Associazioni Calcio Riunite Messina 1947 is the top association football club in Messina and among the major ones in Sicily. It currently plays in Serie D. Its colors are yellow and red.
The club's history begun in 1900, when the club was founded under the denomination of Messina Football Club, and spanned until the most recent successes, with a total of four Serie A campaign, three of them being in the 2000s.
The club was refounded a number of times, more recently in 2009 as A.C. Rinascita Messina and has played in all the Italian professional leagues from Serie A, the first time as A.C. Riunite Messina to Serie C2 in different times, but also in amateur leagues Serie D and Eccellenza following the most recent club disbandment.
From 1900 to today Messina F.C. The history of Messina Football Club began when Alfredo Marangolo returned to Sicily in August 1900 from studying in London, England. In Great Britain the game of football was fast gathering popularity with The Football League in its early stages.
Messina Football Club was officially founded on 1 December 1900Messina Story by Marangolo with the help of Anglican reverend "Caulifield".Storia F.C. Messina The first club manager and captain was a man named F. L. Padgett, who stayed only for a year and Messina played their home games at San Ranieri.
The staff foundations of the Messina football organization, was composed of 9 Englishmen, 4 Italians, 2 Swiss-Danish, 1 American and 1 German, including;
Walter F. Becker - President Charles M. Caughy - Vice President Walter Oates - Secretary Horace Gooding - Councilman F.L. Padgett - Councilman M. Way - Councilman Adolph Marangolo - Councilman Giulio Arena Ainis - Councilman J. Giorgianni - Councilman G. Lovatelli - Councilman William Robert Sanderson - Honorary Associate Guglielmo Sarauw - Honorary Associate Carl Sarauw - Honorary Associate George Oates - Honorary Associate Herbert Oates - Honorary Associate Edward James Eaton - Honorary Associate Eduard Jacob - Honorary Associate
Derby of Sicily: Huleatt era At the college where Marangolo visited he had also made the acquaintance of Ignazio Majo Pagano who formed Anglo Palermitan (Palermo) on his return, only a month before Messina. Indeed, the first Sicilian derby was held between Messina and Palermo on 18 April 1901, 1000 fans turned out to Via Notarbartolo in support their respective club for the match. The game ended 3–2 to the Palermitan side.Messina Story After the match, the two club celebrated the arrival of football in Sicily in a cordial fashion with a banquet thrown at the Hotel Milano. The press at the time noted the good sportsmanship and fair play between the clubs.
Charles Bousfield Huleatt who had helped put the club together originally with Marangolo under the name "Caulifield" took over as Messina player-manager from their second year onwards. In 1904, Messina restored their pride from the earlier clash with Palermo, by coming out victorious 3–2.Messina Story The two teams again celebrated together after toasting drunkenly "to the solidarity of the circle, to their future, to Palermo, to Messina, to the King of Italy, the King of England".
A strong bond, and healthy rivalry had built up between the two Sicilian clubs and a competition named the Whitaker Challenge Cup was arranged to be played between them. The first was held in 1905; Messina won another game (the result was 3–2) and in doing so captured their first trophy. Messina proved the result was no fluke the following year at San Ranieri; capturing the trophy in a 2–1 victory.
G.S. Garibaldi The earthquake of 1908, which killed 60,000 people in Messina; affected the club in a large manner; Deaths included Charles Bousfield Huleatt, players Frank John Carter, Walter Oates and financial backer George H. Peirce.
Football resumed in Messina during the following year; thanks largely to Arthur Barret Lascelles who used money from his own pocket to ensure football activity in the city would continue. By 1910 the funds of Barret had dried up and the club was folded, Società Ginnastica Garibaldi Messina (Gymnastic Society Garibaldi Messina) briefly took its place until it too was dissolved due to the First World War.Messina Calcio
U.S. Messinese After World War I, a club under the name U.S. Messinese was founded and entered to play in the Coppa Federale Siciliana the following year; an all Sicilian championship disputed in Messina, Catania and Palermo. Messina finished as runners-up.
The club participated in the Italian Football Championship of 1921-22 organised by the C.C.I. finishing 3rd in the Sicilian group section; this was the first Championship in which clubs from the Island were entered. The following season the FIGC and CCI were unified.
This coincided with unifications in Messina. Another side Umberto Messina was incorporated into U.S. Messinese, and thus the club changed its name to U.S. Messinese Umberto in October 1922. The following month this new side was fused again, this time with Messina Sporting Club; creating the Messina Football Club. The club's football ground was that of the Citadel "Enzo Geraci". Only two years later in December 1924 FC Messina was melted, and the players became part of the reformed U.S. Messinese.
Finally, Messinese qualified for the semi-finals of the International league, after beating Palermo 3–0 in the Sicilian championship of 1924-25. Here Messinese played against Alba Roma, Cavese and Liberty Bari, but failed to win a single match, scoring only two goals in six games.
The following season, Messina was truly humbled by Palermo, who beat them 7–1 over two legs, for the Sicilian championship. Messina however, was still admitted to the semi-finals, but with similar results to the previous year. After the re-organisation of 1926, Messina was entered into the Seconda Divisione. Messina came close to promotion, but lost out to rivals Palermo; Messina would be promoted to Serie B for the 1932-33 campaign under the presidency of Francesco Lombardo and Koenig's coaching.
Messina remained in the league for six seasons, finishing as high as 4th during the 1935–36 season. The spell in Serie B was also notable for the local rivalry between them and Calcio Catania. The stats, for this period for Messina versus Catania, were two wins, four losses, eight goals scored, eight conceded. Notably, all three major Sicilian clubs played in Serie B during 1936–37.
A.C. Messina: numerous mergings Down in Serie C, AC Messina were withdrawn and folded during 1940–41. The following season in 1941-42 a club named US Peloro 1906 changed its name and became US Mario Passamonte (named after a fallen hero of the war in Africa). The idea was to enter the club into Serie C in place of Messina, however this was unsuccessful, until the following season.
It would not be long before all activity was halted in Italian football for World War II. After several mergers in 1945; including one between US Passamonte and AP Messina, the club AS Messina subsequently emerged as a post-war representative of Messina. This was not a clean cut merger however, some players and officials formed the rival club Giostra Messina; both Giostra and AS Messina reached the finals of the Southern League but eventually finished 4th and 5th respectively. At the end of the season.
A.C. Riunite Messina In 1947, the two teams AS Messina and Giostra Messina were united as one merged club Associazione Calcio Riunite Messina, abbreviated as AC Riunite Messina.
Success in the League: 1950s and early 1960s The 1950s for Messina began in glorious fashion, they were crowned champions of Serie C under the management of Yugoslavian manager Mihaly Balacics. Messina did not falter in Serie B, during their first season in the league they avoided relegation. Giuseppe Melazzo and the Comitato Reggenza owned the club during this new period of relative success.
During the following season, Messina finished 3rd. This period was also notable in Sicilian football for the rivalry between Messina and Catania, similar to the one the club's shared in the 1930s. The two clubs performed respectfully in terms of final positions in Serie B during the early 50s, with Catania gaining promotion to Serie A in 1954. Statistically, Messina were the more dominant club in the Sicilian derby during this period, winning 4 games and losing 2; the other 2 games finished as draws.
Throughout the rest of the 1950s, Messina remained in the division as a whole finishing in a respectful position. Goffredo Muglia took over as president in 1958 to begin a brand new era for the club. For the first time in their history, Messina were crowned champions of Serie B during the 1962–63 season. The race for the championship was a very close one which went down to the last day of the season, with Messina finishing above Bari and Lazio.
For their first ever season in Serie A, the football squad for Messina included; Morelli, Brambilla, Stucchi, Pagani, Dotti, Peruvian Benitez, Ghelfi, Fascetti, Morbello, Canuti and Clerici. Messina's first game in Serie A took place on 15 September 1963, it ended in a 3–1 defeat against Sampdoria at Stadio Luigi Ferraris. As a whole the first part of the season was not a success, they won only 2 games, but they managed to turn it around in the second half of the season, with 7 wins; beating Juventus (1-0), Fiorentina (1-0) and Sampdoria (4-3). The surge of wins in the latter part of the season helped them stay up, finishing 14th.
The next season for the club in Serie A would not be so fortunate, they were relegated in 17th place. Some notable high points of the season included a 1–0 victory over Roma at the Stadio Olimpico. A team from Rome would also be the opposition for Messina's other most impressive result of the season, they stunned Lazio by beating them 4–0 on the last day of the season.
Decline The Sicilian side were not able to bounce straight back up into Serie A, and in fact during their third season back down in Serie B were relegated. It was a cruel way to be relegated for the club, as three teams who survived (Perugia, Lecco and Genoa) finished with the same number of points as Messina; their position in the league was decided via a series of play-off games.
After several seasons finishing in and around the top 10 positions of Serie C, Messina were relegated down to Serie D in the 1972–73 season. The club managed to bounce straight back however, winning the Serie D championship and achieving promotion back into C. After a few decent seasons in the upper parts of the table, relegation struck Messina again. In the 1979 season Serie C2 was formed and Messina were placed into it.
1980s revival with Schillaci By 1983 Messina were champions of Serie C2 and had a future star amongst their ranks in Salvatore Schillaci. The club, now back on the right tracks came close to promotion to Serie B in 1985 with a 3rd-place finish just behind Palermo. The following season Messina won Serie C1 and earned themselves promotion back to Serie B.
Time in Serie B during the 1980s was a pleasant one for the Sicilian side, they notched up 7th and 8th-place finishes. In 1989 the club's most capped player of all time Salvatore Schillaci, was sold by Zdeněk Zeman to Turin giants Juventus, he also went onto great success on the national stage just a year later at the 1990 FIFA World Cup winning the Golden Boot with Italy.
Financial problems Just three seasons after Schillaci's departure, Messina lost their position in Serie B and were relegated down to C1 and then spiralled into further trouble. The club finished 12th in Serie C1, but due to financial difficulties the FIGC cancelled all professional football activity for Messina.
In 1993 it was included to Sicilian Promozione and in 1994 it was admitted in Sicilian Eccellenza. In this league the club has played until 1998 when following the relegation in Sicilian Promozione was dissolved.