The ''Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio'' ( en, Football Illustrated Almanac) is an

annual publication Annual publications, more often simply called annuals, are periodical publications appearing regularly once per year."Annuals", in ''Encyclopedia of library and information science'' (1968), vol. 1, pp. 434–447. Although exact definitions may var ...

concerning

football in Italy Football ( it, calcio ) is the most popular sport in Italy. The Italy national football team is considered to be one of the best national teams in the world. They have won the FIFA World Cup four times ( 1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), trailing only ...

, from the first division (

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 ...

) to lower leagues that compose the league system in the country. The ''Almanacco'' revisites the football activities within the year, including statistics, results, and curiosities. Currently edited by Panini, the annual has been published since 1939.

History

The first Italian football almanacs were launched in 1913 and 1938, under different names. In 1939 the book took its current form, under the name ''Enciclopedia Illustrata del Calcio Italiano''. The reported statistics and information of the 1937–38 season (in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and worldwide, for example third World Cup) have, in addition, colour spots. Publishing has always been annual, except during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, but the 1947 edition covered those seasons, as well as other seasons. Panini started publishing in 1971.

Content

The ''Almanacco'' combines numbers, photos and information about previous and current seasons. The usual chapters are as follows: * Intro and focusThe opening section, beginning with the 2010 edition, covers topics related to several areas of football:

transfers Transfer may refer to: Arts and media * ''Transfer'' (2010 film), a German science-fiction movie directed by Damir Lukacevic and starring Zana Marjanović * ''Transfer'' (1966 film), a short film * ''Transfer'' (journal), in management studies ...

financial fair play The UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations (FFP) are a set of regulations established to prevent professional football clubs spending more than they earn in the pursuit of success, and in doing so not getting into financial problems which might th ...

, oriundi players, and laws of the game. * Personal information about players, coaches and refereesInformation contains personal (height, weight, date and place of birth) and sport infos (matches, goals and careers). * Index of professional clubsClubs participating in

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 ...

and

Lega Pro 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 ...

with infos about their squad (official and youth) and histories. * Summary of previous yearResults, statistics, tables and scores of: Serie A, Serie B, Lega Pro,

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 ...

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

and youth competitions. * Plan for current yearList of teams, calendars and other tables. * Resumes of

domestic Domestic may refer to: In the home * Anything relating to the human home or family ** A domestic animal, one that has undergone domestication ** A domestic appliance, or home appliance ** A domestic partnership ** Domestic science, sometimes cal ...

derbiesOnly derbies of

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

and

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

are included. * Championship historyList of champions, regulamentations and records: promotions, relegations, goals scored and conceded, top scorers, recordmen (appearances and goals), penalty scorers (with at least 5 penalties scored). * Worldwide footballMatches and statistics of Italian and other national teams; results of

European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

and other continental competitions. Some editions also contains specials about tournaments (

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

UEFA Euro The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, ...

), biographies of players and clubs (e.g. on the anniversary of foundation, or when they go bankrupt). The book is published in

autumn Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September ( Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Sou ...

, and it is updated to November.

Format changes

Until 2002, the ''Almanacco'', which was printed in

black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

covered history of Italian championships (before and after 1929 split - known as "girone unico" - with results, tables and champion squads) and the list of Italian national games (from 1910). The principal format changes are listed below: * In 2003 photos get

colour Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

, players of Series A and B have appearances and goals in their league recorded (for their team and overall), and the * that previously noted the home team is erased. A special first appearance, related to

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

(with statistics of 32 participating national teams) is included. * In 2004 the section about the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

was expanded, with a list of finals (played until that season) and some photos. Serie A pages, after a day-by-day account, have an album added.The album was only present in the 2004 and 2005 editions (with 3 and 5 pages, respectively). * The 2005 edition is the longest ever printed, with 944 pages. This was due to a 2003 scandal (in which

Catania Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...

was mainly involved) that led to

2003–04 Serie B The 2003–04 Serie B is the 72nd season since its establishment in 1929. It is the second highest football league in Italy. This 46 matchdays championship was the longest tournament in all the history of the Italian football. Teams Treviso, ...

being played with 24 teams: Panini chose to report prior information (see the top of the section) in addition to 2003–04 season information and a special based on

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football competition contested by the List of men's national associatio ...

. In order to make chapters easier to find, every chapter has a different colour. * The 2006 edition removed old statistics, and established a new pattern for Serie A photos: each day of Serie A is printed in 2 pages, with illustrations. National team games are also covered, using a table format rather than text one. Later editions also have brought news, such as lists of record-holders for Serie A clubs and focus.

Non-canonical editions

's 2003 scandal meant for the next season, Serie B was expanded from 20 to 24 teams. The ''Almanacco'' printed in late 2004 (with 2005 on its cover) was, as result, longer than previous editions. Panini therefore decided, starting with the following edition, to produce a shorter book. Statistics replied until that moment were cut, to being published in a special opera (''Almanacco: La Storia 1898-2004'') not counted as canonical. It was published in September 2005, months before the regular publication.

Notes

References

External links

2018 Edition
on Panini Italy {{Panini Group Annual publications Italian non-fiction books Association football books Italian-language books