Serie A
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Napoli
JuventusGenoa Cricket and Football Club (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒɛːnoa]) is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa, Liguria. The team competes in Serie A, the top division of the Italian football league system.
Established in 1893, Genoa is Italy's oldest existing football team. The club has won the Italian Championship nine times, with their first being Italy's inaugural national championship in 1898, and their most recent coming after the 1923–24 season. They have also won one Coppa Italia title. Overall, Genoa are the fourth most successful Italian club in terms of championships won. Il Grifone have played their home games at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris since 1911, sharing with local rivals Sampdoria. The fixture between the two teams, known as the Derby della Lanterna, was first played in 1946.
In 2011, Genoa was included in the "International Bureau of Cultural Capitals" (a sort of historical sporting heritage of humanity, in line with that of UNESCO) at the request of President Xavier Tudela. The club was admitted to the "Club of Pioneers", an association comprising the world's oldest football clubs, in 2013; other members include Sheffield F.C. and Recreativo de Huelva.
History
The club was founded on 7 September 1893 as Genoa Cricket & Athletic Club. In its earliest years, it principally competed in athletics and cricket. Association football was only a secondary concern. Since the club was set up to represent England abroad, the original shirts worn by the organisation were white, the same colour as the Cricket section of the club (white shirt, black trousers and socks). At first Italians were not permitted to join as it was a British sporting club abroad. Genoa's activities took place in the north-west of the city in the Campasso area, at the Piazza d'Armi. The men who initially handled the management of the club were;
On 10 April 1897, the footballing section of the club, already in existence since 1893, became predominant thanks to James Richardson Spensley. It was among the oldest in Italian football at the time, only four other clubs—all in Turin—had been founded. Italians were allowed to join and found a new ground in the form of Ponte Carrega.
The first friendly match took place at home, against a mixed team of Internazionale Torino and F.B.C. Torinese; Genoa lost 1–0. Not long after, Genoa recorded its first victory away against UPS Alessandria winning 2–0. Friendly games also took place against various British sailors such as those from HMS Revenge.