Athletic Palermo

Early history (1898–1947)

The history of the arrival of football in Palermo city is linked to the solid relationships that the high local bourgeoisie entertained with the British people. There is some debate and uncertainty about the exact date the club was founded. Some authorities believe that it may have been founded as early as 1898 due to the existence of papers addressed to Joseph Whitaker, English ornithologist in Palermo and originally believed to be first club president, about a Palermo football team founded in the month of April of that year. Conversely, another source cites that in April 1897, the future founders of Palermo Calcio founded the Sport Club. Joseph Whitaker have had an important role in the first years of the club: in 1902 he would then have been appointed honorary president, as evidenced by a letter dated March 14 of that year.

The most common and officially stated foundation date is 1 November 1900, as the Anglo-Palermitan Athletic and Foot-Ball Club. The club is thought to have been founded by Ignazio Majo Pagano, a young Palermitan colleague of Whitaker who had discovered football while at college in London in the UK, where the modern game of association football originated. The initial staff comprised three Englishmen and nine natives of Palermo, with Whitaker as honorary chairman, Edward De Garston as inaugural president and with red and blue as the original team colours. The first recorded football match, played by the team on 30 December 1900, ended in a 5–0 defeat to an unidentified amateur English team. The club's first official match, played on 18 April 1901 against Messina Football Club, ended in a 3–2 victory for the Palermitan side.

In 1907, the club changed its name to Palermo Foot-Ball Club, and the team colours were changed to the current pink and black. From 1908 until Italy's entry in World War I in 1915, Palermo was featured in the Lipton Challenge Cup, organised by Scottish businessman Sir Thomas Lipton. The competition saw them face off against Naples FBC; Palermo won the competition three times, including a 6–0 victory in 1912.

After a gap during the First World War, the club was refounded in 1919 as Unione Sportiva Palermo, by a committee of young university students and sportsmen. During the early 1920s, the club mainly competed in the Campionato Lega Sud, a football league in Southern Italy, reaching the semi-finals in 1924 before being knocked out by Audace Taranto, Alba Roma and Internaples. The club was dissolved in 1927 due to financial problems, but was reformed one year later following a merger with Vigor Palermo under the name Palermo Football Club. Originally admitted to Prima Divisione (First Division), the equivalent of today's Serie C1, the team was promoted to Serie B in 1930 and finally reached Serie A in 1932. From its debut season in Italy's top division, Palermo relocated to a new home, the Stadio Littorio (Lictorian Stadium) in the Favorita neighbourhood, today known as Stadio Renzo Barbera. The club played in Serie A until 1936, when they were relegated to Serie B and first played Catania in the Sicilian derby.

In 1936, Palermo was forced by the fascist regime to change its colours to yellow and red, after the official colours of the local municipality. Meanwhile, economic difficulties arose, and in 1940 the club was expelled by the Italian Football Federation because of financial problems. A merger with Unione Sportiva Juventina Palermo brought the foundation of Unione Sportiva Palermo-Juventina, which joined Serie C in 1941 and Serie B in 1942.

The club could not finish the 1942–43 season due to the outbreak of World War II. At the same time, the pink-and-black colours were chosen because Sicily became a "war zone". After the conflict, the club changed its name to Unione Sportiva Palermo.

Post-war years (1947–2002)

After World War II, the team returned to Serie A by winning the Serie B championship of 1947–48. The new Palermo squad featured players such as Czechoslovak legend Čestmír Vycpálek, who signed from Juventus alongside Conti, Carmelo Di Bella and Pavesi. Palermo played Serie A until they were relegated in 1954. Massive changes in the board, as well as the manager's job and the squad, proved successful, and the club returned to Serie A in 1956. Palermo became a "yo-yo club", bouncing up and down between the top two Italian leagues. Several stars played for Palermo during this period, such as Argentine striker Santiago Vernazza (51 goals in 115 games with the Rosanero), goalkeepers Roberto Anzolin and Carlo Mattrel, Giuseppe Furino and Franco Causio. Palermo marked its best campaign in 1961–62 season, finishing in eighth place in Serie A. In 1963, however, they were relegated to Serie B, where they played for five seasons.

Palermo played again in Serie A between 1968 and 1970. In 1968, with the transformation of the football club into a joint-stock company, Palermo changed its name to Società Sportiva Calcio Palermo and moreover, in that year, the team returned in Serie A in the 1967–68 Serie B, with the former player and coach Carmelo Di Bella. In December of the new season, Palermo took part in its second and last Mitropa Cup and, therefore, in its third and last participation in a European competition.

In 1970, Renzo Barbera took over the club as the new chairman. After 1973, Palermo FBC remained firmly rooted in Serie B. Despite this, Palermo reached two Italian Cup finals, both of which they narrowly lost: in 1974 to Bologna on penalty shoot-outs, and in 1979 to Juventus after extra time. Barbera left the club in 1980, and Palermo were relegated to Serie C1 four years later. The 1985–86 season, however, which ended in the summer, was the last for Palermo FBC, as, having just saved themselves from relegation, the club was expelled by the football federation due to financial problems. In the summer of 1987, after a year without professional football in Palermo, the club was re-founded bearing the name Unione Sportiva Città di Palermo and began to play in Serie C2, which it promptly won.