Spal

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The club was established in the month of March 1907 under the name Circolo Ars et Labor (latin for Art and Work Club) by the Salesian priest Pietro Acerbis. At first it was mostly an organization for the arts and religion but in 1913, it was transformed into a multi-sports organization that was later renamed Societa Polisportiva Ars and Labor (SPAL). The club began professional career under the guidance of the Italian Football Federation (Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio) in 1919, and began competing in the second-tier competition.

SPAL was a top flight league from 1920 until 1925, where they reached the playoff to qualify to qualify for The National Finals in 1921-22. From 1925 to after the Second World War, they played in Serie B and Serie C during this time. the club's greatest forward Mario Romani scored 130 goals in 189 matches during two distinct seasons with White-Blues (1925-32 in 1937, and then 1937-1938).

From 1939 to 1943,, the club altered its title from A.C. Ferrara, wearing the black and white colors of Ferrara, the city. Following the suspension of the competitions due to the war In 1945, the club was reverted to the name SPAL and switched to white and light blue kits.

In 1946, Paolo Mazza became chairman of the club in 1946. After five seasons of Serie B SPAL was promoted to Serie A after finishing the first championship in 1950-51. The white-blues continued to play within the elite division throughout the majority in the 1960s as well as 1950s. They competed in 16 of the seventeen Serie A seasons from 1951 until 1968.

SPAL was fifth in 1959-61 and thus achieved the top result in its history. In 1961-62, they took part at the Coppa Italia final but lost against Napoli. In the beginning of the 1962-63 , when the team finished eighth in the league, the blues and whites made it to their peak at the very top of the table. In those days the club served as an ideal place to start for youngsters who would later become superstars including Fabio Capello.

In 1963-64, they were demoted in 1963-64 to Serie B, but they returned into Serie A after only one year and continued to play at the top of their league until. After the final season, in the top league, SPAL won the Cup of Italian-Swiss Friendship.

The 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s SPAL was mostly involved throughout the 1990s. Serie B and Serie C/C1.

Paolo Mazza quit the presidency in December of 1976 and became replaced in December 1976 by Primo Mazzanti. The former chairman passed away in December 1981, and three months after that Ferrara's Stadio Comunale was named in honor of the late chairman.

In the year 1990 Giovanni Donigaglia became chairman of SPAL. Between 1990 and 1992, SPAL received back-to-back promotions in Serie C2 to Serie B under the supervision by Giovan Battista Fabri. Donigaglia was removed from his post in the year 2002, having joined the team in Serie C1. The presidency was offered to Lino di Nardo.

The club was declared bankrupt in 2005. They transformed into SPAL 1907 S.r.l. in accordance with the conditions of Article 52 of the N.O.I.F. The summer of 2012 saw the club relaunched following experiencing a bankruptcy second time and reorganization, the club was revived again as Societa dilettantistica real SPAL. The club would then begin its life in Serie D again, this time under article 52 in N.O.I.F.

The end of the 2012-13 season, the club changed its name to. Giacomense was a club that was founded in 1967 in Masi San Giacomo, a frazione of Masi Torello, had moved to Ferrara. Ferrara and on the 12th of July 2013, the owner Roberto Benasciutti struck a deal to the Colombarini family to form the merger of SPAL and Giacomense which resulted in Giacomense conferring its sports title on SPAL and remaining in Ferrara. The club's name was changed to S.P.A.L. 2013 to keep the tradition of football of SPAL. The 2013-14 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione season with a sixth-place finish, being eligible for the first Unified 2013-14 Lega Pro season.

The 2015-16 team was promoted into Serie B for the first time since 1992-93, after they finished first in group B in the Lega Pro. In the following year, they finished second to the top of Serie B, thus obtaining the opportunity to move up into Serie A after a 49-year absence. In their first season with Serie A, SPAL avoided the drop by finishing 17th. The end of the 2018-19 season , they established their status in the top division for the third time in a row and finished 13th. SPAL had a mixed run during the 2019-2020 season after only gaining 15 points from 23 games and a manager Leonardo Semplici was dismissed in February of 2020 and replacing him with Luigi Di Biagio. SPAL were sent into Serie B, finishing in the bottom spot with just 20 points. SPAL made it to in the 2020-21 Coppa Italia quarter-finals, becoming the only team in Serie B to advance to this stage of the competition.

The colours of the team are white and light blue that are derived from the Salesians emblem. Home kit as of 1962, consists of a vertically striped lighter blue and white shirt with white sneakers, and white socks. The only difference between white and light blue came when the team adopted an all-white black and white kit between 1939 until 1943 (when it was renamed A.C. Ferrara), in honor of Ferrara's municipal colours.

The badge is currently sporting the escutcheon, which is oval in shape with a white stripe in the upper portion and on it is an acronym S.P.A.L. in golden characters. In the lower portion in the lower section, the emblem in black and white that represents the city is displayed. Between 1980 and mid-1990, the official badge was adorned with the fawn as a symbol of the club.

SPAL's most well-known nicknames include Biancazzurri (from the colours of the club white, light blue, and light blue) along with Estensi (from the house of Este, ancient European noble dynasty which reigned over Ferrara from 1240 until 1597).

Campo di Piazza d'Armi (1919-28)

Stadio Paolo Mazza (1928-)

The current home of SPAL is the 16,134-seater Stadio Paolo Mazza. The stadium opened in September 1928 under the name Stadio Comunale The stadium was changed its current name in February 1982, named in tribute to the former president of the club, Paolo Mazza, who died just two months prior to the stadium's opening.

Initially, it was able to handle a volume of 4000. It was then, as a result of the move to SPAL in to Serie A, in 1951 it underwent a massive restructuring, which increased capacity up to 25,000. Between the 1960s and 1980s, the stadium was renovated which reduced the possible number of spectators to 22,000 before the mid-2000s.

Between 2005 and 2016, the capacity was restricted to 7,500 for security reasons and cost control. In 2016-17, following the club's rise into Serie B and then to Serie A, the stadium was renovated to meet the demands of modern day safety and comfort. In the summer of 2018, another renovation was carried out to increase the capacity of the stadium up from 13,135 seats up to 16,134 seats.

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• 1981–82: Sauber
• 1982–89: Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara
• 1989–90: Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara, Ravani Acciai
• 1990–05: Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara
• 2005–08: Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara, Tomasi Case
• 2008–09: Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara
• 2009–10: Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara, Lega del Filo d'Oro
• 2010–11: Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara, Trasea
• 2011–13: Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara
• 2013–15: Vetroresina, Veneto Banca
• 2015–16: Vetroresina, Reale Mutua, BMW ErreEffe Group
• 2016–17: Vetroresina, Magnadyne, 958 Santero, BMW ErreEffe Group
• 2017–18: InterSpar, Tassi Group, BMW ErreEffe Group
• 2018–19: Tassi Group, BMW ErreEffe Group, Pentaferte
• 2019–20: Omega Group, Krifi Caffè, OrOil, VB Impianti, Errebi Technology, Pentaferte
• 2020–21: Omega Group, Adamant BioNRG, Errebi Technology, Pentaferte
• 2021–22: Adamant BioNRG, Golden Group, Errebi Technology

As of 21 July 2022

•  Mirco Antenucci
•  Mario Astorri
•  Osvaldo Bagnoli
•  Gastone Bean
•  Savino Bellini
•  Etrit Berisha
•  Niels Bennike
•  Ottavio Bianchi
•  Alberto Bigon
•  Kevin Bonifazi
•  Marco Borriello
•  Gianfranco Bozzao
•  Ottavio Bugatti
•  Ruben Buriani
•  Fabio Capello
•  Lucas Castro
•  Sergio Cervato
•  Giacomo Cipriani
•  Dante Crippa
•  Carlo Dell'Omodarme
•  Luigi Delneri
•  Beniamino Di Giacomo
•  Dan Ekner
•  Bülent Esel
•  Felipe Dal Bello
•  Mohamed Fares
•  Matteo Ferrari
•  Sergio Floccari
•  Adolfo Gori
•  Matthew Kemp
•  Jasmin Kurtić
•  Manuel Lazzari
•  Saul Malatrasi
•  Thomas Manfredini
•  Alex Meret
•  Simone Missiroli
•  Egidio Morbello
•  Marco Nappi
•  Fulvio Nesti
•  Oscar Massei
•  Dante Micheli
•  Alberto Paloschi
•  Egisto Pandolfini
•  Michele Paramatti
•  Fausto Pari
•  Luigi Pasetti
•  Sergio Pellissier
•  Andrea Petagna
•  Armando Picchi
•  Gennaro Olivieri
•  Alberto Orlando
•  Dion Ørnvold
•  Edoardo Reja
•  Mario Romani
•  Giuseppe Rossi
•  Nils-Åke Sandell
•  Andy Selva
•  David Sesa
•  Abdon Sgarbi
•  Mirko Valdifiori
•  Carl Valeri
•  Mattia Valoti
•  Stefano Vecchi
•  Francesco Vicari
•  Emiliano Viviano
•  Erwin Waldner
•  Franco Zaglio

There are SPAL's several presidents (chairmen) (Italian: presidenti, lit. 'presidents' or Italian: presidenti del consiglio di amministrazione, lit. 'chairmen of the board of directors') over their history. And some of them have been the main shareholder of the club. The longest-serving chairman is Paolo Mazza.

SPAL have had many managers and head coaches throughout their history, below is a chronological list of them.

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• Serie B
  • Winners (2): 1950–51, 2016–17
• Serie C / Serie C1 / Lega Pro
  • Winners (5): 1937–38, 1972–73, 1977–78, 1991–92, 2015–16
  • Runners-up (5): 1941–42, 1942–43, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1995–96
• Serie C2
  • Winners (1): 1997–98
  • Runners-up (1): 1990–91

• Coppa Italia
  • Runners-up (1): 1961–62
• Coppa Italia Serie C
  • Winners (1): 1998–99
  • Runners-up (1): 1988–89
• Supercoppa di Serie C / Lega Pro
  • Winners (1): 2016

• Cup of Italian-Swiss Friendship
  • Winners (1): 1968

• Campionato Primavera Serie B
  • Winners (1): 1964–65
• Campionato De Martino Serie A
  • Winners (1): 1967–68
• Campionato Nazionale Under-18
  • Winners (1): 2021–22

89 out of 90 years of professional football in Italy since 1929

✟= Relegation due to bankruptcy.