S.S. Lazio - History

History

For more details on this topic, see History of S.S. Lazio. For information on the current season, see 2012–13 S.S. Lazio season. For a list of all former and current Lazio players with a Wikipedia article, see.

Società Podistica Lazio was founded on 9 January 1900 in the Prati district of Rome. Lazio officially gave birth to its football section in 1910, joined league competition in 1912 as soon as the Italian Football Federation began organizing championships in the center and south of Italy, and reached the final of the national championship playoff three times, but never won, losing in 1913 to Pro Vercelli, in 1914 to Casale and in 1923 to Genoa 1893.

In 1927 Mario Azzi was the only major Roman club which resisted the Fascist regime's attempts to merge all the city's teams into what would become A.S. Roma the same year.

The club played in the first organized Serie A in 1929 and, led by legendary Italian striker Silvio Piola, achieved a second place finish in 1937 — its highest pre-war result.

The 1950s produced a mix of mid and upper table results with an Italian Cup win in 1958. Lazio was relegated for the first time in 1961 to the Serie B, but returned in the top flight two years later. After a number of mid-table placements, another relegation followed in 1970–71. Back to Serie A in 1972–73, Lazio immediately emerged as surprise challengers for the Scudetto to Milan and Juventus in 1972–1973, only losing out on the final day of the season, with a team comprising captain Giuseppe Wilson, as well as midfielders Luciano Re Cecconi and Mario Frustalupi, striker Giorgio Chinaglia, and head coach Tommaso Maestrelli. Lazio improved such successes the following season, ensuring its first title in 1973–74. However, tragic deaths of Luciano Re Cecconi and scudetto trainer Tommaso Maestrelli, as well as the departure of Chinaglia, would be a triple blow for Lazio. The emergence of Bruno Giordano during this period provided some relief as he finished League top scorer in 1979, when Lazio finished 8th.

Lazio were forcibly relegated to Serie B in 1980 due to a remarkable scandal concerning illegal bets on their own matches, along with AC Milan. They remained in Italy's second division for three seasons in what would mark the darkest period in Lazio's history. They would return in 1983 and manage a last-day escape from relegation the following season. 1984–85 would prove harrowing, with a pitiful 15 points and bottom place finish.

In 1986, Lazio was hit with a 9-point deduction (a true deathblow back in the day of the two-point win) for a betting scandal involving player Claudio Vinazzani. An epic struggle against relegation followed the same season in Serie B, with the club led by trainer Eugenio Fascetti only avoiding relegation to the Serie C after play-off wins over Taranto and Campobasso. This would prove a turning point in the club's history, with Lazio returning to Serie A in 1988 and, under the careful financial management of Gianmarco Calleri, the consolidation of the club's position as a solid top-flight club.

The arrival of Sergio Cragnotti, in 1992, changed the club's history due to his long-term investments in new players to make the team a scudetto competitor. Cragnotti repeatedly broke transfer records in pursuit of players who were considered major stars – Juan Sebastian Veron for £18million, Christian Vieri for £19million and breaking the world transfer record, albeit only for a matter of weeks, to sign Hernan Crespo from Parma for £35million.

Lazio were Serie A runners-up in 1995, third in 1996, and fourth in 1997, then losing the championship just by one point to Milan on the last championship's match in 1999 before, with the likes of Siniša Mihajlović, Alessandro Nesta, Marcelo Salas and Pavel Nedvěd in the side, finally winning its second scudetto in 2000, as well as the Italian Cup in an impressive and rare (by Italian standards) "double" with Sven-Göran Eriksson (1997–2001) as manager.

Lazio had two more Coppa Italia triumphs in 1998 and 2004, as well as the last ever UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1999. They also reached the UEFA Cup, but lost 0–3 against Internazionale.

In addition, Lazio won the Italian Super Cup twice and defeated Manchester United in 1999 to win the European Super Cup.

In 2000, Lazio became also the first Italian football club to be quoted on the Italian Piazza Affari stock market.

However, with money running out, Lazio's results slowly worsened in the years; in 2002, a financial scandal involving Cragnotti and his food products multinational Cirio forced him to leave the club, and Lazio was controlled until 2004 by caretaker financial managers and a bank pool. This forced the club to sell their star players and even fan favourite captain Alessandro Nesta. In 2004 entrepreneur Claudio Lotito acquired the majority of the club.

In 2006, the club qualified to the 2006–07 UEFA Cup under coach Delio Rossi. The club was however excluded from European competitions due to their involvement in match-fixing scandal.

In 2006–07, despite a later-reduced points deduction, Lazio achieved a third place finish, thus getting qualified to the UEFA Champions League qualifying round, where they defeated Dinamo Bucharest to get into the group phase, ended in fourth place in a round composed of Real Madrid, Werder Bremen and Olympiacos. Things in the league did not go much better with the team spending most of the season in the bottom half of the table, sparking the protests of the fans, and eventually ending the Serie A season in 12th place. But in 2008–2009, the club won their fifth Coppa Italia, beating Sampdoria in the final.

Lazio started the 2009–10 season playing the Supercoppa against Inter in Beijing, and winning the match 2–1 with goals from Matuzalem and Rocchi.