Genoa Cricket and FootBall Club History
		September 7, 1893, Charles De Grave Sells, S. Blake, G. Green, W. Riley, D.G. Fawcus, Sandys, E. De Thierry, Jonathan Summerhill Senior and Junior and the British diplomat Sir Charles Alfred Payton started Genoa Cricket & Athletic Club.
		Since the club was set up to represent England abroad, the club's shirts were originally white, the same colour as the England football team's shirt. As it was originally set up as private club, Italians were not allowed into the team and between 1893 and 1895, the club played cricket against the crews of various British ships that docked in the harbour from time to time.
		In 1896, Mr. James Richardson Spensley, considered to be the founder of Italian football, arrived and set up the football team. In 1897 Italian players were allowed to join. The following year, Genoa played their first friendly game, losing 1-0 to a team made up of players from International Torino and FBC Torinese. On May 8, 1898, Genoa became the first ever Italian champions.
		In 1899, the club changed its name to Genoa Cricket & Football Club, dropping 'Athletic' from its name. The shirt also changed, from white, to white and blue vertical stripes. On April 16 of that year, the club won the Italian title again. Genoa would do so again in 1900.
		In 1901, the club changed strip again to its famous red-navy halves and therefore became known as the Rossoblu (RedBlue). From 1902, Genoa were to win three titles in a row, after setting up the II Categoria Tournament, which was won by the reserve team in its first season (1904).
		World War II affected dramatically the entire Italian football movement, but Genoa did not recover as well as other clubs. Between the '50s and '90s, through cashflows and irregularities, Genoa slowly declined, with few notable seasons (two Coppa delle Alpi in 1962 and 1964) and more and more frequent descents into Serie B. Genoa even experienced their first relegation to Serie C in 1970.
		In 1989 Genoa experienced a resurrection that led to promotion to Serie A and, in 1991, Genoa managed a fourth-place finish in the top division, and a subsequent UEFA Cup semifinal the following year. In doing so, they became the first Italian team to win at Liverpool's Anfield Road ground. In 1996 the club became the last winners of the Anglo-Italian Cup by beating Port Vale F.C.
		The glory did not last and Genoa returned to Serie B in 1995 where they played for the past ten years, whilst experiencing deep financial problems. Backed by a new club organisation, in 2005 Genoa finally won the second division, achieving promotion to Serie A. On July 27, 2005, Genoa was placed last (this would condemn them to relegation in Serie C) by the Disciplinary Committee of the Italian Football Federation as consequence of accusations of fixing the last 2004-05 match against Venezia A.C. (match was won by Genoa 3-2).
		The 2005-06 Serie C1 season for Genoa was very tormented. The team was handicapped by a three points penalty in the table related to the fraud in the previous season, and by a further three points penalty for fielding a disqualified player. Nevertheless, Genoa led the Serie C1/A table for most of the season. After shuffling a couple of managers, the return of Giovanni Vavassori ended the 2005-06 Serie C1/A regular season in second place, and thus took part to the playoffs; after having defeated Salernitana Calcio in the semi-finals, Genoa faced A.C. Monza in the promotion finals. Genoa won the away match 2-0 and lost 1-0 at home, achieving promotion to Serie B with a 2-1 relegated score.
		Genoa signed Gian Piero Gasperini as the new coach in July 2006. The team proved itself to be one of the top clubs in the Italian Serie B division. For a significant part of the season Genoa was in first place place, fighting for direct promotion to Serie A with Napoli (Juventus' promotion was a given). It would be on the final matchday that each team's fate would be decided when Napoli played 3rd placed Genoa in Genova.
	On June 10th 2007, Genoa obtained direct promotion to Serie A. The match finished in a 0-0 draw, but Piacenza were held to a 1-1 draw by Triestina after taking the lead, meaning both Napoli and Genoa were directly promoted to Serie A. When news came to Genova's Stadio Luigi Ferraris of Piacenza's final result, players and fans from both teams began to celebrate in euphoria raiding the pitch, unaware that the referee still hadn't called full time. The referee ordered that a minute of injury time was to be played. Once this finished, the celebrations officially began for two of Italy's sleeping giants.
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