Article 52 of NOIF


Art.52, Norme organizzative interne della FIGC governs the status of phoenix clubs of football in Italy. The article was revised in 2004, 2008, 2010, and 2014. Many Commas, or paragraphs, are present throughout the document. Comma 1 describes the article's main points, while Comma 2 forbids to sell a club sport's rights.

Comma 3 and 4

According to Comma 3, a new company may replace a bankrupt football club from the same city. With this acquisition, the new company has to take over the liabilities to pay any costs, as well as any outstanding taxes.

Examples

Serie B

Serie C

Comma 4 is similar to Comma 3 in semiprofessional and amatorial leagues.

Serie D

Eccellenza

Promozione

Comma 5

Comma 5 allows the merging of two or more clubs. The new team follows the sport rights of any one of the two clubs that is considered to be more convenient. It is one of the oldest FIGC rules, and one team who applied this rule was UC Sampdoria, which inherited and continued the history of its forerunner, SG Sampierdarenese, in Serie A.

Commas 6 through 9 (Lodo Petrucci)

Lodo Petrucci was a ruling named after Gianni Petrucci. Ratified in 2004, instead of acquiring the sports title by clearing the debt, FIGC awards the title to a new company based on the historic sporting merit of an old club. However, in such a situation, the new club was automatically relegated to one level below the original club. In 2008, this changed to an automatic relegation two levels below the original club, and was limited to Serie A and B clubs only. However, the ruling was repealed in 2015, as its criteria were too subjective.

Examples

;Serie A → Serie B
;Serie B → Serie C1
;Serie C1 → Serie C2
Some clubs unsuccessfully tried the Lodo Petrucci, so they had to pay part of the old debts to create the new phoenix club. These cases were privately managed by the FIGC without specific rules as the ACF Fiorentina case in 2002:

Comma 10

Comma 10 of the article allowed a new company to be admitted to Serie D in order to replace the old football club that was not admitted to professional leagues. Formerly Comma 9, it was changed to Comma 10 in the 2010 amendment. One example was the failed auction of Parma F.C., which was in debt with €22.6 million.