Brescia Calcio

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Template:About Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox football club

File:Brescia through the ages 2023.jpg
The performance of Brescia in the Italian football league structure since the first season of a unified Serie A (1929/30).

Brescia Calcio, commonly referred to as Brescia (Template:IPA), was an Italian football club based in Brescia, Lombardy. The team last played in Serie B, the second tier of Italian football.

The club held the record for the total number of seasons (66) and consecutive seasons (18, from 1947–48 to 1964–65) in Serie B, which they won four times. Their best finish in Serie A came in the 2000–01 season when they placed eighth. At the beginning of the 21st century, led by 1993 Ballon d'Or winner Roberto Baggio, the club also qualified for the UEFA Intertoto Cup twice, reaching the final in 2001 but being eliminated on the away goals rule by Paris Saint-Germain. During this era, Pep Guardiola, former FC Barcelona captain and later a highly decorated manager, and Andrea Pirlo, a product of Brescia Calcio's youth sector who went on to win numerous trophies with AC Milan and Juventus, also played for the club.

The team's colours were blue and white. Its home ground was the 19,550-seater<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Stadio Mario Rigamonti. Brescia had a long-standing rivalry with Atalanta from nearby Bergamo.<ref>War, Pigs and Rabbits: Atalanta and Brescia meet 13 years later, Conor Clancy, Forza Italian Football, 29 November 2019. Retrieved 2 June 2022</ref><ref>Brescia v Atalanta: the Italian derby built on a 900-year-old feud, Martino Simcik Arese, The Guardian / Copa 90, 7 February 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2022</ref>

History

The team was founded in 1911 as Brescia Football Club, joining the Terza Categoria division the same year. In 1913, Brescia was promoted to the First Division for the first time. Founding members of Serie A in 1929-30, Brescia would play there for six of the next seven seasons. The club have since fallen out of the top two divisions only three times: in 1938, when they spent a single season in Serie C; in 1982, when they spent three seasons there; and 2025, after a controversial administrative relegation for alleged financial infringements. As of 2025, only 11 Italian clubs have played fewer seasons outside the top two divisions of Lega Calcio than Brescia (four)Template:Citation needed, and no club has spent more seasons in Serie B than Brescia (66).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

File:Associazione Calcio Brescia 1940-41.jpg
1940–41 Brescia team

Brescia won the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1994, the biggest achievement in their history to date. The club gained greater prominence in 2000 after signing former FIFA World Player of the Year Roberto Baggio, who led Brescia to a seventh-place finish in the 2000–01 season, thus qualifying for the UEFA Intertoto Cup. Brescia then reached the finals, where they lost to Paris Saint-Germain via the away goals rule, drawing 0-0 away in the first leg<ref>Paris Saint Germain – Brescia Calcio : 0–0 (Match Report) ScoresPro.com</ref> and 1–1 at home in the second leg.<ref>Brescia Calcio – Paris Saint Germain : 1–1 (Match Report) ScoresPro.com</ref> Baggio spent four years at Brescia before retiring in 2004, during which time Brescia became widely known as "Baggio's Brescia"Template:Citation needed. During Baggio's four-year spell with Brescia, the club recorded its longest stay in Serie A; in the very first season after Baggio's retirement (2004–05), Brescia were relegated on the final day. They returned after beating Torino 2-1 on aggregate in the 2009–10 . In the 2010–11 season, however, they were relegated back to Serie B. In the 2014–15 season, they were relegated to Lega Pro after finishing second from last. However, after Parma's declaration of bankruptcy and demotion to Serie D, Brescia was among the teams selected to replace them in Serie B.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A new promotion to Serie A was secured in the 2018–19 season, with two games to spare,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> but the team got relegated in the next season.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In the 2024–25 season, Brescia avoided relegation places in Serie B by one point, yet they finished with a four-point deduction and subsequently declared bankruptcy after their president, Massimo Cellino, failed to settle approximately €3 million in debts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> However, on 7 June 2025, Brescia announced that it would not participate in the 2025–26 Serie C season, due to ongoing financial strain.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 3 July 2025, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) officially confirmed that Brescia had been excluded from professional football, failing to receive a licence for Serie C.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After that, the club fully dissolved.

Colours and badge

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Colours and kit

The first Brescia kit in 1911 was blue (the national colour) with a thick white vertical stripe down the middle, a design which returned for the club's centenary season in 2011. The first appearance of a white "V" was in 1927, added so that the team could use Stadium, the newly built home of another team, Virtus. This style remained until 1940 when the "V" was removed and a plain blue shirt was used.

Substantial changes after World War II saw the shirt become plain white with blue shorts. This was short-lived and, in 1954, the plain blue shirt returned. The white "V" also returned eventually in 1961 as a show of goodwill by the new chairman at the time.

The "V" disappeared again in 1969, replaced by a diagonal white sash, then returned, but much smaller, in 1974 for two years. The "V" was situated over the heart with the inclusion of the lioness, the symbol of the city of Brescia. The shirt remained plain blue until 1991, when the "V" returned and has been used ever since.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Badge

The first badge appeared on Brescia kits in the 1980s; a blue crest with a golden outline featuring a lion. The city of Brescia is known as Leonessa d'Italia (the Lioness of Italy) after ten days of popular uprising that took place in the city in the spring of 1849 against Austrian rule.

The crest was changed for the centenary of Brescia Calcio in 2011, incorporating a gold shield and laurel branches to celebrate the club's 100th anniversary, and updating the lettering to use a font in the style of the period when the team was founded. The lion was also updated in order to fix some errors in heraldic iconography (the absence of nails, muscle weakness and weak curvature of the tail), and to create a more toned and ferocious look.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Seasons

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Stadium

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The first ground at which football was played in Brescia was Campo Fiera, where, in 1905, the English workers at the Tempini plant played on their breaks.

In 1911, in the wake of enthusiasm following the foundation of the new club, a fenced ground was built shortly after on Via Milano.<ref name="Valgoglio-1986">Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1920 came the opening of the new ground on Via Cesare Lombroso, Brescia, which was used by the team until 1923. In 1923, the team moved into a larger, more modern facility located at Porta Venezia (then Via Naviglio), built for the town's sports club Virtus and simply called "Stadium".

It was in 1956 that the municipality had the idea to move the club to a stadium more suited to host Serie B matches, and began renovating the stands at the existing ground at Via Giovanni Novagani. This was completed in 1959 and Brescia began to play their home games in the newly-christened Stadio Mario Rigamonti (named after the Torino player, Mario Rigamonti, who died in the Superga air disaster).

Over the years, the stadium has undergone several refurbishments (construction of roofing, press room, etc.), the most significant of which was in 2007 with the installation of new security measures.

Players

Retired numbers

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Former players

See Template:Cl.

Former managers

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Honours

Other Titles

Divisional movements

Series Years Last Promotions Relegations
A 23 2019–20 - Template:Decrease 13 (1932, 1936, 1947, 1968, 1970, 1981, 1987, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2005, 2011, 2020)
B 66 2024–25 Template:Increase 12 (1933, 1943, 1965, 1969, 1980, 1986, 1992, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2010, 2019) Template:Decrease 3 (1938, 1982, 2025)
C 4 1984–85 Template:Increase 2 (1939, 1985) never
93 years of professional football in Italy since 1929
Founding member of the Football League’s First Division in 1921

Shirt sponsors and manufacturers

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Period Kit manufacturer Shirt sponsor
1978–79 UmbroTemplate:Citation needed None
1979–1981 Tepa SportTemplate:Citation needed
1981–82 UmbroTemplate:Citation needed Inoxriv
1982–83 Watergate
1983–1986 Gazelle Fin-Eco
1986–1988 Wuhrer
1988–89 Watergate
1989–90 UNICEF
1990–91 Bontempi Sport None
1991–1994 Uhlsport CAB
1994–95 ABM
1995–96 Polenghi
1996–97 Brescialat
1997–98 Erreà Ristora
1998–2001 Garman
2001–2002 Banca Lombarda
2002–2004 Umbro
2004–2005 Kappa
2005–2006 Banca Lombarda (Banco di Brescia)
2006–2007 ASICS
2007–2009 UBI Banca (Banco di Brescia) – Bregoli
2009–2010 Mass UBI Banca (Banco di Brescia) – Bresciani
2010–2011 UBI Banca (Banco di Brescia) – Technologic (T-Logic) – Falar – Tescoma
2011–2012 UBI Banca (Banco di Brescia) – Sama
2012–2013 Givova
2013–2014 Adidas UBI Banca (Banco di Brescia)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – Tescoma
2014–2015 Joma UBI Banca (Banco di Brescia) – Falar
2015–2017 Acerbis<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> UBI Banca (Banco di Brescia)
2017–2018 UBI Banca<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>
2019–2025 Kappa

In Europe

UEFA Intertoto Cup

Season Round Club Home Away Aggregate Reference
2001 Third Round Template:Flagicon Tatabánya 2–1 1–1 3–2 <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Semi-final Template:Flagicon Chmel Blšany 2–2 2–1 4–3
Final Template:Flagicon Paris Saint-Germain 1–1 0–0 1–1 (a)
2003 Second Round Template:Flagicon Gloria Bistrița 2–1 1–1 3–2 <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Third Round Template:Flagicon Villarreal 1–1 0–2 1–3

References

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