The 1995–96

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

was the 26th season of the women's football top level league in Italy, and the 10th to be run under the auspices of the

Italian Football Federation The Italian Football Federation ( it, Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio; FIGC), known colloquially as ''Federcalcio'', is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence. It ...

, through the

Lega Nazionale Dilettanti The Lega Nazionale Dilettanti (National Amateur League) is the league which rules amateur football of Italian Football Federation (FIGC) in Italy. Founded in 1959 in Rome, it has many leagues inside: a national league, the Inter-regional Committ ...

(amateur division). ACF Agliana were the defending champions. Verona Gunther secured the championship, with

Carolina Morace Carolina Morace (; born 5 February 1964) is an Italian former footballer who played as a striker and is the current head coach of Lazio Women. She played for the Italian national team and for various clubs in women's Serie A. She was the top ...

winning the top scorer award for the ninth consecutive season.

Review

Agliana Agliana is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Pistoia in the Italian region of Tuscany, located about northwest of Florence and about southeast of Pistoia. Agliana borders the municipalities of Montale, Montemurlo, Pistoia, Prato, ...

won the 1994–95 league title by five points from rivals

Torres Torres may refer to: People *Torres (surname), a Spanish and Portuguese surname *Torres (musician), singer-songwriter Mackenzie Scott **Torres (album), ''Torres'' (album), 2013 self-titled album by Torres Places Americas *Torres, Colorado, an un ...

. In March 1995 they had been purchased by a wealthy celebrity

German shepherd The German Shepherd or Alsatian is a German breed of working dog of medium to large size. The breed was developed by Max von Stephanitz using various traditional German herding dogs from 1899. It was originally bred as a herding dog, for he ...

dog, Gunther IV, who became the honorary president. Gunther IV resigned as Agliana's president in June 1995, when team

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

kissed ''Kissed'' is a 1996 Canadian romantic/erotic drama film directed and co-written by Lynne Stopkewich, based on Barbara Gowdy's short story "We So Seldom Look on Love". It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 1996. ...

controversialist Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topics ...

politician

Vittorio Sgarbi Vittorio Umberto Antonio Maria Sgarbi (born 8 May 1952 in Ferrara) is an Italian art critic, art historian, writer, politician, cultural commentator and television personality. He is President of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trent ...

during a segment of the '' Il processo di Biscardi'' television programme. The decision of

Maurizio Mian Maurizio Mian (born 25 March 1956) is an Italian entrepreneur and pharmaceutical heir who is the CEO of The Gunther Corporation. A noted eccentric, Mian has often used his dog Gunther as a figurehead for his investments in sports clubs, propert ...

, who ran the Gunther Group controlling the dog's affairs, drew a withering response from Morace. Agliana's management swiftly broke off their connection with the Gunther Group, remarking: "these people have only one interest, that of advertising themselves". Before the 1995–96 season, the Gunther Group instead sponsored Agliana's Serie A rivals

Verona CF Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in north ...

. The club became known as "Verona Gunther" and signed

Italy women's national football team The Italy women's national football team () has represented Italy in international women's football since their inception in 1968. The team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing body for football in Italy. Form ...

players

Stefania Antonini Stefania Antonini (born 10 October 1970) is an Italian former footballer who played as a goalkeeper for the Italy women's national football team. She was the national team's first choice goalkeeper at the 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup. At club lev ...

Manuela Tesse Manuela Tesse (born 28 February 1976 in Sassari) is an Italian footballer who played as a midfielder for the Italy women's national football team. She was part of the team at the UEFA Women's Euro 1997, 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup and UEFA Women ...

Raffaella Salmaso Raffaela Salmaso (born 16 April 1968) is an Italian football coach and former defender, who represented the Italy women's national football team at the 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup. Despite playing in defence, Salmaso netted around a dozen goa ...

Adele Marsiletti Adele Marsiletti (born 7 November 1964) is an Italian footballer who played as a midfielder for the Italy women's national football team. She was part of the team at the inaugural 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup wa ...

and Florinda Ciardi. Carolina Morace also put her differences with Gunther IV aside and agreed to join the team. Verona won the league and

Sue Lopez Sue Lopez, (born 1 September 1945) is an English former international footballer. She spent her entire club career with Southampton, except for a season in Italy's Serie A with Roma in 1971. A leading advocate of the women's game in England, Lo ...

characterised the ownership situation as: "Verona Gunther, who won the Italian Women's Championship in 1996, are sponsored by a group of pharmaceutical companies. For publicity purposes they appointed a dog, a German shepherd called Gunther IV, as 'president' of the club and he attends all matches as the 'club's benefactor'." A report in ''

Die Tageszeitung ''Die Tageszeitung'' (, “The Daily Newspaper”), is counted as being one of modern Germany's most important newspapers and amongst the top seven. taz is stylized as ''die tageszeitung'' and commonly referred to as ''taz'', is a cooperative-own ...

'' was less charitable: "A fraudulent German shepherd haunts Italy's women's football and cannot get away from national player Morace".

Standings

References

External links

Season
on

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Serie A (women's football) 1995-96 1995-96 1995–96 domestic women's association football leagues

Women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...