SS Lazio
Societą Sportiva Lazio, (BIT:
SSL)
commonly referred to SS Lazio or simply Lazio,
is an Italian professional sports club most noted for its football section, founded
in 1900 and based in Rome. Lazio participate in thirty-seven sports
disciplines in total, more than any other sports association in Europe.
SS Lazio's association footballers, who play in
sky blue
shirts with white shorts, have won Serie A twice, first in 1973–74 and
then again in 1999–00. As well as winning four Coppa Italia trophies,
Lazio have earned silverware on the European stage, winning the UEFA
Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Super Cup both in 1999. The club has spent
most of their history in the top tier in Italian
football, where they are currently playing in the 2007–08
season.
Home games are played at the Stadio Olimpico,
a stadium they share with rivals AS Roma.
SS Lazio
History
Foundation to post-World War II
(1900–1949)
Societą Podistica Lazio,
or Lazio Track and Field Club was founded on
January 9, 1900 in the Prati
district of Rome. Wanting to encompass more than just the city of Rome
that they were from, the club's nine original founding members chose to
name Lazio after the region
in which the city is located (Lazio).
SS Lazio 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 SS Lazio 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.
SS Lazio
1950s and 60s
The 1950s produced a mix of mid and upper
table results with an Italian Cup win in 1958.
SS Lazio was relegated for the first time in
1961 to the Serie B, but returned two years later. Under Argentine
coach Juan Carlos Lorenzo, Lazio's tight defence ensured a credible 8th
place finish in 1964 with a paltry 21 goals scored and a stingy 24
conceded. A 3-0 away win over Juventus was a
highlight of the season.
Stars of the side in those years included
midfielder Nello
Governato, who later went on to work as a manager for the club. Lazio
were relegated in 1967 and returned to Serie A three years later
finishing 8th in the top flight.
SS Lazio
1970s
The 1970s began just as the 1960s did, with
relegation following the 1970–71 season.
However promotion the following year ushered in SS Lazio's first truly
successful period. They took to the field in the 1972–73 season with a
team comprising English-born captain Giuseppe Wilson in defence,
Luciano Re Cecconi and Mario Frustalupi in midfield, Renzo Garlaschelli and Giorgio
Chinaglia up front, and coach Tommaso
Maestrelli.
With Chinaglia providing the goals and the defence giving little away,
Lazio emerged as surprise challengers for the Scudetto to Milan and
Juventus in 1972–1973, only losing out on the final day of the season
after conceding a late goal at Napoli (whilst Juventus left it late to
secure a win at Lazio's bitter rivals Roma).
It served as a prelude to a breakthrough for
the 1973–74 season,
when Lazio would sweep all before them to win their first league title,
having lead throughout the season.Unfortunately this was not built
upon, as 4th place the following year
would be followed by a struggle against relegation in 1975–76
and a mid-table finish in 1977–78 (with a
5th place finish in 1976–77 in between). The tragic deaths of Luciano
Re Cecconi and scudetto trainer Tommaso Maestrelli in addition to
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.
SS Lazio
1980s
Lazio were forcibly relegated to Serie B in
1980 due to a remarkable
scandal concerning illegal bets on their own matches, along with 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 despite the emergence of promising, though albeit
unfulfilled talent of Francesco Dell'Anno and Francesco Fonte.
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
one player, Claudio Vinazzini. 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. SS Lazio1990s - the Cragnotti years
Pavel Nedved
starred for Lazio from 1996 until 2001
The arrival of Sergio Cragnotti,
in 1992, changed the club's history forever as he was prepared to
invest long term in new players for the club in order to make the team
a competitor on the Serie A level. 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.
In 1993 Lazio finished fifth in Serie A,
fourth in 1994, second in
1995, third in 1996, and fourth again in 1997, then it lost the
championship just by one point to AC Milan on the last championship's
match in 1999 before, with the likes of Siniša Mihajlović, Alessandro
Nesta and Pavel Nedved
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.
In addition to the aforementioned one, Lazio
had two other Coppa
Italia triumphs in recent years, in 1998 and 2004. Lazio also won the
last ever UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
in 1999 and
reached the UEFA Cup final in 1998, but lost 0-3 against a
Ronaldo-inspired Inter Milan.
Lazio won the Italian Super Cup
twice and defeated Manchester
United in 1999 to win the European
Super Cup. Lazio was also the first Italian football club
to be quoted on the Italian Piazza Affari stock
market. SS Lazio2000 to present—decline and revival
Lazio began the decade brightly by winning
the Italian Super Cup and
finishing in 3rd place in the league - but the departure of Sven Goran
Eriksson accelerated the decline of the club. With money running out,
or wasted on transfer flops like Gaizka Mendieta
for £28million, Lazio missed the all-important qualification for the
UEFA Champions League in the 2001/2002 season, finishing in a
disappointing 6th place.
A financial scandal involving Cragnotti and
his food products multinational Cirio
forced him to leave the club in 2002, 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 the "symbol" of the club -
club captain Nesta - in quick succession. Lazio was subsequently sold
to entrepreneur Claudio Lotito, who is the current majority share owner.
Goran Pandev, one of the Lazio players today
That summer, 36-year old former Lazio star
Paolo Di Canio
accepted to join the club he supported as a youth, taking a 75 per cent
paycut. The 2005–2006 season saw Lazio lose veterans such as Fernando
Couto, Paolo Negro and Giuliano Giannichedda who were let go by the
club, among other things, to lower its salary expenditure. The
2005–2006 season under the coaching of Delio Rossi saw the club compete
beyond all expectations with a team which blends remaining veterans
such as Angelo Peruzzi and midfield fan favourites Fabio Liverani and
Ousmane Dabo
with an infusion of motivated players with lower salary demands. The
policy proved to be successful as the club qualified for the 2006–07
UEFA Cup.
On July 14, it was announced that they had
been relegated to Serie B with a 7 point penalty for their involvement
in match-fixing scandal.
The club's appeal was successful and in a judgment released on July 25,
Lazio's penalty was reduced to an 11 point deduction in the following
Serie A season (subsequently further reduced to 3 points) and a 30
point deduction in the previous Serie A season, resulting in the loss
of their qualification to the following UEFA Cup.
Despite a later-reduced points deduction,
Lazio achieved a 3rd place
finish in the 2006/2007, just falling short of breaking the club record
for games won in succession - the current squad racked up 8 wins in a
row, compared to the 2000 Scudetto winning squad who set the record of
9. In the 2007/2008 season Lazio struggled to
beat Dinamo Bucharest
in the preliminary round of the Champions League and eventually ended
bottom of their group, that was comprised of Real Madrid, Werder Bremen and Olympiakos.
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. Lazio eventually ended the Serie A season in 12th place.
SS Lazio
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