Tuesday 28 June 2022

THE SARTORIAL ELEGANCE OF SERIE A: ASCOLI CALCIO, 1991-92 [NR/ENNERRE]

 





When the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC) set up the Terza Divisione in 1922, the commune of Ascoli Piceno didn’t have a team in it. Nor had they in the league that preceded it – the Promozione – which excluded clubs southeast of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. Then in 1923, the FICG established regional divisions in Lazio, Puglia, Marche and Campania. Marche and Campania had enough teams to justify the inclusion of two groups – same as the northern leagues. By 1926, Marche had just one, comprising Gruppo Sportivo Vis Pesaro, Vigor Senigallia, Unione Sportiva Sambenedettese, and Circolo Sportivo Vigor, who were from Ascoli Piceno.
Circolo Sportivo Vigor actually started off as Candido Augusto Vecchi in 1898, named in honour of a local Garibaldian colonel. Typically, football was not the association’s main concern, cycling was, and only friendly games against minor local teams were played. The change of name came about in 1905, for what Ascoli Calcio’s website mysteriously describes as ‘political reasons’.
It wasn’t until 1919 that football became the primary focus, and the Unione Sportiva Ascolana was the result. Their cause was helped further when the municipality elected to build a stadium. The Comunale dei Giardini was completed in 1926, the same year the club was granted entry into the Terza Divisione (Marche Section), having reverted to their previous designation. Circolo Sportivo Vigor subsequently came top of their group and so were promoted to the Seconda Divisione (Group South), which is where they stayed for next few seasons.
In 1929, they changed their name again, to Società Sportiva Ascoli, and won promotion into the Prima Divisione off the back of it. Unfortunately, due to the restructuring of the leagues, the Prima Divisione was the first division in name only and was in effect Italian football’s third tier. Divided into six interregional groups, the top two teams in the four Northern groups were then split across another two groups with the winner of each being allowed into Serie B. The same theory was applied to the two Southern groups, but with just one spot to play for.
Ascoli never made it beyond the preliminary stages before demoting itself in 1933, despite having just finished sixth in a group of fourteen. The following year they went bankrupt, which may explain the decision to voluntarily drop down a league. If that wasn’t bad enough, the club re-registered as Fascio Giovanile di Combattimento di Ascoli, albeit just for a season. The second division then became the first, so the first could become Serie C, and by 1938 Ascoli were competing in it.
We can only assume that throughout all of this Ascoli, under whichever guise, were wearing black and white striped shirts. ‘The social colours are black and white,’ is the only thing Ascoli’s website has to say on the subject, and there are photographs taken in the 1940s to corroborate this. In any case, after the end of the war Ascoli carried on where they’d left off, but struggled. In 1948 they were relegated to the Promozione, and in 1955 to the Promozione Regionale. To stop the rot, the club merged with the Società Sportiva Lillo Del Duca to become Associazione Sportiva Del Duca Ascoli. It seemed to do the trick, and by 1959 they were playing in group B of Serie C.
 
It would take just over a decade for Ascoli to finally make it into Serie B, and as soon as they did they changed their name to Ascoli Calcio 1898. These were the beginnings of the club’s glory years, when they punched above their weight (Ascoli Piceno is not a big place). In 1972-73 – their first season in Serie B – Ascoli came fourth, missing out on promotion by a single point. The next year they made sure of it, coming second, equal to the champions, Varese, on points, but not goal difference.
As debut seasons in Serie A go, 1974-75 wasn’t bad one. Ascoli placed 12th in what was at that time a 16-team league, and commissioned a new badge. Whereas their previous insignia had involved some sort of shield – split down the middle with black and white vertical stripes occupying one half, a rendering of a castle the other – this iteration was circular with ‘A.S. ASCOLI 1898’ written around its periphery. In 1976 they finished 14th and were relegated.
 



Within a couple of years, Ascoli were back in Serie A, as winners of Serie B, wearing gear supplied by Admiral – the English firm’s naval trademark appended to the right side of the chest. The next season (still in Serie A) the club hooked up with Pouchain. What Pouchain did for Italian football is a subject in itself, revolutionising the very notion of what a football strip could be. Graphic designer Piero Gratton was the man responsible, and for Ascoli he got rid of the castle and replaced it with a cartoon woodpecker (the team’s nickname is I Picchi – 'The Woodpeckers'). Unfortunately, the partnership lasted just two years, whereupon Ascoli partnered up with the Italian jeans company POP84, who promptly ditched Gratton’s distinctive motif.
A contract with Adidas followed in 1984, and the introduction of another new badge. Set within a green, rectangular border with rounded corners, a woodpecker was depicted in profile with a modernist simplicity of which Gratton would surely have approved. On the downside, Adidas’s tenure would be marred by the presentation of the club’s commercial sponsors: first Olio San Giorgio, slapped across the chest like an afterthought, and then Norditalia, written in a jarringly Gothic script. Both versions were V-necked, neither had a collar.
After a brief sojourn in Serie B, Ascoli switched to Uhlsport. The shirt was all right, with a narrower stripe and a black collar, but was again let down by the sponsor: MICROMAX written in white on black in an indistinguishable font. Adidas returned in 1989 and used the same design as before, although the new sponsor, COCIF, was easier on the eye than the previous incumbents. Relegation ensued.




In 1991, after Walter Casagrande’s 22 goals helped secure another promotion, Ascoli Calcio signed up with Ennerre (NR). At once, industrial washing manufacturer IMESA climbed on board as commercial sponsor. Utilising the template Ennerre had provided for Napoli, Atalanta and Roma the previous season, the shirt suddenly looked the business. In IMESA, Ascoli at last had a typeface that worked: round, bold, uppercase, with a red dot where the horizontal bar of the letter 'A' would usually be. The collar was now white, as was the neckline, and stripes were of a satisfying gauge. Finally, Ennerre’s green logo complimented the green outline of Ascoli’s stylised badge, which they would soon relinquish.
Ascoli Calcio went straight back down but this time didn’t bounce straight back up. IMESA jumped ship, COCIF were reinstated, and in 1995 the club dropped down into Serie C wearing kit made by Admiral. The delineated woodpecker was wheeled out for the club's centenary in 1998, sewn onto the right sleeve, and was then gone again.

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