of the table despite its modest budget.
Ahead of Verona's second consecutive year in Serie A, key players Amrabat, Rrahmani and Kumbulla were poached by Fiorentina, Napoli and Roma respectively, and loanee Matteo Pessina returned to Atalanta. This left the club with a heavily weakened squad and it was once again expected to struggle in the league prior to the season-opening match. Despite these losses in the transfer window, Verona again finished in the top half of the league table, ending the season in 10th place with 45 points. Successful breakout seasons for attacking midfielder Mattia Zaccagni, who was eventually called up to the Italy national team as a reward for his performances, as well as wing-backs Federico Dimarco and Davide Faraoni, were partly the reason for this achievement. At the end of the season, coach Ivan Jurić was appointed by Torino following his two impressive Serie A seasons with Verona, with the Gialloblu replacing him with Eusebio Di Francesco.
Following another summer transfer window in which several of the club's star players were sold to Serie A rivals, namely Zaccagni transferring to Lazio, Marco Silvestri to Udinese and Dimarco returning to Inter, the beginning of the 2021-22 season proved to be much more difficult for Verona, as Di Francesco was fired and replaced with Igor Tudor after just three matches, all of which were defeats. This poor early-season form had left the club at the bottom of the table. Under the guidance of Tudor, the team regains competitiveness obtaining in the next eight matches three wins – including victories with Lazio and Juventus – four draws and only one defeat.
Colours and badge
The team's colours are yellow and blue. As a result, the clubs most widely used nickname is gialloblù literally "yellow-blue" in Italian. The colours represent the city itself and Verona's emblem appears on most team apparel. Home kits are traditionally blue, sometimes of a navy shade, combined with yellow details and trim, although the club has used a blue and yellow striped design on occasion. Two more team nicknames are Mastini and Scaligeri, both references to Mastino I della Scala of the Della Scala princes that ruled the city during the 13th and 14th centuries.The Scala family coat of arms is depicted on the team's jersey and on its trademark logo as a stylised image of two large, powerful mastiffs facing opposite directions, introduced in 1995. In essence, the term "scaligeri" is synonymous with Veronese, and therefore can describe anything or anyone from Verona.
Supporters
Hellas Verona supporters have been associated with hard right politics since at least the 1970s, when the club’s most prominent ultras group, the Brigate Gialloblu, emerged. The group initially had left-wing leanings but shifted to the extreme right by the mid-1970s. Over the decades, sections of the Verona fanbase became notorious for racist, antisemitic, and fascist-inspired behaviour, including the display of swastikas, Celtic crosses, and Nazi salutes.Incidents of racism have been repeatedly documented. In 1982–83, bananas were thrown at Cagliari striker Julio Cesar Uribe, one of the first Black players in Italian football. In 1996, during a derby with AC ChievoVerona, a black dummy representing Dutch player Maickel Ferrier was hung from the stadium railing with a banner reading "Negro, get out of here" by fans wearing Ku Klux Klan attire, contributing to Ferrier’s transfer falling through. Hellas fans have also directed racist abuse at Italian players from southern regions, including Napoli, using chants referencing the volcano Vesuvius.
In the 2000s and 2010s, incidents continued. In 2001, club president Giambattista Pastorello stated he would be unlikely to sign a Black player due to the racist attitudes of the fanbase. In 2014, Hellas Verona were fined €50,000 and received a partial stadium ban after fans racially abused AC Milan midfielder Sulley Muntari. That same year, Hellas fans also racially abused Pablo Armero, resulting in the Curva Sud being closed for one subsequent game. During a match against Livorno in April 2015, a section of Verona supporters chanted offensively about the recently deceased Livorno midfielder Piermario Morosini, provoking widespread condemnation. In 2019, ultras leader Luca Castellini made racist comments about Mario Balotelli, leading the club to ban him from attending matches until 2030.
Verona fans have also been implicated in abuse directed at Mario Balotelli in 2020, and Kalidou Koulibaly as well as Victor Osimhen in 2022, resulting in fines and partial stadium closures.
Far-right political connections have been explicit; Castellini, who leads both Forza Nuova's local branch in Verona and Hellas Verona’s hardcore ultras, was filmed in 2018 encouraging chants celebrating Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Hess, later being banned from the stadium. Verona ultras have repeatedly integrated fascist imagery and ideology into their displays, linking football support with broader extremist political beliefs. Despite these issues, club officials have occasionally attempted to distance themselves from the behaviour, while condemning racism publicly.
Stadium
Since 1963, the club have played at the Stadio Marc'Antonio Bentegodi, which has a capacity of 39,211. It is the eighth-largest stadium in Italy by capacity. The stadium is named after the historic benefactor of Veronese sport, Marcantonio Bentegodi.The ground was shared with Hellas's rivals, Chievo Verona until 2021. It was used as a venue for some matches of the 1990 FIFA World Cup and renovations prior to the tournament included an extra tier and a roof to cover all sections, improved visibility, public transport connections, an urban motorway connecting the city centre with the stadium and the Verona Nord motorway exit and services.
Derby with Chievo Verona
The intercity fixtures against Chievo Verona are known as the "Derby della Scala". The name refers to the Scaligeri or della Scala aristocratic family, who were rulers of Verona during the Middle Ages and early Renaissance.Hellas, founded in 1903, were traditionally the main club in Verona. Chievo, founded in 1929, historically represented the small Verona suburb of the same name, using a small parish field as their home ground, and did not become a professional side until 1986. At that time, Chievo became tenants of Hellas at the Bentegodi, and began rising up the league ladder. By the mid-1990s, Chievo had joined Hellas in Serie B, creating the derby. During the teams' early Serie B meetings, Hellas supporters taunted Chievo with the chant Quando i mussi volara, faremo el derby in Serie A – "Donkeys will fly before we’ll have a derby in Serie A." Once Chievo earned promotion to Serie A at the end of the 2000–01 season, their fans started calling the team i Mussi Volanti. A 2014 story in the British football magazine Late Tackle remarked that "Hellas fans didn’t so much have their words rammed down their throat as forced through every orifice with a barge pole."
In the season 2001–02, both Hellas Verona and the city rivals of Chievo Verona were playing in the Serie A. The first ever derby of Verona in Serie A took place on 18 November 2001, while both teams were ranked among the top four. The match was won by Hellas, 3–2. Chievo got revenge in the return match in spring 2002, winning 2–1. Verona thus became the fifth city in Italy, after Milan, Rome, Turin and Genoa to host a cross-town derby in Serie A.
Honours
Records and statistics
Player records
Most appearances
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