Unione Sportiva Dilettantistica Atletico Catania is an Italian association football club founded in 1967 and based in

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 ...

, Sicily. Throughout its history, the club played extensively at

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 ...

professional level, almost gaining promotion to Serie B on two occasions during the 1990s. The club is currently part of the regionally organized amateur Eccellenza league, following two disbandments that led Atletico Catania down to the bottom ranks of national football.

History

The club was founded in 1967 as Sport Club Mascalucia, then renamed and relocated in 1986 by the Catanese entrepreneur Salvatore Tabita. They won their local title and were thus promoted to

. After finishing in 10th place in their first season, they went on to change their name in 1989 to

Atletico Leonzio ASD SS Leonzio 1909, also commonly known as Leonzio, is an Italian football club located in Lentini. They participate in the 2022–23 Eccellenza, the fifth level of the Italian football league system. History Origins (1909–1980s) The clu ...

and moved to

Lentini Lentini ( scn, Lintini, historically Liuntini; la, Leontīnī; grc, Λεοντῖνοι) is a town and in the Province of Syracuse, South East of Sicily (Southern Italy). History The city was founded by colonists from Naxos as Leontini in 72 ...

. The team was then acquired by Franco Proto, and won promotion into

in 1993. In 1994 Proto, trying to satisfy the absence of a football club in the city of

, brought the club from

. Their home games were moved to the 21,000 capacity stadium of

Stadio Angelo Massimino Stadio Angelo Massimino (previously known as Stadio Cibali) is a multi-use stadium in Catania, Italy. It is used mostly for football matches and the home of Calcio Catania. The stadium was built in 1935 by architect Raffaele Leone on behalf of ...

. This was because Catania's primary and historical club, Calcio Catania, had been cancelled in 1993 by the FIGC; Calcio Catania were however later entered into the Sicilian Eccellenza due to a court decision. The club changed their name from Atletico Leonzio to Atletico Catania, doing a controversial move, specially in the eyes of the club's fans from Lentini. They played for seven seasons in Serie C, coming close to promotion to Serie B twice, reaching the playoffs in both 1996–97 and 1997–98, but missing out both times.

Recent times

The 2000s have been far more difficult for the club. They were relegated down to the Sicilian Eccellenza in 2001 because of financial difficulties. In 2002 Proto sold the club to Paolo Pinazzo and Gianfranco Vullo. Atletico Catania went on sliding further down, and was again cancelled in 2005, when a group of supporters led by Santino Crisafi founded a new club with the current denomination and registered it to Terza Categoria, the lowest division in Italian football, for the 2005–06 season. That year Atletico Catania reached a fourth place, not enough for gaining promotion. However, little before the beginning of season 2006–07, Atletico Catania won the title of the

Sant'Agata li Battiati Sant'Agata li Battiati ( Sicilian: ''Sant'Àita li Vattiati'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Catania in the Italian region Sicily, located very near to Catania. Sant'Agata li Battiati borders the following municipal ...

making them applicable to play in the Prima Categoria. The new club ended its 2006–07 campaign in eighth place. The club was renamed as U.S.D. Atletico Catania for the 2007–08 season, that saw the ''atletisti'' winning the Round F of Prima Categoria league, being thus promoted to Promozione for the 2008–09 season. They completed their first Promozione season in eighth place, playing their home games in the neighbouring town of Aci Bonaccorsi. They have moved back to Catania for the 2009–10 season, playing at the ''Campo Comunale "Zia Lisa"''. They promoted to

Eccellenza Sicily Eccellenza Sicily ( it, Eccellenza Sicilia) is the regional Eccellenza football division for clubs in Sicily, Italy. It is competed amongst 32 teams, in two different groups (A and B). The winners of the Groups are promoted to Serie D. The clubs w ...

in 2010–11 season but relegated back to Promozione at next season after finishing 14th. Atletico Catania returned to Eccellenza in 2015, as they were admitted to fill a vacancy in the league. After an immediate relegation, they successively were promoted once again to Eccellenza in 2017 as Promozione winners.

Notable former managers

Francesco D'Arrigo Francesco, the Italian (and original) version of the personal name "Francis", is the most common given name among males in Italy. Notable persons with that name include: People with the given name Francesco * Francesco I (disambiguation), sever ...

Roberto Morinini Roberto Morinini (18 July 1951 – 16 March 2012) was a Swiss football striker Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a te ...

* Pietro Paolo Virdis

Sources

History of Atletico Catania
(from Atletico Catania official website)

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atletico Catania Football clubs in Italy Football clubs in Sicily Association football clubs established in 1967 Serie C clubs Italian football clubs established in 1967