Piacenza Football Club was formed in 1919, the result of a merger between two Piacentino clubs – Giovine Italia and Unione Football Club Piacenza – under the stewardship of an eighteen year-old student by the name of Giovanni Dosi. After registering with the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC), they were granted admittance into the 1919-20 La Promozione Emiliana, came out on top and were promoted into the Prima Categoria wearing red and white kit.
The Emilian section of the Prima Categoria was separated into two
groups of five. Piacenza participated in Group A, drawn against Modena, Parma,
Reggiana and Carpi, and finished third, which wasn’t enough to qualify for the
next round. The following season the football federation split in two, with many
of the smaller clubs remaining with the FIGC and the larger, more successful
teams breaking away to form the Prima Divisione, overseen by the newly
created Confederazione Calcistica Italiana (CCI). Piacenza won their
three-team qualifying group, ahead of Parma and Mantovana, but came last in the
regional finals behind SPAL, Virtus Bolognese and Parma.
The schism between the competing associations was resolved in 1922 by way
of the Colombo Compromise, which had the effect of consigning Piacenza to a
lower, second division – a sort of regional Serie B. Except there was no way
out of it, although teams still faced the threat of relegation. It could be
said, then, that the Charter of Viareggio in 1926 was of potential benefit for
clubs stuck in the lower divisions. The idea behind the charter was to
nationalise the sport (in the name of Fascism), meaning that the existing
Northern and Southern leagues would be amalgamated. The restructured Divisione Nazionale comprised two leagues of
ten, whereafter the top three teams in each would play against each other to
determine the winner. All well and good but it had the effect of downgrading
the division beneath: the Prima Divisione became the second tier and the
Seconda Divisione (North and South) the third.
It’s doubtful that such machinations had any material effect on
Piacenza’s fortunes. What did have an impact was the decision in 1928 to divide
the Divisione Nazionale into Series A and B. In 1927-28, the club
finished top of Group D of the Second Division (North) which would ordinarily
would have seen them promoted into Italian football’s second tier, except the First
Division – the second division in all but name – now became the third. Piacenza
remained in the First Division up until 1935, at which point it was renamed
Serie C.
Piacenza Calcio would have to wait a while before they could play
legitimately in Serie B. I say legitimately because in the aftermath of World
War II they briefly featured in a combined Serie B/C Alta Italia, a
temporary solution in the face of logistical and bureaucratic restrictions on
travel. By 1948-49 they were back in Serie C.
After a brief spell in Serie IV/D, Piacenza were promoted to Serie B in
1968-69, but were then relegated. I have read that in the 1960s Piacenza sometimes wore white shirts
with a red sash but I can find no images to corroborate this. In any case, upon
the club’s return to Serie B in 1974-75 they were wearing red shirts, white shorts and red
socks.
1975-76
In 1983 a man by the name of Leonardo Garilli became Piacenza’s president. One of the first things this qualified mechanical engineer did, aside from implementing some sort of fiscal structure, was to commission a new badge. The graphic designer(s) responsible drew upon the province’s heraldry: a red shield encapsulating a silver square and a Roman ‘she-wolf’. The shield was discarded, the square rotated through 45 degrees, and the wolf’s head rendered with a simplicity worthy of Piero Gratton himself. It is used to this day.
The new emblem didn’t appear on Piacenza’s actual shirts until 1986, provided
by a company named Dafra. The club immediately won promotion into Serie B as champions,
Armando Madonna the star of the show. (A young Giuseppe Signori made 14 appearances,
scored one goal.) NR then took over as technical supplier while Cassa Risparmio
Piacenza continued as commercial sponsor, albeit with e Vigevano now
appended to their name. Despite starting well, Piacenza ended their campaign in
13th place. The following year they were relegated, and ‘Beppe’ Signori
was sold to Foggia for 1.5 billion lire.
After an indifferent season in 1989-90, Piacenza added a second Serie C
(1) championship to its palmarès in 1990-91. They did this wearing clobber
manufactured by Abbigliamento Sportivo (ABM) utilising the same template
employed at Fiorentina, Salernitana, Palermo, Messina (but not Torino). Made
from polyester and cotton, the jersey was micropatterned with ABM’s motif
running in vertical lines. It had a collar, an elasticated V-neck and was
loose-fitting, as most jerseys were during this period.
Piacenza bedded in. They took on loan the goalkeeper Davide Pinato from
Atalanta and attacking midfielder Armando Madonna from Lazio, who had been sold to Atalanta in 1988 after his previous five-year stint with Piacenza. More
significantly, the striker Antonio De Vitis signed from Udinese. They finished
mid-table.
In 1992-93,
Piacenza won promotion into Serie A. In the meantime, ABM had tinkered with the
shirt, adding a pop-stud neck opening (used at Torino), a more abstract micropattern
and a white collar. The club made a quick return to Serie B but an equally
speedy return to Serie A, this time as champions. Moreover, Piacenza made it
stick, spending five consecutive seasons in Italy’s preeminent division before
again being relegated, by which time Lotto was supplying the gear.
Unfortunately, the club went bankrupt in 2012, re-established itself as Società
Sportiva Dilettantistica Piacenza Calcio 1919 in 2013 (subsequently shortened
to Piacenza Calcio 1919) and have only been able to make it back as far as Serie
C.
