S.S.D. Gallipoli Football 1909 is an Italian association football club, based in Gallipoli, Apulia.

History

AC Gallipoli

The club was founded in 1999 as Associazione Calcio Gallipoli to represent the town of Gallipoli from the

province of Lecce The Province of Lecce ( it, Provincia di Lecce; Salentino: ) is a province in the Apulia region of Italy whose capital is the city of Lecce. The province is called the "Heel of Italy". Located on the Salento peninsula, it is the second most-p ...

. The club quickly rose up the

Italian football 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 ...

system, being one of the two who were promoted from

Eccellenza Apulia Eccellenza Apulia ( it, Eccellenza Puglia) is the regional Eccellenza football division for clubs in the Southern Italian region of Apulia, Italy. It is competed among 18 teams, in one group. The winners of the Groups are promoted to Serie D. The ...

in 2003–04. After gaining a promotion during their first ever season 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 club changed its name to Gallipoli Calcio in 2005. Gallipoli then completed it by winning a third consecutive promotion to Serie C1, and making their absolute debut in the Italian third-highest level in the 2006–07 season, which ended in a mid-table place. Former

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 Cop ...

star

Dario Bonetti Dario Bonetti (; born 5 August 1961) is an Italian football manager and former player. He is the elder brother of Ivano Bonetti. Club career Born in San Zeno Naviglio, Brescia, Italy, Bonetti made his professional debut during the 1978–79 sea ...

was then chosen as new boss for the 2007–08 season; he was however sacked later following disagreements with the board, in spite of impressive performances which gave the team a third place in the table. The club ultimately ended the season in ninth place, well below their initial expectations. Former

AS Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its ...

playing hero

Giuseppe Giannini Giuseppe Giannini (; born 20 August 1964) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He spent the majority of his 15-year playing career with A.S. Roma, and was regarded by supporters as a club symbol, before his ...

was successively appointed as new head coach for Gallipoli's 2008–09 campaign, which ended in triumph, as the ''giallorossi'' won a historic first promotion to

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie 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. It had been ...

as league winners in the final week. In July 2009, the club's future was put in doubt when President of the club, oil businessman and Senator Vincenzo Barba, announced that the club was up for sale at no cost. In addition, their home stadium ( Stadio Antonio Bianco) was declared unfit as Serie B venue, so the club will be forced to play home games at the Via del Mare in Lecce. The situation seriously hampered their preparations for their first season in

and the club was forced to play with its under-19 squad for their

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 ...

second round match versus

Lumezzane Lumezzane (Brescian: ; locally ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy. With a population of 22,255 () it is one of the largest towns in the province of Brescia. It is situated in the Gobbia Valley, which is a side val ...

in which they were soundly beaten in a 6–0 defeat. With only two weeks before the start of the league, only four first team players were still under contract and no pre-season training camp was organized and no head coach was appointed yet. On 11 August 2009 an

Udine Udine ( , ; fur, Udin; la, Utinum) is a city and ''comune'' in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (''Alpi Carniche''). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with t ...

-based company called "''D'Odorico Group''" took over the club from Barba, putting an end to weeks of speculation regarding the future of the club. The new owner confirmed Giannini as coach. Despite being underdogs, Gallipoli managed to earn 28 points, thus ending the first half of the season in 11th place, but the situation crumbled in the second leg. Giannini resigned on 22 March 2010 after the club regularly failed to pay salaries to its players. After a two-game tenure under youth team coach Giovanni De Pasquale, former Triestina, Torino and Treviso boss Ezio Rossi was appointed. The change did not have any effect, as Gallipoli were relegated back to the third tier on 16 May 2010. The club had severe financial issues, and this caused at first the inability to request the admission to the Italian third tier (30 June 2010). The club owed Luca Pasqualin of P.D.P. srl for agent fee of €12,000 for signing

Piergiuseppe Maritato Piergiuseppe Maritato (born 19 March 1989) is an Italian footballer. He represented Italy at the 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Biography Born in Cetraro, Calabria, Maritato was a player of Juventus F.C. Youth Sector, in Turin, Piedmont. Fiorentina ...

and upheld by ''Tribunale Nazionale di Arbitrato per lo Sport'' of

CONI The Italian National Olympic Committee ( it, Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano, CONI), founded in 1914 and a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is responsible for the development and management of sports activity in Italy. ...

. Then, in July 2010, a court in Lecce declared the club bankrupt.

ASD Gallipoli Football 1909

A new club called A.S.D. Gallipoli Football 1909 was founded on 13 July 2010. Its goal is entering Promozione, the 2nd tier of amatorial Italian football. The first season (2010–2011) finished with Gallipoli that reached the 3° place in graduatory, and then they lose the play-off to be promoted in

. Gallipoli finished 3rd Group B of Promozione Apulia and again lost promotion play-offs. But the club admitted to Eccellenza Apulia later. Gallipoli finished 7th in 2012–13 season. Finally Gallipoli won Eccellenza Apulia in 2013–14 season and promoted to Group H of

. After two seasons in Italian Serie D and after many societary changes, the team downgrades again in Eccellenza Apulia in 2015–16.

Managerial history

Honours

Lega Pro Prima Divisione Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest 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. Before the 1978 ...

: 1 :* Winners: 2008–09 Supercoppa di Lega Pro Prima Divisione: 1 :* Winners: 2009 Serie C2: 1 :* Winners: 2005–06

Coppa Italia Serie C Coppa Italia Serie C ( it, Serie C Italian Cup), formerly named Coppa Italia Lega Pro, is a straight knock-out based competition involving teams from Serie C in Italian football first held in 1972. Format There are a total of six rounds in the ...

: 1 :* Winners: 2005–06

: :* Promoted: 2004–05

: 2 :* Winners: 2003–04, 2013–14

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gallipoli Football clubs in Apulia Gallipoli, Apulia Association football clubs established in 1999 Serie B clubs Serie C clubs Serie D clubs Eccellenza Promozione 1999 establishments in Italy 2010 establishments in Italy Phoenix clubs (association football) Coppa Italia Serie C winning clubs