Origins

The date of birth of the company is 1th November 1898: twelve young Ascoli gathered in via delle Canterine and founded the first Ascoli sports club in the name of Candido Augusto Vecchi, Garibaldian Colonel, who had married a noble woman of the Luciani family. The association, in the early days, dealt with more sports, including football and, mostly, cycling. In 1905, mainly for political reasons, the club changed its name to Ascoli Vigor, but football was played only in friendly matches. 1907 is the date of the first match.

FROM THE 1920s TO THE POSTWAR PERIOD

Following the interruption of the First World War, the passion for football was rekindled in 1919 and in 1921 the Unione Sportiva Ascolana was formed, presided over by Giuseppe Secondo Squarcia, journalist and dean of Ascoli professionals. In 1925 the municipal stadium of the Giardini was built (later named after Ferruccio Corradino Squarcia). In 1926 for the inauguration of the plant was, after Maceratese, officially, Lazio.

The first official Third Division championship in the Marches was held in 1927 and Ascoli finished in 1st place. It was the first of many promotions that saw the team gradually climb into the Serie C, reaching in those years the best place of 2nd in that category. In 1936, in the summer, it was decided to renovate the bottom of the Squarcia, to equip it with grass and to improve the athletics tracks. Also, in this case Lazio took part in the inauguration, a club that has always had excellent relations with Ascoli.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Ascoli played in Serie C and Serie D seasons, playing the first derbies with the other major clubs in the Marche region: Ancona, Fermana, Maceratese and Sambenedettese and others.

After the Second World War there was a slow and timid resumption of football activity and there were presidents and commissioners – in 1947 it was Ernestina Panichi Seghetti who held the role of President, the first woman in Italy to hold this post – . In the immediate post-war period there was a timid attempt to resume football competitions with local teams, then unified into the Ascoli Sports Association, which inherited the level occupied, before the conflict, by the Unione Sportiva Ascolana (Lega Sud della serie C).

THE 1950s AND THE DEL DUCA ASCOLI

In the 1954-55 season, Ascoli reached the lowest point in its history by relegating to the regional promotion, with the company in the throes of serious financial problems and with the real risk of going adrift. Meetings were held, well-known personalities contacted one another, including Pacifico Del Duca, known as Cino, who, having left Montedinove, his country of origin, had become one of the most important publishers and film producers in France. He trusted in Cino Del Duca’s attachment to his native land and to his people. It was the publisher’s grandson, Benvenga, to intercede: the historic meeting took place on an afternoon at the end of June 1955 in the Villa Del Duca in Montedinove; on the one hand, three spokespersons of the Society (Pacifico Saldari, councilor and later Mayor of the city, Eraldo Fanini, former tennis player and fellow student of Benvenga and Riegler Poli, longtime sportsman), on the other Cino Del Duca.

The publisher listened with interest to the proposals of the “ambassadors” and eventually agreed to join Ascoli Calcio, but first he had to reassure the local fans: the twinning with Ascoli would have benefited the Montedinove team, which would have had the same black and white colors and could have drawn from the nursery of the most famous club. It was at that time that Cino Del Duca presented the film Grisbì as a world premiere in Ascoli and handed over a check for one million lire. He was appointed Honorary President with the management of the Club temporarily entrusted to a Committee composed of Saldari and Fanini who had convinced Del Duca to join the Company and Bernardo Pasqualini, administrator of the Del Duca properties in Montedinove.

Unanimously the shareholders’ meeting decided to call the association “Associazione Sportiva Del Duca Ascoli”; Benvenga was appointed commissioner with the task of reorganizing the club and reviving it economically. The enthusiasm around the team grew enormously, the club also reorganized itself with a new headquarters, in Corso Vittorio Emanuele where there were also rooms for unmarried players. From the Promotion championship in five years the team celebrated the return to Serie C.

1960s, 70s, 80s: FROM DEL DUCA ASCOLI TO ASCOLI FOOTBALL, RECORDS AND GOLDEN YEARS.

With the return to Serie C, foundations were laid for future programming: in 1962 the new stadium was inaugurated, later entitled by the municipal administration to “Cino and Lillo Del Duca”. In 1967, with the death of Del Duca, the honorary presidency passed to the widow, Mrs. Simone, who expressed the desire to give up the post after promotion. Ascoli remais in Serie C for many years and plays many derbies with the historical rivals of the Sambenedettese. One in particular is imprinted in the memory of the fans and not only: the one that took place on February 14, 1965, at the Ballarin di S. Benedetto in which the Juventus goalkeeper Roberto Strulli lost his life following a game clash. The number one of the team died in the hospital of S. Benedetto the next day.

It was in these years that some Ascoli entrepreneurs began to approach Ascoli with the aim of relaunching the club and identified Costantino Rozzi, an emerging figure in the local economy, as well as a person with great communication skills and exuberance, the one who could have covered the office of President. It was not easy to convince him, but in the end Costantino Rozzi accepted and in 1968 became President of Ascoli with the intention of remaining there only six months, the time necessary to restore the budget. In fact, he became more and more passionate about the fate of Ascoli, who on the pitch in the 1968/69, 1969/70 and 1970/71 seasons respectively ranked third and twice fourth in the standings by rehearsing the first historic promotion to Serie B. Promotion that took place at the end of the 1971/72 season when he ranked first thanks to Renato Campanini and Mister Carlo Mazzone goals.

Meanwhile, in 1971 the club took the name of Ascoli Calcio 1898. Despite being the freshman of the Serie B 1972/73, Ascoli finished fourth, almost touching promotion; the following year with 51 points he won the cadet championship and won the Serie A for the first time. In the first championship in the top flight Ascoli, with Mazzone as coach, won the salvation, but in the 1975/76 season they returned to Serie B at the last day, a bitterness amply filled two seasons later, in 1977/78, when the bianconeri returned to Serie A with the team that will go down in history as “the Ascoli of records”: the team of Mimmo Renna, with the midfielder Roccotelli in the team, remembered for the famous rabona, he ranked first, 17 points from the second and broke all records, points (61), victories (26) and goals scored (73) in the B with 20 teams.

This was the golden period of Ascoli, who collected 7 seasons in series: in the 1979-80 season Giovan Battista Fabbri’s team achieved the best result ever, finishing in 4th place and coming close to qualifying for the UEFA Cup. At the end of the championship, Ascoli was invited to Canada to represent Italian football in The Red Leaf Cup tournament, which the team from the Marches won, despite the participation of teams of the caliber of Botafogo, Rangers and Nancy. The following season 1980/81 coach Mazzone returned: if in the league the team fought not to relegate, the greatest satisfaction was obtained by winning, against the vaunted Juventus, the New Year’s Tournament, organized by the League during the winter break. In the 1984/85 season, Ascoli relegated to Serie B, but the following year they won the championship and regained Serie A, where they remained for four years until the 1989/90 season. In 1987 Ascoli also won a European cup, the Mitropa Cup, although the competition was now reserved for the winners of second division tournaments.

1990s AND 2000s. BACK TO SERIE A

The beginning of the new decade saw the Ascoli of Mister Sonetti and champions of the caliber of Walter Casagrande win another promotion in the top flight at the last minute of the last day; but the 1991/92 season recorded a new relegation. In the next two seasons of B, Ascoli tried to win back Serie A also thanks to goals from Oliver Bierhoff, but without success. On December 18, 1994, shortly after the 3-0 victory against Pescara, Costantino Rozzi died. About 20,000 people attended the funeral; many sports men flocked to the Marche city for the last farewell to a man who will remain forever in the memory of fans and non-fans.The team, already poor in results, definitively entered a crisis, relegated to Serie C1 and lost that season also the final with Notts County in the Anglo-Italian Tournament. From 1995/96 there were seven seasons in Serie C, although the team came close to promotion three times. Meanwhile, Rozzi’s death had marked the end of an era; Ascoli, overwhelmed by debts, was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Some local entrepreneurs, led by the Ascoli industrialist Roberto Benigni, took the initiative to make up for the deficit, appointed the notary Nazzareno Cappelli as President and enrolled the team in the 1995/1996 C championship: Ascoli, led by Enrico Nicolini, played a top championship, also thanks to the scoring of Walter Mirabelli and qualified for the playoffs, which they lost in the final with Castel di Sangro. 1999/2000 (defeat in the final against Ancona) and in 2000/2001 (defeat in the semifinal against Messina). In the meantime, Cappelli’s four-year mandate had expired and Roberto Benigni, the majority shareholder who had remained in the background up to that moment, assumed the office of chairman.
In 2001/2002 came the direct promotion to Serie B with Bepi Pillon’s “Diabolici” team, playing without the favors of the prediction. The bianconeri, including the future world champion Andrea Barzagli, obtained the mathematical promotion to Del Duca against Lodigiani. After the two salvations in the following seasons, in the 2004/2005 seasons the team of technicians Silva-Giampaolo finished in sixth place thanks also to the attacking couple Colacone-Bucchi but lost the playoff semifinal against Torino. In August, due to the sporting conviction of Genoa, which from first place was relegated to last place and due to the failures of Turin and Perugia, Ascoli, together with Empoli, classified second and Treviso, fifth, were rescued in A league

FROM THE LAST SERIES A TO BANKRUPTCY. FROM ASCOLI CALCIO TO ASCOLI PICCHIO FC 1898 S.P.A. BY FRANCESCO BELLINI

With the Giampaolo-Silva tandem, Ascoli in the 2005/2006 season obtained salvation two days early, despite the fact that the team had been built in just ten days. Relegation to Serie B the following year: neither Tesser first, nor Sonetti then managed to repeat the miracle of the previous year. Many technicians who followed one another in Serie B in a few years: in the 2007/2008 season it was Ivo Iaconi who led the team close to the playoffs and the following year there were three coaches who sat on the Picchio bench: Nello Di Costanzo, Vincenzo Chiarenza and Franco Colomba, with the latter achieving a painful salvation with 51 points. In the 2009/2010 season, a young coach was hired, Alessandro Pane and reinforcements such as Mirco Antenucci and Marco Bernacci, who returned to Ascoli after a year in Serie A with Bologna.The start of the championship was favorable until the 7th day, when the team started to ring a series of unfavorable results, which led to the change of the technical management.
Pillon was again called as manager, with whom the team closed the season in ninth place. It was the year in which the name of Ascoli went around the world when on December 5, 2009, during the Ascoli-Reggina championship match, the team, on the recommendation of Pillon, let the opponents equalize after the advantage, while a opposing player was on the ground. The episode had extraordinary media coverage around the world (even the New York Times reported on the episode) and the Club received a letter of compliments from the then UEFA President Michel Platini. In the following two seasons the team obtained miraculous salvations (on the last day) due to the numerous penalty points that were inflicted due to administrative defaults and for the Club’s strict liability after the arrests of the players Vincenzo Sommese and Vittorio Micolucci for football betting: in 2010 / 11 it was Fabrizio Castori, who took over from Elio Gustinetti, who centered his stay in B, while the following year the architect was Massimo Silva, who took over from Castori after 13 days. The 2012-2013 season, even though Simone Zaza played in the team, who exploded right in Ascoli and launched himself into football at the highest level, decreed relegation to the Lega Pro.
From here to the failure of the Club it was a short step: the 2013/2014 season did not foresee relegations and the Club, overwhelmed by debts, went bankrupt on 17 December 2013 and on 6 February 2014 Francesco Bellini, together with members Battista Faraotti, Piero Palatroni (he will leave the Club shortly after), Giuliano Tosti and Gianluca Ciccoianni, took over the company at auction, thus sanctioning the birth of Ascoli Picchio FC 1898 SpA On 13 May 2014 the F.I.G.C. transferred the sporting title of the bankrupt Ascoli Calcio 1898 S.p.A. to the new corporate entity. Bellini’s new course saw the complete re-foundation of the team, which was entrusted to Mario Petrone. The team, after the play off dispute, ranked second in group B. In the summer, following the conviction of the leaders Teramo for sporting offenses, the final classification was rewritten and Picchio obtained promotion to Serie B.
In the 2015/16 season there Ascoli obtained salvation after the succession of coaches such as Petrone, Devis Mangia and Paolo Cozzi. Also the following year, in 2016/17, the team, coached by Alfredo Aglietti, obtained salvation in a year that will be remembered for the four “enfants terribles”, all born in 1997, Riccardo Orsolini, a player who grew up in Ascoli who was sold in January 2016 to Juventus in what went down in the history of Ascoli as the most important deal ever, Francesco Cassata, Gian Filippo Felicioli and Andrea Favilli, the latter also called up in the national team of the coach Ventura and the following year sold to Juventus. Since 1th July 2017, the coach has been Fulvio Fiorin, flanked by deputy Enzo Maresca. The latter resigned on 21 November 2017. Due to the poor results of the team, Fiorin was relieved of his post on 7 December 2017. In his place, the Club called the expert Serse Cosmi (deputy Fabio Bazzani) who leads the team to salvation after the playout dispute with Virtus Entella, who relegated to Lega Pro.

FROM ASCOLI PICCHIO FC 1898 S.P.A. AT ASCOLI CALCIO 1898 FC S.P.A. BY PATRON MASSIMO PULCINELLI

On 10 July 2018, the Bellini era ends, which, after four years, passes the baton to Massimo Pulcinelli, number one of Bricofer Italia, a leading company in the “fai da te” sector. With Pulcinelli there are also the minority shareholders Giuliano Tosti, who holds the position of President and Gianluca Ciccoianni. The new management for the bench is betting everything on the coach Vincenzo Vivarini, who takes over from Serse Cosmi. The team reached the mathematical salvation on April 28, drawing 2-2 with the Cittadella al Tombolato on the fourth to last day of the championship. On May 4, 2019 Ascoli plays the last match of the season at Del Duca with Palermo: despite the defeat, it is a day of celebration for the presence of Carlo Mazzone, to whom the new East Tribune is named, inaugurated with Palermo. . Before the match, goalkeeper Ivan Lanni and midfielder Bright Addae are celebrated on the pitch for having reached the milestone of 150 league appearances with the Ascoli shirt. The 2018/19 championship will also be remembered for Ascoli’s 120th birthday, celebrated on 10 November 2018 with the parade of the old glories at the Del Duca stadium before the Ascoli-Padua championship match.
On 5 June 2019 Vivarini was relieved of the position of technical manager of the first team. The bench is entrusted to Paolo Zanetti, who returns to Ascoli as a coach after his experience as a footballer in the 2006/07 season. The defeat at home to Frosinone on 26 January 2020 is fatal to Zanetti, who is removed from his post, temporarily entrusted to the Primavera coach Guillermo Abascal, who leads the team in the Livorno-Ascoli match won 3-0. Abascal, after his debut in the Italian Serie B, returns to the Primavera and the leadership of the first team is entrusted to Roberto Stellone. Meanwhile, in the transfer market in January, the transfer to Novara of the number 1 Ivan Lanni is recorded, who leaves Ascoli after six seasons, a promotion to Serie B and the title of Juventus goalkeeper with the highest number of appearances. In March 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic causes the stop of all the championships and only on May 28, 2020 the resumption of the tournaments is decided starting from the month of June, but without the presence of fans. On 29 May Stellone consensually terminates the contract with Ascoli; in place of him, 31-year-old Guillermo Abascal is called back to lead the first team. The young coach was unable to reverse the negative trend of results and, after the two home defeats against Cremonese and Perugia, he was sacked and replaced by coach Davide Dionigi.
The new coach takes the reins of the team in the playout area and leads it to safety. Due to the pandemic, the 2020/2021 season will be remembered for the absence of the public from the stadiums. On 25 August 2020, Ascoli appoints Valerio Bertotto as new coach. The team struggles in the league and after 9 days occupies the third to last position. Bertotto is sacked after he remedies his fifth defeat in 8 matches in Venice (Pisa-Ascoli, 7th matchday, is postponed due to a Covid outbreak within the team group). The Club entrusts the team to the expert Delio Rossi, but the technical change does not give the hoped-for shock, the team gets only one point in six matches. The defeat suffered in Monza cost the bench to Mister Rossi, who was replaced by Andrea Sottil. The Piedmontese coach leads the Bianconeri’s recovery and brings Ascoli to safety one day early. The final rush of the season with the bianconeri was memorable, with 5 victories and a draw from the 32nd to the 37th matchday. The top scorer of the team with 12 goals is the Bosnian striker Riad Bajic, but the bianconeri’s salvation also bears the signature of Sabiri (8 goals), Dionisi, who arrived in the January market and scored 6 times, of the hard core of the team and of a group who managed to react and overturn a worrying ranking position.