F.C. Puteolana 1902 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Football Club Puteolana 1902 is an Italian association football

Football in Italy

Football is the most popular sport in Italy. The Italian national football team has won the FIFA World Cup 4 times , trailing only Brazil . Italy's club sides have won 27 major European trophies, making them the most successful European nation in the subject of football...

club, based in Pozzuoli

Pozzuoli

Pozzuoli is a city and comune of the province of Naples, in the Italian region of Campania. It is the main city of the Phlegrean peninsula.-History:Pozzuoli began as the Greek colony of Dicaearchia...

, Campania. The club was first founded in 1902 as a sports club

Sports club

A sports club or sport club, sometimes athletics club or sports association is a club for the purpose of playing one or more sports...

and has had the football section refounded at various points during its history the most recent of which was in 1992.

Puteolana have played in the First Division Championship (Serie A)

Prima Divisione

Prima Divisione was the name of the first level of the Italian Football Championship from 1921 to 1926. The competition was initially founded in opposition to the FIGC by the richest clubs of Northern Italy, which disagreed the old format of the championship, based on plethoric regional groups...

, during the early 1920s, the last time they played in a professional league was Serie C2

Serie C2

Lega Pro Seconda Divisione is the name of the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. Usually it consists of 54 teams, but in the season 2010–11 the teams are only 49 divided geographically into three divisions of 17, 16 and 16 teams each...

in 2003. Currently the club plays its league football in Eccellenza Campania

Eccellenza Campania

Eccellenza Campania is the regional Eccellenza football league for clubs in the Southern Italian region of Campania, Italy. It is composed of 32 teams, divided into divisions A and B, which are 2 of the 28 total Eccellenza divisions in all of Italy. The two winners of the divisions are...

. The team's colours are maroon, known locally as granata.

History

The club was founded during 1902 as an eclectic institution oriented to multiple sports under the banner of Puteoli Sport, this is the foundation date that the club officially carries with it today. A few years later in 1909 the name was changed to Puteoli Sporting Club.

For the 1913–14 season they were entered into a FIGC organised league in the form of the Terza Categoria

Terza Categoria

Terza Categoria is the name of the lowest level of "amateur" football in Italy. It is considered to be the 10th and lowest level in the Italian football league system. Each individual league winner within the Terza Categoria level progresses to their closest regional league in the Seconda...

, which at the time was the third level of Italian football (today's equivalent is Serie C1

Serie C1

Lega Pro Prima Divisione is the name of the third highest football league in Italy. It consists of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 18 teams each. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1....

Italian Football Championship

After World War I the club was renamed for the third time, this time to Unione Sportiva Puteolana. They were entered into the Prima Categoria
Prima Categoria
Prima Categoria is the name of a level of football in Italy. It is considered to be the eighth level in the Italian football league system and is organized by the National Amateur League by the Regional Committees. Each individual league winner within the Prima Categoria level progresses to their...

Championship (Serie A) for the 1919–20 season; here they competed against the top clubs in the Campania region and qualified for the semi-finals of Southern Italy, eventually losing out to Fortitudo Roma

A.S. Roma

Associazione Sportiva Roma, commonly referred to as simply Roma, is a professional Italian football club based in Rome. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma have participated in the top-tier of Italian football for all of their existence but one season in the early 50s...

.

The following season they were entered into the championship again, beating sides such as Naples

S.S.C. Napoli

Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli, commonly referred to as Napoli, is a professional Italian football club based in Naples and founded in 1926. The club has spent most of its history in Serie A, where it currently plays its 2011–12 season....

and Salernitana

Salernitana Calcio 1919

Salerno Calcio, or simply Salerno is an Italian association football club from Salerno, Campania.The club is not the legitimate heir of the former Salernitana Calcio 1919, but there is however a sports continuity between the two companies thanks to Article 52 NOIF of FIGC, and the fact that they...

. Despite qualifying for the next round FIGC put them in last place due to irregularities, ending their season early.

As Italian football split into two factions after the main teams had a disagreement with FIGC, Puteolana played in the CCI

Italian Football Championship 1921-22 (C.C.I.)

Italian Football Championship 1921-22 was formed during the summer of 1921, as a result of a dispute between the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio and the main teams....

run league (called Prima Divisione
Prima Divisione
Prima Divisione was the name of the first level of the Italian Football Championship from 1921 to 1926. The competition was initially founded in opposition to the FIGC by the richest clubs of Northern Italy, which disagreed the old format of the championship, based on plethoric regional groups...

) which featured most of the big clubs. In the Campania section they competed against six other teams and won all 12 fixtures. They then defeated Anconitana

A.C. Ancona

Associazione Calcio Ancona was a professional Italian football club, based in Ancona, Marche. It was founded in 1905 as Unione Sportiva Anconitana, changing its name to Ancona Calcio 1905 in 1981 and being refounded in 2004 with its last denomination....

, before facing Fortitudo in Rome for a chance to meet Pro Vercelli

U.S. Pro Vercelli Calcio

Football Club Pro Vercelli 1892, commonly known as Pro Vercelli, is an Italian association football club based in Vercelli, Piedmont. The team currently plays in Lega Pro Prima Divisione....

in the league's final for the championship. However, Putelolana lost 2–0 to Fortitudo, essentially meaning they ended the season with a top four finish.

Despite their respectable position in the previous season, the club were not enrolled into the newly reunited league (because of economic problems), instead competing in the far lower III Divisione. The club climbed up two divisions and by 1925–26

Italian Football Championship 1925-26

The winner was Juventus F.C..-Pre-League qualifications:A.C. Legnano, A.C. Mantova, U.S. Novese and F.C. Como were enlisted to participate in the qualification round, but Novese and Como retired, letting Legnano and Mantova to maintain their places in the Italian First...

were back in the top level championship, however they lasted just one season as they lost all of their games in the Campania section.

Decline

The club disappeared from upper level competition for a large period of time, from 1926 until 1947. During this period they competed in competitions such as the provincial ULIC youth leagues and various seasons spent in purely amateur divisions such as I Divisione, II Divisione and III Divisione.

Eventually Puteolana won I Divisione in 1947–48 and were promoted up to the Promozione Interregionale

Promozione

Promozione is the name of a level of football in Italy. It is considered to be the 7th level in the Italian football league system. Each individual league winner within the Promozione level progresses to their closest regional league in the Eccellenza level...

, which was just one step below Serie C

Serie C

The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico , commonly known as Lega Pro , is the governing body that runs the third and fourth highest football divisions in Italy, the Prima Divisione and Seconda Divisione respectively. It also includes the sole professional club of San Marino...

at the time. They would bounce between Serie D and Promozione Campania for much of the 1950s and 1960s. After being promoted from Promozione Campania in 1969–70, they spent the entire decade of the 1970s in Serie D generally around mid table area, the closest they came to gaining promotion was a 4th place finish in 1973–74.

The start of the 1980s brought the club into turmoil, they were relegated in three successive seasons before becoming defunct in 1982. However, that season a team from the city of Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

called Internapoli

Internapoli Camaldoli S.S.D.

Società Sportiva Dilettantistica Internapoli Città di Marano is an Italian association football club based in the Vomero area of Naples, Campania. Founded as S.C.Vomero in 1909, the club has been re-founded several times, first under the Cral Cirio in 1935 and Internapoli dominion in 1964...

moved to Pozzuoli

Pozzuoli

because they were having problems with their home Stadio Arturo Collana

Stadio Arturo Collana

Stadio Arturo Collana is a football stadium in Naples, Italy; it is located in the Vomero area of the city. The stadium was built in the latter part of the 1920s, originally under the name Stadio XXVIII Ottobre....

and thus changed their name to Puteolana 1909. After just four seasons in Serie D and one in Promozione, the new club too was folded in 1986.

Campania Puteolana

A club originally founded in 1975 in the Province of Caserta

Province of Caserta

The Province of Caserta is a province in the Campania region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Caserta. The former royal palace of Caserta is located near to the city.It has an area of 2,639 km², and a total population of 879,342...

but had moved to Ponticelli

Ponticelli

Ponticelli is an eastern suburb of Naples, southern Italy with a population of some 70,000 inhabitants, not counting the large number of unregistered and illegal residents, which some estimates put as high as 60,000.-Geography:...

in Naples, moved again in 1986 to Pozzuoli as a means to carry on the older clubs legacy in the city. It was a man named Mario Giocondo Mauriello who engineered the move and the club changed its name from Campania Ponticelli to Società Sportiva Calcio Campania Puteolana.

Campania Puteolana was playing in Serie C1

Serie C1

gaining a 6th place finish in their first season since the rebirth. The same season in the Coppa Italia Serie C

Coppa Italia Serie C

Coppa Italia Lega Pro , formerly named Coppa Italia Serie C, is a straight knock-out based competition involving teams from Lega Pro in Italian football. All games, including the final, are on a home/away basis....

they finished as runners-up to Livorno

A.S. Livorno Calcio

Associazione Sportiva Livorno Calcio is an Italian football club based in Livorno, Tuscany. The club was formed in 1915 and currently plays in Italian Serie B. The team's colors are dark red or maroon...

, after losing the two-legged final 3–1. Under the management of Claudio Ranieri

Claudio Ranieri

Claudio Ranieri, is an Italian football manager, currently in charge as head coach of Internazionale.He has also managed many other well-known clubs in Europe, including Cagliari, Napoli, Fiorentina, Valencia, Atlético Madrid, Chelsea, Parma, Juventus and Roma.-Early life:Ranieri attended St...

(his first managerial job) the club were relegated to Serie C2

Serie C2

the following year, however Brazilian manager Jarbas Faustinho Canè

Jarbas Faustinho Canè

Jarbas Faustinho commonly known as just Cané is a former Brazil professional footballer and coach...

led them straight back up as champions.

After two more seasons in the lower half of Serie C1 they were relegated down and then relegated from Serie C2 by 1992, instead of carrying on in the city the Campania club moved back to Naples and would eventually fall into obscurity.

Recent times

To carry on the legacy of the city's historic club, it was refounded as Comprensorio Puteolano in 1992 by Fiore, Corvo, Morelli and Cesarano; the club started the 1992–93 season in the Promozione Campania

Promozione

. After one season back, the club was promoted up into Eccellenza and then straight back up into Serie D

Serie D

Serie D is the top level of the Italian non-professional football association called Lega Nazionale Dilettanti. The association represents over a million football players and thousands of football teams across Italy. Serie D ranks just below Lega Pro Seconda Divisione , and is thus considered the...

.

Puteolano spent several seasons in Serie D during this period, generally finishing in respectable positions (notching up a 3rd and 4th place finish). Eventually in 1999–00 promotion into Serie C2

Serie C2

came, the club were now back at professional level, they came very close to recording a successive promotion with a 4th place finish. However, by 2002–03 the club were once again relegated to Serie D and two years later back down to Eccellenza Campania

Eccellenza Campania

. Between 2005 and 2008, the legal entity of the club has been Football Club Puteolana 1902; they remained in the Eccellenza league for three seasons, before being relegated into Promozione. The club however merged with Gragnano (a Serie D club) becoming ASD Atletico Puteolana 2008 and returning in Serie D for the 2008–09 season.