ACF Fiorentina

Associazione Calcio Firenze Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (pronounced [fjorenˈtiːna]), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the current club was refounded in August 2002 following bankruptcy. Fiorentina have played at the top level of Italian football for the majority of their existence; only four clubs have played in more Serie A seasons.

Fiorentina has won two Italian league titles, in 1955–56 and again in 1968–69, as well as six Coppa Italia trophies and one Supercoppa Italiana. On the European stage, Fiorentina won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1960–61. They also lost five finals, finishing runners-up in the 1956–57 European Cup (the first Italian team to reach the final in the top continental competition), the 1961–62 Cup Winners' Cup, the 1989–90 UEFA Cup, and in the 2022–23 and 2023–24 editions of the UEFA Conference League, being the first club to record two consecutive final appearances and two consecutive defeats in the competition's history.

Fiorentina is one of fifteen European teams that have played in the finals of all three major continental competitions (the European Cup/Champions League, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Cup/Europa League) and in 2023, by reaching the Europa Conference League final, Fiorentina became the first team to reach all four major European club competition finals (excluding the one-off match of the UEFA Super Cup).

Since 1931, the club have played at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, which currently has a capacity of 43,147. The stadium has used several names over the years and has undergone several renovations. Fiorentina are known widely by the nickname Viola, a reference to their distinctive purple colours.

Associazione Calcio Fiorentina was founded in the autumn of 1926 by local noble and National Fascist Party member Luigi Ridolfi Vay da Verrazzano, who initiated the merger of two older Florentine clubs, CS Firenze and PG Libertas. The aim of the merger was to give Florence a strong club to rival those of the more dominant Italian Football Championship sides of the time from Northwest Italy. Also influential was the cultural revival and rediscovery of Calcio Fiorentino, an ancestor of modern football that was played by members of the Medici family.

After a rough start and three seasons in lower leagues, Fiorentina reached Serie A in 1931. That same year saw the opening of the new stadium, originally named after Giovanni Berta, a prominent fascist, but now known as Stadio Artemio Franchi. At the time, the stadium was a masterpiece of engineering, and its inauguration was monumental. To be able to compete with the best teams in Italy, Fiorentina strengthened their team with some new players, notably the Uruguayan Pedro Petrone, nicknamed el Artillero. Despite enjoying a good season and finishing in fourth place, Fiorentina were relegated the following year, although they would return quickly to Serie A. In 1941, they won their first Coppa Italia, but the team were unable to build on their success during the 1940s due to World War II and other troubles.

In 1950, Fiorentina started to achieve consistent top-five finishes in the domestic league. The team consisted of players such as well-known goalkeeper Giuliano Sarti, Sergio Cervato, Francesco Rosella, Guido Gratton, Giuseppe Chiappella, Aldo Scaramucci, Brazilian Julinho, and Argentinian Miguel Montuori. This team won Fiorentina's first scudetto (Italian championship) in 1955–56, 12 points ahead of second-place Milan. Milan beat Fiorentina to top spot the following year. Fiorentina became the first Italian team to play in a European Cup final, when a disputed penalty led to a 2–0 defeat at the hands of Alfredo Di Stéfano's Real Madrid. Fiorentina were runners-up again in the three subsequent seasons. In the 1960–61 season, the club won the Coppa Italia again and was also successful in Europe, winning the first Cup Winners' Cup against Scottish side Rangers.

After several years of runner-up finishes, Fiorentina dropped away slightly in the 1960s, bouncing from fourth to sixth place, although the club won the Coppa Italia and the Mitropa Cup in 1966.