D Tales

The summer of 2021 had its usual round of financial issues in Italy. It was probably to be more than expected, after all, if a normal close season is chaotic, a season without matchday income was always going to be an even more fraught passage of time. When the dust settled, the situation wasn’t as bad as I feared, but a number of clubs failed to meet the increasingly stringent requirements for Serie C. The biggest casualty was in Serie B, where Verona side, the Flying Donkeys of Chievo have fallen a considerable number of leagues down the pyramid. Livorno were another big name casualty, albeit they had already fallen on hard times having been relegated from the third tier. However, they also went bust and are having to restart from the regional 5th tier Eccellenza league this term. Other countries’ fans might get sniffy and snooty at the regular bankruptcy gig in Italy, but nowhere else has 60 clubs at the third level and 162 in the fourth tier, Serie D. Football is a huge deal in Italy, and every community deserves its team.

In a recent article on some of the hidden gems of Italy I started working my way North going East to West from Ravenna to Casale Monferrato, so this time let’s start in the North West and work our way South and East as we take a peek at five clubs, four now in D and one who have just escaped that level this season. 

Serie D is made up of nine regional leagues (Girone) of 18 clubs. Promotion is very tricky with just one guaranteed. Play offs for those finishing 2nd to 5th in each league sees the Girone play off winners ranked and in the queue to step up should a Serie C club falter. Siena was one of the beneficiaries of this route in the summer. It might seem bizarre to play a short series of matches in the more hope of promotion, but I think that’s better than winning a regional league as in Germany and still not guaranteed to go up, as 5 league winners with 4 promotion slots is lunacy, let alone the argument as to why such a big country needs reserve sides so high up the league structure.

NOVARA

Sixty six kilometres west of Milan, almost in a straight line, is the city of Novara. It is a small city with a 105,000 population, but as a place to visit it has a very fine city centre. The jewel in it’s crown is the iconic Basilica San Gaudenzio, with the tower the symbol of the city. This is the Piemonte region, just across the state line from Lombardia. Getting to Novara is relatively easy with the city on the main train line between Milan and Torino. The denationalization of the rail network has seen different companies take over certain routes, none more so than in the northern regions where Trenord compete against the more well known Trenitalia. The only reason for telling you this is that Novara unusually has two railway stations, and if you were headed directly here from Malpensa, the nearest airport, Trenord changing at Busto Arsizio will get you here quite quickly but you’ll arrive at a different station from any train out of Milan. That said, the two are reasonably close to each other.

Novara Calcio are one of two clubs featured in this article that failed to meet the financial criteria to stay in Serie C and have been demoted. Novara versus Casale is part of the Serie D fixture roster in this region once more. Novara are the only team featured here who have graced the top league, and not just once, the club have played in Serie A for 13 seasons in total, and if you are superstitious maybe that cursed thirteenth occasion, a one season appearance as recently as 2012, was just a step too far.  It came after back to back promotions, and it all started so well, beating the then World Club champions Inter Milan 3-1 in the early rounds, a first win at the top table for 55 years! Despite going down, Novara did the double over Inter that season, and the first victory saw the Inter boss lose his job, one Gian Piero Gasperini, who has gone on to perform such miracles at Atalanta.        

Having climbed two leagues in two years, Novara then repeated the feat in the next two years, headed back to C before they knew it, and while a brief return to B took them as close as the play off semi-finals to get back into the top flight, that failure was the clubs last near thing.  Relegation back to the third tier in 2018 has seen valiant attempts to get back up, but despite a reasonable campaign last term, without the fans the finances were hemorrhaging and a license was denied.

Novara will be the big boys in their division this season and their Stadio Silvio Piola, with its near 18,000 capacity, not only the biggest, but also the most well maintained. The Silvio Piola is a fantastic stadium and well worth a visit. It is on the outskirts of the town, but not an arduous 45 minute walk from the centre if you have time. The name of the ground might sound familiar, but here arch rivals Pro Vercilli and Novara are united in their appreciation of Silvio Piola, a club legend at both, and in the case of Novara, his goals in the ‘50’s were the principle reason the club had seven straight Serie A campaigns, culminating in a club high 8th place finish in 1952. The nearest they ever got to silverware was reaching the 1939 Coppa Italia final losing out to Inter.

PRATO

We have headed a good distance south into the North Eastern portion of Tuscany and the quaint city of Prato. Getting here from Novara would see you take a train to Milan Centrale, down to Bologna, and then a non fast train headed towards Firenze, with Prato just 20 minutes from the Tuscan capital. It’s proximity to the high culture of Firenze, as well as being not unduly far from beautiful Lucca makes Prato a wonderful stopping off point, and cheaper base. The city is not without its own charms and historical buildings.

The local football team AC Prato could not play closer to the main railway station if they tried. The picturesque Stadio Lungobisenzio is just a two minutes walk from Prato Centrale station, making a quick in and out pincer movement for a game possible if that’s what you’d prefer. That said, only in October this year have the club finally started playing here again after a few seasons of nomadic life away from Prato.

Sheltering from the wind at half-time at Pontedera in 2018 I happened upon the place where Prato’s manager or players would be interviewed for TV with the various club sponsors on one of these advertising backdrop boards. Pontedera was a good distance from home. While they subsequently moved closer to Prato, culminating in starting this campaign just down the road at Sesto Fiorentino, finally going back to Stadio Lungobisenzio was needed as getting a bigger support base going again is important. They aren’t the first Italian club to go nomadic as a dispute with the local council over rent and facilities drags on, but in the end it does nothing to help anyone. Those fans who headed across Tuscany in support of the club during this troubling 4 years away, I salute you. 

With a population of 195,000 it might surprise you to learn that Prato is the second city of Tuscany. It certainly isn’t reflected in the status of the local club past or present. Six promotions to the second tier are the high points, but the last time they graced Serie B was in 1964. More recently they have been a stalwart of Serie C1 and the old C2 (which is no longer with us and usurped into Serie D). All the way back in June 1990, just days away from the World Cup, I watched Prato lose a last day third tier relegation battle at a full Vicenza stadium. It remains one of the most amazing games of my football travels, and led me to always keep an eye on the Tuscan sides’ solid, unspectacular lack of progress thereafter, with sadly an occasional step backwards thrown in for good messure.   

Stadio Lungobisenzio has a modest 6,800 capacity, but it has scope for extra stands if ever needed. The view of Monte Retaia (an imposing hill looking over the city), from the main stand gives a spectacular backdrop. It’s a curious cobbled together mish mash of stands and styles with one end affording local residents a clear view of proceedings, albeit without the obligatory balcony that seems to be available at such venues elsewhere. I last saw Prato take on Arezzo here in a Coppa Italia C game in 2016 when the club was just regularly clinging to third tier status. They subsequently lost that battle and are now into a fourth straight Serie D campaign on the trot, and it hasn’t started very well at all, with the manager already ousted after just two league games. By coincidence, our next stop is Arezzo, a city almost directly south of Prato in the southern reaches of Tuscany.

AREZZO

A regional train dots between Pistoia and Arezzo stopping at most towns in between, so if you were in no hurry on the journey south, this service would save you potentially having to change trains, albeit perhaps denying you a faster route if you don’t alight at Firenze.

Arezzo is just the most beautiful place, with its historical centre akin to stepping back in time. The main event is the Piazza Grande an unusual shaped, sloping square, and despite the name, it’s not really that big. This is one of my favourite places not just in Italy, but the world, it draws me back time and again. If you have never been and are curious, fetch a copy of Life is Beautiful, a film with Roberto Benigni and the first hour or so will give you a flavour of this fabulous city. The film certainly put Arezzo on the map, but it still doesn’t attract the crowds like Siena, Lucca or Firenze easily do. The city at the last count had a population of just a thousand shy of 100,000, smaller than Prato, but both have similar calcio tales of underachieving.

A bit like other Tuscan and Umbrian towns the wealth of local produce and meats, including wild boar, make Arezzo a city of culinary delights. The restaurants in and around Piazza Grande are all very fine indeed, and given the stadium is quite a way from the centre of the city, getting in a morsel of the proper local grub ahead of the 30 minute walk to the stadio would be the perfect idea. 

When I bought my first ever Guerin Sportivo (the magazine bible of Italian football) way back in 1983 the Serie B league table saw the top two sides being Campobasso and Arezzo (both involved in this article oddly!). As I am always a man who keeps a handle on the lower leagues before perusal of any top flight table, just as Prato filtered into my world courtesy of that game at Vicenza, I immediately developed a curiosity about both these unusual frontrunners of yesteryear Serie B. Arezzo just missed out on promotion that season, which was a club high finish. Monies were then thrown at trying to get Amaranto (dark reds) one step further into Serie A, but in a classic case of money doesn’t always bring success, all it bought them was relegation to C in 1988, and they haven’t been close to going back up ever since. The last time I saw Arezzo in 2019 they were in the semi-finals of the Serie C promotion play offs versus Pisa, and the local enthusiasm and potential for the club was clear to see with a sell out 10,000 crammed in the parts of the ground still viable for use. It was a rip roaring first leg, swinging one way then the next, but they’d come out 2-3 down, with a missed penalty a high angst ridden moment. They couldn’t retrieve the situation in the second tie and that’s as good as it has got in recent years for Arezzo. In a classic case of history repeating itself, a couple of seasons later, at the very end of last season, late goals lost in the last two games cost them dear. None more importantly that losing at Ravenna, the bottom club on the last day of the campaign, condemning the Tuscan side relegation.

Serie D is where Amaranto start off this term, and with a season of suffering without fans, it has been wonderful to see the Arezzo fans rally round the club and turn out in good numbers at Stadio Citta Di Arezzo once more. Hopes are already high for an immediate return to Serie C.

This picturesque stadium has an officially listed capacity of 13,128, but with the terrace opposite the main stand condemned, the actual capacity is lower. Just like at the Stadio Lungobisenzio in Prato, a seat in the main stand here affords wonderful views of the rolling hills of Tuscany, complete with some very nice houses tucked away on the visible slopes on the outskirts of the city amid all the trees and the greenery.      

When Arezzo were relegated, that blow was potentially going to be cushioned by big gates for Serie D games with near rivals Montevarchi and a little further off, but no less a rival Siena. Alas it didn’t work out as they would have hoped with both rivals now a league higher, which will add to the sense of needing to crack on and get back up. If all three of these clubs end up in the same league, things could get fruity in southern Tuscany. The historical self governing nature of all these little fiefdoms makes the rivalries in Italy more intense than elsewhere in a way. It’s brilliant from an outsider’s perspective, but I know some in Italy struggle with my ability to cheer for certain teams, some of whom are serious rivals, that line can never be crossed in Marche though, where by sheer coincidence we are off to next.   

SAMBENEDETTESE

If anyone was ever thinking to retrace this trip through some of D’s big boys, the transfer from Arezzo to San Benedetto Del Tronto would be the trickiest. If it was all being done by train this would require nudging north to Terontola, changing for a train headed across Umbria via Perugia, changing again at Foligno, then changing again at Ancona, before finally taking a south bound coastal train to the Marche beach town. Four trains, three changes, a whack of a day gone, it would be easier if you hire a car, but if you like trains and time is on your side!

If you are changing in Ancona, my beloved charges are back. While the summer of 2021 was miserable for Sambenedettese (Samb), a stroke of good fortune fell Ancona’s way. A white knight, in the form of the owner of tiny Matelica (a third tier club with no facilities for this level), who have been punching well above their weight for a couple of seasons. He decided to lift his club, lock, stock and barrel, moving them into Ancona’s Stadio Del Conero, and for one season only calling the club Ancona-Matelica, but playing in Ancona shirts, with only our badge! The local Ultras, a key component in getting a project off the ground anywhere embraced the new situation and as of ‘22/23 Ancona will be flying completely solo once more with Matelica starting again from the 9th level. This happened most recently at Vicenza when Bassano Virtus were moved and essentially usurped by the greater potential of the bigger club. It is not ideal, but given Ancona were an embarrassment in failing to get even make the playoffs in a covid reduced Marche Eccellenza (5th tier) last season, the team were rudderless and going backwards fast. They have hit the ground running already this season.

This news was doubtlessly welcomed in Ascoli (our biggest rivals) and San Benedetto with much wailing and gnashing of teeth, especially in the latter town. Samb were going bust, that was obvious before last season even ended, and yet remarkably, even though the club hadn’t been paying the players, they were allowed to participate in the Playoffs to go up. One final irony here was that effort came to an abrupt end by Matelica! 

Going bust is sadly something not uncommon for Ancona and Samb, they’ve both done it once too often, 4-5 is the up to date score on that front! At the time of writing a period of grace has been afforded to Sambenedettese to formulate a squad to participate just one league down in Serie D, with matches postponed for a couple of weeks to allow this process to happen. Should they fail to make it, Sambenedettese will experience a season out of football and having to start all the way down in probably the 7th tier like Ancona, where the local FA will deem the support base of Samb too great for some of the tiddly stadiums even lower down the ladder.

It is a great shame, not only do Samb have a fantastic support base, they have one of my favourite stadiums in Italy. The stadio Riviera Delle Palme (capacity 13,708), with its San Siro-esque circular walking towers in the corners immediately adds to the grandeur of the place. It does give the Samb fans perhaps added credence that the club are bigger than the sum of its parts, but having rarely troubled the top end of Serie B, let alone established themselves in C, coupled with five bankruptcies issues, it’s not a well run club. Whether they are ever likely to make the top table is unlikely, and yet the stadium deserves to host top flight football. It’s a gem of a place, a good way out of the centre, off the coast, but well worth a visit, as is the town. If you are looking to kick off your shoes and enjoy a morsel of relaxation on a calcio tour, the beaches of San Benedetto will deliver. This is a big yachting port, as well as working harbour, so if you’ve been gorging on the joys of Italian pasta and meats elsewhere, this is where you’ll get a plate of the finest fresh local fish. 

There is a new derby awaiting Samb once they get underway as the town is in the region known as Porto D’Ascoli, and the team with the self same name were winners of the Marche Eccellenza league at the end of last season, and they’ll have derby D days with Samb to look forward to now. 

CAMPOBASSO

While the four clubs that have gone before in this tale have all slipped into, or are already established in the fourth tier, a feel good story to end would round things off with the idea that it isn’t all bleak in Italy. Getting to Campobasso from San Benedetto would require heading further down the coast to Termoli in the small region of Molise, then changing trains, heading inland to the region’s capital Campobasso.  

Campobasso cropped up earlier as leader of Serie B in 1983/84, albeit that was only briefly, but the name stuck. Like Arezzo that particular season was as good as things ever got for them, coming along as part of the clubs only ever five year run in Serie B that ended in 1987, where they haven’t been since. The club’s biggest result was beating Juventus 1-0 in a first leg Coppa Italia match, but in a tournament so hideously designed to avoid embarrassment to the big boys, they didn’t see the tie out in the second leg. 

SS Citta di Campobasso to give them their full title have been in the wilderness for a long time. Serie D was as good as things got until more recently when an American company led by an American Italian were looking to invest in a club, and while larger teams like Palermo were contemplated, the main man behind the business had a Molise connection in his grandfather (Molise is Italy’s smallest region) and that helped gravitate his monies towards Campobasso. This investment came on top of an existing company’s investment which became involved following the last bankruptcy in 2013. The knock on effect, even in fan free days saw the club click and last season, while they didn’t exactly run away with division, the challengers all came and went without knocking them off top spot, and by the season’s end they were well clear. It’s been a long road back from numerous bankruptcy tales but often from the embers of a burning ship comes hope, and an unbeaten, championship winning season was the perfect repost to the last bankruptcy which catapulted the club back into Serie D and was just one of three gongs Campobasso collected in that remarkable 2013/14 season.

The new American involvement has given Campobasso a business acumen that is commonplace in other countries, but the Italian clubs have been slow to react to global markets. For now Campobasso might be a relatively unknown name but they’ll happily do the necessary Non EU paperwork and ship you any shirt or souvenir you might wish to buy, all expedited very quickly. The American ownership thing is quietly becoming a revolution in Italy with Roma, Genoa (very recently), Spezia and Bologna to name just a few that all have US backers, while Pisa are Russian owned!

The Stadio Nuovo Romagnoli in Campobasso might look familiar, its creator, once the Chairman at Ascoli, built a number of similar looking stadiums, Ascoli, Avellino and Foggia immediately spring to mind. While the ground could hold 24,000 (population 49,200), this is obviously too high for the present league, and they have only applied for a quarter of the capacity, which is sufficient for Serie C. Should the club progress, which is undoubtedly the plan, works would need to be carried out to upgrade the long under utilised venue going forward. I suspect Campobasso would be happy to consolidate in Serie C this season, finding themselves in a very hard “southern” league with Bari, Foggia, Taranto, Catania, Palermo, Messina and Catanzaro being the leading lights.

Campobasso is a nice little town with its historic Castello Monforte the centrepiece of the tourist attractions. It is an isolated town, in a quiet region of Italy, and going there would take some effort, but the rewards will not disappoint. Like all “southern” teams, the support base has more passion, and colour. The games can be more febrile and exciting which all adds to the flavour of the beautiful game in Italy known as Calcio.

Well there you have it, a skip through Piemonte, Tuscan, Marche and Molise. If you are ever attending a Serie D match when the restrictions and double jab protocols are dropped, you just hand cash over for a ticket, no faffing about looking for Great Britain or UK on any computer listings of countries to fill in all your details. Each one of these clubs should be at a higher level. In a normal world you’d say Campobasso would be happy in the third tier, but foreign ownership brings ambition, and whether that is above and beyond what the club can achieve, only time will tell, but I for one wish them well, and hope to see the other quartet of clubs back in C soon.