How far back does your love of Calcio go? It seeped into my psyche in Como, July 1982, when Italy dismantled West Germany. That Marco Tardelli celebration still gives me goosebumps. Lago di Como, along with pretty much every corner of Italy, took to the streets in wild celebration. It all left an indelible mark, and long before the Internet, my need to find out more than merely the Serie A results set me off on a voyage of investigation in Edinburgh.
It might have taken me 8 months, but by March 1983 I had discovered a newsagent in the city centre who imported not only the Monday edition of the iconic pink newspaper, La Gazzetta Dello Sport (back in those days, almost every game was played on a Sunday afternoon), but the weekly glossy magazine, Guerin Sportivo. These publications were poured over, and the club names were magical and doubtlessly mispronounced by me in many instances. The immediacy of information is perhaps good now, but the mystic has gone alas. Guerin is now a monthly magazine, but courtesy of my mate in Ancona, I have hardly missed an edition in more than 40 years, even if the Edinburgh High Street shop has long given up.
I dug out the il Film del Campionato from that first Guerin Sportivo I bought, one from my vast swathe of Calcio memorabilia I possess ahead of my first trek of 2026 to Italy, where else. This first magazine was from round 25 of the 1982/83 season. I had in the back of my mind that the two sides I would see shortly in Campania were both in Serie A back then, and I was right. Avellino would stay out of the immediate relegation story with a 0-0 home draw with Sampdoria, while Cesena were unable to close the two point gap on Napoli and safety, losing 3-1 at Udinese, to stay second bottom.
Back then, dear old Murray Walker was the BBC Formula One maestro, and his legendary “and green mean go” started rattling around my brain as I journeyed to Avellino. “i biancoverdi” (green and whites) are extraordinarily rare team colours in Italy, just one of two clubs in the professional ranks in Italy. Award yourself a brownie point if you know the other one, or can name the other three teams in the top three flights that have a whiff of green in their kit. (Answer at the end of the article).
In 1983, “i Lupi” (the Wolves) were in the midst of the club’s “golden decade”. That is precisely how long stayed in Serie A, with a 10 campaign streak starting in 1978/79 and ending in ‘87/88. They haven’t been near getting back since, but were a fixture of top flight life in my early days of following the sport in Italy. Once they had disappeared, I kind of missed them, the stadium always looked fantastic.
A club that were once a staple of what many would coin as the greatest generation of top flight football in Italy, with the biggest stars on the planet tucked into club rosters, only two “stranieri” foreigners per club back then too, have struggled since. Intriguingly, back in the day, the great Austrian midfielder Walter Schachner played for both Avellino and Cesena. A player celebrated in the match day programme on my visit.
The inevitable bankruptcy befell Avellino in 2009, seeing them slip into Serie D, and they were back at the same level in 2018 when they were excluded from Serie B.
Serie D and C truly are tricky levels to rise out from, and if at first you don’t succeed, you need the patience of a saint to get it right. Avellino finally got themselves to the level their support base at the very least demands, when they won their Girone (league) comfortably last season after a few near misses. Vicenza are copying that template this term and will be the first team promoted to B from the three Serie C divisions well before April’s play-offs start. Cesena, were a season ahead of Avellino in stepping up easily, and Catanzaro can also be included in this exclusive club as they were almost the trailblazer runaway C winners, three years back now. All these clubs have fabulous support bases, and when Vicenza joins them in B, the average crowd numbers will rise exponentially. Italy’s clubs might have its financial issues, but embracing this quartet in the second tier as well as many others who have huge potential is where the shoots of recovery start.
Last year, I wrote an article about my first ever home and away Calcio games in a season when I watched Cesena and Modena play out the two jousts in their respective homes. That ultimately wasn’t as straightforward as it would seem, with an added need to return a third time due to the Pope passing, which led to a cancelled card on a holiday Monday. Inadvertently, without even really trying this time around, not only would Avellino v Cesena be my second home and away gig, but the reverse fixture was the last match of 2025 that I watched in Italy! An absolutely brilliant away following for Avellino, together with a raucous home support in Cesena, added noise, colour, and atmosphere to a bit of a thrashing for i Lupi, losing 3-0.
Avellino is a city of Campania, in a department known as Irpinia. It is almost in a straight line east of Napoli, albeit Avellino is surrounded by mountains. It’s not the easiest place to reach without a car, as trains no longer serve Avellino, only poorly timed replacement buses from Trenitalua and Flixbus serve as access providers. I discovered a bus that runs directly from Salerno to Avellino and back. Again, the timings weren’t especially convenient, but I resolved to take the 40-minute bus trek at the back of 8am and sample the full immersed Avellino experience for 6 hours before kick off.
Avellino, being in that inaugural return to Serie B campaign, where the loftier level does take time to get used to, are starting to show signs that they are struggling a little. This, together with an inevitable improvement of many clubs below them, has culminated in them potentially looking over their shoulders at the relegation slots. Cesena have also faltered recently. In November, automatic promotion looked a distinct possibility with that imperious 3-0 win, but they’ll need to steady the ship even to secure a playoff crack at getting back to Serie A. Cesena have been in the top flight more recently than Avellino, still 15 years ago now, a long absence for a club with ambition and a good number of previous A campaigns on the CV as well.
The idea of having a further 4 hours in the city post match, in the dark waiting for the return bus certainly didn’t appeal (I am still haunted by Trapani, where a non-appearing bus nearly left us stranded the night before our flight from Palermo), and therefore I organised myself a pre-booked taxi to whisk me back to Salerno after the game. Yes it was €90, but if you weigh up comfort and relaxation of enjoying the day and match, knowing you are back at the hotel within the hour of the full time whistle, thereby giving you the evening to enjoy, it’s a personal choice, but one I would make over and over again.
My cab driver was a font of information. Some of his clarifications and education will be sprinkled into my story for the next paragraph or two. Having been dropped off near the railway station in the morning, I had a peek inside. The facade looks like any station. The arrivals and departures poster are the same as anywhere else, except they are buses only. Access to the platforms was locked, and the ticket office is a cafe, all very odd. It’s been like this for 5 or 6 years, apparently. The line was never electrified, meaning only old diesels ploughed the routes from Napoli or Benevento. In the name of our ‘green’ world (still pretty much when it suits the agenda), Avellino lost its train service, with no plan to do the necessary upgrades. There are no buses to Salerno or Napoli on a Sunday either!
With a population of 55,000, Avellino isn’t huge, but that merely adds to the notion that the decade in Serie A saw them punching well above their weight. However, Avellino fanbase, like so many in the south, are both loyal and considerable. Maybe on away days, the fans aren’t necessarily headed north from Avellino, but live up that way, too. It doesn’t matter, no matter where Avellino plays, they’ll always have a fabulous following. I first witnessed the power of the Lupi support on a miserable night in Brindisi where the Ultras, despite getting absolutely soaked amid a biblical downpour, they cruised to a 4-0 win. Later that term, they were slightly north of Brindisi, playing the only other green and white brigade in Italy (answer still coming at the end of the article, but I have undoubtedly narrowed down the location!), and I wanted to be there. What I felt distinctly frustrated about that night was neither wore their home kit?! An all white home side hosted an all black kitted visiting Avelino in a ferocious 1-1 draw. I almost felt cheated!
Avellino was a Roman settlement on the Appian Way, which helped it prosper like Benevento, their brothers and sisters to the east over a slightly less imposing series of hills. It has had a few names throughout the centuries, starting as Abellinum before an excessively indulgently Livia Augusta name was slapped on it in honour of the Emperor’s wife. Back in the day, and in more recent times, Avellino has suffered from infrequent but devastating earthquakes, with two big quakes in 1980 and three months later in ‘81 wrecking havoc. Add to that, Vesuvius has dumped ash on it depending on wind direction throughout history, but not Pompei levels, obviously. Avellino was also heavily bombed in WWII as the Allies attempted to cut off the retreating path of the German Panzer divisions over the Ferreira Bridge. Add in a spell of the Goths, the Vandals, the Normans and more local raiders from Benevento and Salerno back in the day, and you get the notion that a slip in Serie D by the local team wasn’t all that cataclysmic after all!
Modern-day Avellino is a pleasant place to hang out. Given that the city is surrounded by mountains and a few hundred metres higher than Salerno, not only is the terrain lumpy, but noticeably cooler than down by the sea. The lengthy walk from being deposited near the old train station to the centre is a gradual incline, but subsequently, forays toward the stadium are in the realm of hiking! There are no stand-out historical gems, but its wide boulevard central street affords magnificent views out towards the mountains, something the stadium does in more vivid ways.
Avellino is the “nocciole” (hazelnut) capital of Italy. Perugino and Ferrero Rocher, to name but two famous Italian chocolatiers, are all over this region. The climate is perfect for growing these tasty bites, often dipped in chocolate.
Stadio Partenio-Adriano Lombardi is a lengthy old name for home to US Avellino, with the latter part dedicated to a former player in 2011. The ground was inaugurated in 1973 just in time that wondrous decade in the top flight. It’s blue print was one of those non-descript municipal constructions that you will find at Benevento up the road, Salerno to the south, Campobasso across the hills in Molise as well as Lecce in Puglia and Ascoli in Marche before they started tearing that version down. How all these clubs have coped with the ugly poured concrete favoured back in those days depends on budget.
The stadium is a leisurely 20-minute walk from the centre of the city, with the forewarned passages of incline. Some of the houses near the venue are in the lavish category, with many having an almost Alpine roof gig going on. If you had just been plopped in without knowing where you were, Italy might not immediately spring to mind.
If the housing is lavish, the Partenio stadio is old and tired. The Tribuna Terminio, where I was recommended to go for the best views, and it truly delivers on that front, but has a sparse selection of proper modern-day seating amid crumbling terraces and stairwells. Meanwhile, the away fans are housed in a lower tier corner block where the view must be pretty grim. Alongside them is an unused Curva, a snapshot of how the place once looked, with crush barriers on steep on yet more crumbling terracing. Ironically, the home Curva has been fully seated, but of course, at this end of the stadium, no one sits down.
In November, as mentioned, the atmosphere was incredible, with 2,000 Avellino fans helping that immeasurably. In a nutshell, the difference between north and south football is laidbare for the return here. Only a couple of hundred Cesena fans made the trip, and aside from some jaunty pre-match jabs at Avellino and a morsel of celebration when they took the lead, thereafter, not a peep. Meanwhile, the lively ‘Black Zone’ as the home Ultras section is called lead the singing and choreography liked seasoned pros. In amongst the many banners unveiled was a superb one remembering the PAOK fans who died in the week leading up to this game. They might be from a different land, but unity was on display, a nice touch.
The teams entered to a distinctly naff instrumental version of “We all live in a yellow submarine,” something I forgot to ask my cab driver about. Earlier in the club shop, they had “you’ll never walk alone” displayed above items for sale. Are Avellino thinking some sort of affiliation with Liverpool? The other point of mild humour comes from when they sing “Lupi,” (Wolves). In English, a similar sounding word has quite a different meaning!
This one set off at the same brisk pace, open style as previously in Cesena. The visitors rattled the crossbar very early, and then Avellino roared up the park. However, the warning hadn’t been heided with Cesena ahead on 8 minutes, whacked home from a knockdown following nice work down the left. Seven minutes later, Avellino were level, Biasci finishing nicely, but his second, just after the half hour would be the goal of the game, and would see the home side head in at the turn ahead. He beautifully thundered a curling shot into the top left-hand corner from just outside the box, leaving young Klinsmann, the Cesena keeper, swatting air.
I am unsure what had upset Cesena about this goal. A player took the protests too far and got a yellow card, and then the coach was shown the red version. Indeed, just after half time, he was sheepishly walking by me in his Cesena jacket, heading for the press box for a safer view on proceedings.
Cesena should have been level, but man of the match, the Avellino goalkeeper produced three stops in succession to keep his team in front. The home team, always preferring caution, would frustrate the life out the home fans with promising attacks thwarted by a backwards pass, or the players’ favourite, a sideways one. That said, Avellino were good value for the win, and tickling a third that settled the nerves and also allowed the shackles to come off, ending the game in a slightly more expansive way, with attack minded counters as they eyed up a fourth, which nearly arrived, but not quite.
It was a fine match, with a great home crowd, whose passion alone deserves success. I had very much enjoyed my day in Avellino. Discovering new places is always a treat. If you make it here, you won’t be disappointed.
So, the only other green and white side are Monopoli. And those with green sprinkled into the kit, Sassuolo (A), Venezia (B) and Ternana (C).
Football Adventures with James Rendall 