Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica Foot-Ball Club Saronno 1910, better known as F.B.C. Saronno or Saronno, is an Italian football club based in the city of Saronno. It plays in the Eccellenza, the fifth division of the Italian league.
Formed in 2015, it aims to be the de facto continuation of the sports tradition that began in 1910 with the birth of the Circolo Sportivo Saronnese (later Saronno Foot-Ball Club) and subsequently transited through various corporate entities, most recently the Associazione Sportiva Saronno F.B.C. 1910, which moved to Gallarate in 2010.
From a historical point of view, Saronno boasts as its greatest success three participations in the Prima Categoria (at that time the highest series of Italian soccer) between 1919 and 1922, without, however, ever having made it past the regional qualifying groups; on the other hand, it has never managed to take part in the Serie A or Serie B round-robin tournament. Since World War II it has played steadily between the third division and amateur categories.
In the 2022-23 season it played in the Promozione Lombardy league, the sixth level of the Italian soccer pyramid.
History From its beginnings to the 1980s The club was founded on March 15, 1910 under the name Circolo Sportivo Saronnese; its first president was Gaetano Gianetti, a Saronnese entrepreneur engaged in the steel trade, who purchased in England (probably in the city of Sheffield) the first white and blue jerseys, along with cleats and balls.
The players were initially mostly students from the local Castelli Archiepiscopal College, together with workers who took up sports in their spare time. The club's first activities consisted of playing friendly matches against other teams from the neighboring towns of Busto Arsizio, Legnano, Monza, Gallarate, Varese, Como and Milan.
After about a couple of years of existence, the club applied for membership in the championships of the Lombardy Regional CommitteeThe name was changed to “Lombardy” only in 1995 with the return of the teams from the province of Mantua from the Emilia-Romagna Regional Committee by ceding those from the province of Piacenza. of the FIGC, which set as a condition for the club's admission the provision of a fenced home ground measuring at least 90x50 m, which was therefore built in front of the local Ursuline school, in Via San Giuseppe.
Beginning in 1912, the club was then able to play its first official competitions, debuting in the Terza Categoria Lombardy championship and succeeding, within less than ten years, to enter the national Prima Categoria (at that time the highest level of Italian soccer). Among the most noteworthy results of the time was a 3-2 home victory over Inter Milan, in a friendly match played on April 15, 1917 (in which, however, both teams took part fielding heavily modified squads, most of the starters being still engaged in World War I: Saronno in particular brought only underage players to the field). Meanwhile, in 1914, the name of the club had been changed to Saronno Foot-Ball Club (abbreviated Saronno F.B.C.).
In the three seasons of its tenure in the Prima Categoria (1919-1920, 1920-1921 and 1921-1922), Saronno showed a good competitive level in the face of renowned opponents. In 1921, for the first and only time in history, a biancoceleste player, Attilio Marcora, was called up to the Italian national team for a friendly against Switzerland.
In 1923, as a result of the reform of the national leagues ordered by the FIGC, Saronno was assigned to the Second Division of the Lega Nord, where it played until the 1927-1928 season, when it won its group and entered the Prima Divisione (which in the meantime had become the national championship);In this respect, De Micheli's volume mentioned in the bibliography erroneously qualifies the Prima Divisione as a regional competition: it is likely that he confused this competition with the Prima Divisione of 1935-1936. Finally, neither of his two publications contains a final ranking of a championship played by Saronno. the biancocelesti stayed there until 1935 and were promoted to Serie B in 1931-1932 (however, giving up the chance to compete in the finals). Also in 1931, the biancocelesti began to adopt as their home field the newly built Littorio Stadium (later renamed Colombo-Gianetti after World War II).
In 1935 the club, relegated at the end of the 1934-1935 season (moreover, similarly to all the teams placed below 6th place, very few of which were later admitted to the new Serie C), probably due to difficulties not only of a financial nature (the costs it would have incurred were lower than the previous year's), even gave up registering for the new regional Prima Divisione championship, thus discontinuing its activities: this resulted in its disbarment from the FIGC. In 1939 another club from the city, the Giovani Calciatori Saronnesi, joined the federation and entered the championship, recruiting some former F.B.C. players who had been released.
The club was reborn in 1940 under the name Società Calcistica Saronno, re-affiliating with the FIGC and enrolling at the lowest level of Lombardy's regional championships; in 1942 it reached Serie C, only to disband again in 1943. In the 1943-1944 season another team from the city, Unione Sportiva Velox Gerenzano (at that time a hamlet of Saronno) took over much of S.C. Saronno's roster and enrolled in Lombard tournaments for the next two seasons.
Re-founded again in 1945 and re-affiliated with the FIGC under its old name, F.B.C. Saronno joined the Serie C of Northern Italy: for several seasons in succession the team played between the third, fourth and fifth national divisions, in their various denominations. Among the most positive seasons was 1960-1961, in which President U. Beretta's biancocelesti finished third in the Serie C group A, being promoted to the second division.
Relegated to Serie D at the end of the 1963-1964 season, Saronno re-entered the professional ranks only at the end of the 1988-1989 season. In these years the greatest satisfactions came from the youth academy: in 1983 the under-19 white and blue team won the Italian title in its category, while in 1989 a similar result was achieved in the under-18 category.
From the 1990s to the third millennium In 1992 Saronno was taken over by entrepreneur Enrico Preziosi, who strengthened the team (at that time playing in the CND, the top amateur level) and led the team to two second-place finishes in its group in the 1992-1993 and 1993-1994 seasons. In 1994, the biancocelesti were re-promoted to the 1994-1995 Serie C2: making their debut in the fourth division, Saronno hit the promotion play-offs in group A and won them, defeating Lumezzane 2-3 in the final and thus achieving promotion to Serie C1.
The biancocelesti ended the first season in the third division in 13th place in Group A, achieving salvation; in the following championship, also thanks to the presence in the roster of players of the caliber of Antonino Asta and Tommaso Rocchi, Saronno was one of the top teams in Group A, finishing fourth in the regular season and qualifying for the Serie B playoffs.
However, at the end of the season Preziosi decided to put the biancoceleste club up for sale, openly aiming to buy Como. The news, which came after the 1-0 home success achieved in the first leg of the play-off semifinal against Carpi, discouraged the Saronnese players, who lost the return match by 3-0, being ousted from the race to the second division. The following season saw F.B.C. again achieve salvation in the Serie C1 championship, under the management of CEO Federico Ferrarini.
At the end of the 1997-1998 year, the club was acquired by Antonio Intini. The next championship was unlucky: Saronno finished in the relegation zone, finding itself in the play-out against Siena: the confrontation was settled in a double 0-0, which saved the Tuscans by virtue of the best position in the regular season. In the 1999-2000 season Saronno then participated in the C2 championship, from which it was later ousted due to financial defaults, which eventually led to the club's declaration of bankruptcy.
In 2001 a new club called Associazione Calcio Saronno was founded, which took part in the local Terza Categoria championship and then disbanded within a year. In 2002, Saronno's Colombo-Gianetti stadium was used as the home ground by Real Cesate Saronno (a club created by taking advantage of Real Cesate's sports title, thus unrelated to F.B.C.), which won the Eccellenza national playoffs and was promoted to Serie D. In 2003, under the leadership of Giancarlo Ferrario, the club was refounded under the name of Associazione Sportiva Nuovo Saronno F.B.C., taking over from Manera Calcio the right to participate in the Promozione Lombardy championship.
After an interlocutory first year, in 2005 the “new F.B.C.” won the Promozione championship and landed in the Eccellenza; at that time it changed its name to Associazione Sportiva Saronno F.B.C. 1910. Also in 2005, the City of Saronno acquired - by resolution of the City Council No. 24 of January 25, 2005 - the rights of use of the historic name Saronno Foot-Ball Club, which it retained to the end of 2015 and has never ceded to the clubs that subsequently re-used the Saronno name.
In 2006 the club finished 3rd in the Eccellenza championship, qualifying for the regional play-offs: after winning the semifinal against Verbano (1-0 first leg; 2-0 return), it lost the national final valid for Serie D by 1-0 in the match - played on the neutral field of Corbetta - against Corsico. In 2007 Saronno finished in second place in their group of Eccellenza, again qualifying for the promotion play-offs, which, however, they lost 1-0 to F.C. Brembio. In 2008 the biancocelesti finished fourth in their Eccellenza group, only to exit the play-offs following a 1-0 loss to Cantù San Paolo. Less fortunate was the following year: in 2009 Saronno in fact finished 12th in the Eccellenza championship, mathematically avoiding the play-outs only on the penultimate day of the regular season.
2010-2015: transfer of the sports title and inactivity In 2010, the club was taken over by Giampiero Colombelli, who managed to lead the team to first place in its group of Eccellenza, resulting in promotion to Serie D. However, during the following summer the title acquired on the field was sold to the new Gallaratese, which thus participated in the Serie D championship in place of the Associazione Sportiva Saronno F.B.C. 1910, which discontinued its activities and disappeared from the national soccer leagues.
In the summer of 2013, an attempt to refound the club was undertaken, headed by director Luciano Silighini, who together with Luigi De Micheli (listed as president), Giuseppe Anselmo and other partners formed a team called FBCS 1910, with the aim of obtaining from the municipality the concession of use of the historical name Saronno Foot-Ball Club and enroll in the 2013-2014 Promozione Lombardy championship. Negotiations with the Saronno municipal administration (headed by Mayor Luciano Porro) for the concession of the name and the usufruct of the Colombo-Gianetti stadium, however, were unsuccessful, eventually resulting in an exchange of accusations between the parties that precluded the possibility of reaching an agreement.
The 2015 re-foundation