Parma A.C.
(Associazione Calcio) is an Italian football club based in Parma,
nicknamed the Gialloblu. Its home kit consists of blue and
yellow hooped jerseys in the traditional rugby shirt style,
yellow shorts and blue socks. They play in all white away from
home. The club's stadium is the 29,050 seater Stadio Comunale
Ennio Tardini.
The club was founded in 1913 as Verdi AC in honour of the
birthplace of famous opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, but the name
was soon changed to that of the town. The club was
undistinguished, moving between Serie B and Serie C before
falling into the semi-professional leagues in the late 1960s.
Following a flurry of owners and name changes, the club became
Parma A.C in 1970 through the merger of A.C. Parmense and Parma
A.C. The club crept back into professional football but was
uninspired until the 1980s. In 1985, Arrigo Sacchi became the
club's manager and led them to the Serie C1 championship, he
left it in mid-table of Serie B and the club drifted before the
arrival of Nevio Scala. Scala brought the club into the top
flight in 1990 and attracted a number of skilled foreigners.
This achievement was paid for by the multinational dairy concern
Parmalat, who had become the club's new sponsor and taken a 45%
stake. Success in cup football and high league finishes in the
early 1990s attracted other stars, with the likes of Fabio
Cannavaro, Gianfranco Zola, Dino Baggio and Diego Fuser joining.
Scala jumped ship in 1996 and was replaced by Carlo Ancelotti.
He took the club to its best ever league finish in 1997, second
place and only one point behind the champions. Following
Parmalat's financial scandal in 2003-04 the future of the
football club is uncertain.
In all the club has won the Coppa Italia three times (1991-92,
1998-99, 2001-02), the SuperCoppa Italiana once (1999), the Cup
Winners' Cup once (1992-93) and the UEFA Cup twice (1994-95,
1998-99).
Famous players have included Diego Fuser, Hernán Crespo, Fabio
Cannavaro, Gianfranco Zola, Dino Baggio, Juan Sebastian Veron,
Ivo Cocconi, Lilian Thuram, Gianluigi Buffon, Hidetoshi Nakata,
Claudio Taffarel and Faustino Asprilla.
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