Associazione Calcio Mestre is an Italian association football club located in

Mestre Mestre () is a borough of the ''comune'' (municipality) of Venice, on the mainland opposite the historical island city in the region of Veneto, Italy. Administratively, Mestre forms (together with the nearby Carpenedo) the ''Municipalità di ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

Veneto Veneto (, ; vec, Vèneto ) or Venetia is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about five million, ranking fourth in Italy. The region's capital is Venice while the biggest city is Verona. Veneto was part of the Roman Empire unt ...

. It currently plays in

Serie D The Serie D () is the top level of semi-professional football in the country. The fourth tier of the Italian league system, the competition sits beneath the third professional league, Serie C. It is administered by the Lega Nazionale Dilettant ...

, the fourth tier of the Italian league system. Its colors are orange and black.

History

The club was founded in 1927 as Unione Sportiva Mestrina. The club made their first

Serie C The Serie C () is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega Pro ...

appearance in 1938, winning the league in 1946 and subsequently taking part to the 1946–47

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

season, on what it was the highest moment in the club's history. In the following years, Mestrina played mostly around

and

level. In 1980 the club was renamed to Associazione Calcio Mestre, and played in the

Serie C1 Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football (soccer), football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1 ...

and

Serie C2 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. Usually it consisted of 36 teams, but in the 2011–12 season, there were 41 teams divided geographically into two divisions of 2 ...

leagues on a regular basis. In 1987 the club was acquired by

Maurizio Zamparini Maurizio Zamparini (9 June 1941 – 1 February 2022) was an Italian businessman. He was the owner and director of football club U.S. Città di Palermo between July 2002 – February 2017 and from July 2017 – December 2018. Biography Zampari ...

, who had already bought

Venezia Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

, in order to merge the two clubs together under a new denomination of Venezia-Mestre Calcio and a choice of team colours that combined Mestre's orange and black with Venezia's black and green. In 1989, following the club's change of name to Venezia 1907 (thus excluding any past reference to Mestre altogether) and the club's decision to move out of the Mestre-based Stadio Francesco Baracca in 1991, attempts were made to refound the original Mestre club, with

Eccellenza The Eccellenza (, "excellence") is the fifth level (since 2014–15) of Italian football. It is a regional league, composed of 28 divisions divided geographically. All 20 regions are represented by at least one division except for Piedmont and Ao ...

club Malcontenta moving to the Venice suburb and changing its denomination to Malcontenta-Mestrina and finally back to Mestre Calcio. In 1995, Mestre Calcio returned to Serie D, and won a second consecutive promotion the next year, thus bringing Mestre back to professionalism already in 1996. The club were relegated in 2003 and went bankrupt afterwards. The club resumed activity from

Terza Categoria The Terza Categoria is the lowest level of amateur football in Italy. It is the ninth level in the Italian football league system. Each individual league winner within the Terza Categoria level progresses to their closest regional league in th ...

and reached

Prima Categoria The Prima Categoria is a level of football in Italy. It is the seventh level (since 2014–15) in the Italian football league system and is organized by the National Amateur League by the Regional Committees. Each individual league winner within t ...

in 2010. A minor club in town, called Mestrina F.C., were playing in Eccellenza at the time; due to a number of legal loopholes, the two clubs merged in 2015 to acquire the footballing rights of

Mogliano Mogliano is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Macerata in the Italian region Marche, located about south of Ancona and about south of Macerata. Mogliano rises on a hill at 313 m. on the sea level and halfway between the Sibillini ...

-based club Union Pro, who were playing in

at the time. Through all this, Mestre managed to return to Serie D for the 2015–16 season, and won promotion to

in 2017 under head coach Mauro Zironelli. After the 2017–18 Serie C season, Mestre attempted to enroll in the next championship at the last minute. However, anticipated new financial backers walked away from the club, citing concerns over infrastructure. After the Serie C registration was rejected, Mestre had no better option but to play the 2018–19 season in

. Mestre were immediately promoted back to Serie D on their first Eccellenza season, winning the national playoff tournament in 2019.

Current squad

Out on loan

References

*''Un ruggito lungo un secolo, cento anni di calcio a Venezia e a Mestre'', di Umberto Zane, Matteo Editore – Venezia 2008.

External links

Official homepage
Football clubs in Italy Football clubs in Veneto Sport in Venice Association football clubs established in 1927 Phoenix clubs (association football) Serie B clubs Serie C clubs Serie D clubs 1927 establishments in Italy 20th-century establishments in Venice {{Italy-footyclub-stub