LR Vicenza

L.R. Vicenza S.p.A. (acronym for Lanerossi Vicenza), better known as Vicenza or Lanerossi, is an Italian football club based in the city of Vicenza. It plays in Serie C, the third division of the Italian football league.

Founded on 9 March 1902, as Associazione del Calcio in Vicenza, it is the oldest football club in north-eastern Italy as well as in the Triveneto and Veneto regions. It has competed in 30 Serie A seasons and is listed by the IFFHS as the 15 best Italian teams of the 20th century.

Domestically, Vicenza won the Coppa Italia in 1996–1997 and the Italian Cup Serie C in 1981–1982 and 2022–2023, while its best result at international level is reaching the semi-final of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1997–1998). It reached the final in the 1910–1911 First Division championship, where it was defeated by Pro Vercelli, and finished as runners-up Juventus in the 1977–1978 Serie A championship, in which it achieved the best result ever by a newly promoted club in the single-round era.

The club was reformed in 2018, following Vicenza Calcio's bankruptcy, thanks to the moving and name change of Bassano Virtus (then owned by OTB Group) from Bassano to Vicenza. L.R Vicenza is now the heir, and de facto continuation, of the sporting tradition that began on 9 March 1902 with the founding of Associazione del Calcio in Vicenza which later became Lanerossi Vicenza from 1953 to 1989 and finally Vicenza Calcio, before going bankrupt in 2018.

Vicenza, founded in 1902 by a group of citizens led by Professor Tito Buy, headmaster of the Lioy High School, and by physical education teacher Antonio Libero Scarpa, it is one of the oldest football clubs in Italy. The formation of the first board of directors took place on 9 March 1902, while the competitive debut took place on 18 May 1903 in a friendly match valid for the Provincial Championship for Schools.

The professional debut dates back to the 1910–11 season: ACIVI (as Vicenza was called for its first fifty years, acronym of Associazione del Calcio in Vicenza) inaugurated its new Borgo Casale ground on 12 February 1911 with a great victory over Bologna and in March finished the Veneto-Emilia round with a full score, qualifying for the final for the title. However, it had to succumb, both away and at home, to Pro Vercelli which was in its golden years.

Vicenza challenged Pro Vercelli in the double final of the 1910–1911 First Category championship.

In the years before the First World War it took part to several national finals of northern Italy, which were played between the winners of the regional groups. Vicenza thus met Bologna, Juventus, Milan and Inter several times, establishing itself among the best Italian teams.