SSC Bari facts for kids

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Bari

Full name	Società Sportiva Calcio Bari SpA
Nickname(s)	I Galletti (The Cockerels) I Biancorossi (The White and Reds)
Founded	15 January 1908; 117 years ago (1908-01-15) as Bari Foot-Ball Club 16 January 1924; 101 years ago (1924-01-16) as Foot-Ball Club Bari 27 February 1928; 97 years ago (1928-02-27) as Unione Sportiva Bari 16 July 2018; 7 years ago (2018-07-16) as Società Sportiva Calcio Bari
Ground	Stadio San Nicola
Ground Capacity	58,270
Owner	Filmauro S.r.l.
Chairman	Luigi De Laurentiis Jr.
Manager	Moreno Longo
League	Serie C Group C
2018–19	Serie D Group I, 1st of 18 (promoted)
Home colours Away colours

Bari's journey through Italy's football leagues since 1929.

Società Sportiva Calcio Bari, often called SSC Bari or just Bari, is an Italian football club. It is based in the city of Bari, in the Apulia region of Italy. Bari currently plays in the Serie C Group C. The team finished first in Serie C in the 2021–22 season. This win helped them move up to Serie B for the 2022–23 season.

Bari was first started in 1908. It has been restarted several times since then, most recently in 2018. The club has often moved between Italy's top two football leagues, Serie A and Serie B. In the past, the club was known as AS Bari or FC Bari 1908. Bari's team usually wears all-white uniforms with red details.

Bari is the most successful club from the Apulia region based on its history in Serie A. It is one of the best clubs in Southern Italian football. The club is ranked 17th in the all-time Serie A records. Bari won the Mitropa Cup in 1990.

Club History: Bari's Journey

How Bari Football Club Started

The club, named Bari Foot-Ball Club, began on January 15, 1908. Like many early Italian football clubs, people from other countries helped start it. Key founders included Floriano Ludwig from Germany and Gustavo Kuhn from Switzerland. Giovanni Tiberini, a local trader from Bari, was also a founder. The team first wore red shirts and white shorts. They played against English sailors on the San Lorenzo field in Bari.

Even though the club started early, teams from Southern Italy did not play much in the first Italian football championships. Because of this, Bari did not join the national leagues right away. The original club stopped playing during World War I. It was then reorganized in 1924 with the same name.

By this time, other clubs in Bari had also started playing. These included Foot-Ball Club Liberty, founded in 1909, and their rivals Unione Sportiva Ideale, founded in 1908. FBC Liberty was the first team from the Province of Bari to play in the Italian Football Championship. This happened during the 1921–22 CCI season.

In the next season, Ideale became the first Bari team to reach the Southern Italian semi-finals. However, they lost to Lazio. All three clubs played in the championship for the first time in 1924–25. FBC Bari was moved down to a lower league and stopped existing in 1927. Liberty, however, reached the Southern semi-finals but lost to Alba Roma.

Unione Sportiva Bari: A New Name

Between 1926 and 1928, Italian football changed a lot and became more organized. Many clubs in Naples, Florence, and Rome joined together. FBC Liberty decided to change its name to Bari FC. They first used this name on February 6, 1927, in a game against Audace Taranto. Then, on February 27, 1928, Bari FC joined with US Ideale to form Unione Sportiva Bari. The new US Bari team started using the red and white colors of FBC Bari again.

After the 1928–29 Italian Championship, the league system was reorganized. Bari was placed in Serie B. One of their players, Raffaele Costantino, was called to play for the Italy national football team that season. This made Bari the first Serie B club to have a player join the national team and score a goal for them.

Bari's Ups and Downs in Leagues

The 1930s and 1940s were a great time for Bari. They spent most of these years in Serie A, Italy's top league. Their best finish was seventh place in 1947.

In the 1950s, Bari's performance dropped sharply. But then, they quickly improved by the end of the decade. This allowed them to play three more years in Serie A (1958–61). Important players during this time included Biagio Catalano and Raúl Conti. The club returned to Serie A two more times (1963–64 and 1969–70). The 1969–70 season was tough, as they scored only 11 goals, the lowest of any top-league club. In 1974, Bari moved down to Serie C. They finished that season with only 12 goals scored and 26 goals given up in 38 games.

1970–71 AS Bari team.

By the late 1970s, Bari was back in Serie B and getting better. They almost got promoted in 1982. They did get promoted to Serie A in 1985. They signed English players Gordon Cowans and Paul Rideout. However, they quickly returned to Serie B.

Bari returned to Serie A in 1989 with star players like defender Giovanni Loseto, midfielder Pietro Maiellaro, and Brazilian striker João Paulo. They finished in a good 10th place in 1990. This was their last season at the Della Vittoria stadium. The next season, Bari moved to the San Nicola stadium, which was built for the 1990 World Cup. But by 1992, even with the signing of David Platt, they were moved down to a lower league again.

After being promoted in 1994, they stayed in Serie A for two more years. Igor Protti was the league's top scorer in the 1995–96 season. Another promotion in 1997 saw new, talented young players like Nicola Ventola, Gianluca Zambrotta, Antonio Cassano, and Diego De Ascentis. This time, they stayed in Serie A for four years under coach Eugenio Fascetti. After this, the club had a mixed time in Serie B. However, they were near the top of the Serie B table for most of the 2008–09 season. They earned promotion to Serie A on May 8, 2009, with Antonio Conte as their coach.

In November 2009, an offer to buy the club was turned down. A company from Texas, JMJ Holdings, also wanted to buy the club in August 2009.

With Leonardo Bonucci and Andrea Ranocchia as central defenders and Barreto as a striker, Bari played well in the first half of the season. They ended up finishing 10th. However, Bari lost €19 million in 2009. This meant Bari did not buy many new players in the summer of 2010 or in January 2011. They could not find replacements for Bonucci and Ranocchia. The club's money situation improved because of more TV income and the sale of Bonucci. Bari had a positive financial balance by December 31, 2010.

Bari was moved down to Serie B after the 2010–11 season. They finished 17 points behind Lecce, who were in 17th place. During that season, coach Giampiero Ventura was replaced by Bortolo Mutti. This change did not save the club from moving down. On March 4, 2011, Bari played its 1,000th game in Serie A.

Changes in Leadership

On June 13, 2011, President Vincenzo Matarrese and the club's board of directors stepped down. They had been in charge for 28 years. Vincenzo Torrente became the new coach in the summer of 2011. Many players left because of the club's money problems and were replaced by young players. Even with penalties in the next two seasons, Bari finished in the middle of the Serie B table under Torrente. However, fewer and fewer fans came to watch the games. In the summer of 2013, Torrente left, and Carmine Gautieri took over. But he also left after only two weeks. Roberto Alberti Mazzaferro then became the coach.

The club's money problems continued to get worse. The Matarrese family put less money into the club. By February 2014, the club's debt reached €30 million. The club was declared bankrupt on March 10, 2014. The first attempt to sell the club, on April 18, 2014, failed because no one offered enough money. The second attempt, on May 12, 2014, also failed. The club was in real danger of disappearing.

FC Bari 1908: A New Start

The FC Bari 1908 logo used from 2014 to 2016.

The third attempt to sell the club happened on May 20, 2014. The club was offered for just €2 million. A group called FC Bari 1908 S.p.A. led by former Serie A referee Gianluca Paparesta successfully bought the club. Bari played very well at the end of the season, losing only two of their last 15 Serie B matches. This meant Bari qualified for the 2013–14 Serie B play-offs. Bari played Crotone in the quarter-finals and won 3–0. This set up a game against Latina, who finished 3rd in the regular season. The first game of the play-off semi-final was sold out, with over 50,000 people attending. This was amazing, considering that only a few months earlier, fewer than 1,000 people attended games. Bari was knocked out after two draws (2–2 and 2–2).

In the 2014–15 season, the team finished in 10th place. In 2015–16, Bari finished 5th in the league. This allowed them to play in a play-off match against Novara. However, they lost 3–4 after extra time at Stadio San Nicola.

In December 2015, Cosmo Giancaspro bought a small part of Bari's shares. In April 2016, Noordin Ahmad signed a first agreement to buy half of the club's shares, but the deal did not happen. In June 2016, Cosmo Giancaspro became the only director of the club. This happened after an Italian company, Kreare Impresa S.r.l., bought all the shares.

SSC Bari: Another New Beginning

On July 16, 2018, Bari was not allowed to play in the 2018–19 Serie B season because of money problems. The club's owners tried to put more money into the club and appeal the decision, but it was rejected.

Thanks to a special rule in Italian football, Aurelio De Laurentiis was able to start a new club for Bari. He owns the football club Napoli and a film company called Filmauro. He had also restarted Napoli in 2004. The new club was named SSC Bari. De Laurentiis said he wanted to get the club back to Serie A as soon as possible. The club was then placed in Group I of 2018–19 Serie D.

On August 23, 2018, Aurelio De Laurentiis announced that his oldest son, Luigi De Laurentiis Jr., would be the new Bari chairman.

Bari was promoted to Serie C at the end of the 2018–19 season. In the seasons that followed, the club was always seen as a strong team that could get promoted to Serie B.

In the 2019–20 season, Bari finished second behind Reggina. They then reached the play-off final, where they lost to Reggiana after extra time. This meant they missed out on moving up to the Italian second division right away. After finishing fourth the next season, the club hired Michele Mignani as head coach and made the team even stronger. This worked well, as Bari won Group C and was promoted to Serie B on April 3, 2022, with four games still left to play. In their first season back in Serie B, Bari reached the promotion play-off finals at home. They lost to Cagliari because of a goal scored by Leonardo Pavoletti in injury time. This meant they missed out on a second promotion in a row.

Club Sponsors

Football clubs often have sponsors who help provide money. These sponsors' names are sometimes shown on the team's jerseys. Over the years, Bari has had many different sponsors and kit makers. Some of their kit makers have included Puma, Adidas, Lotto, Erreà, Nike, Umbro, Zeus Sport, and Kappa. Some of their shirt sponsors have included MAN SE, Cassa di Puglia, Wuber, TELE +, Sammontana, Gaudianello, Radionorba, Banca Popolare di Bari, SuisseGas, Betaland, Peroni 3.5, Sorgesana, DAZN, and Granoro.

Team Players

No. Position Player 8 MF Ahmad Benali 13 DF Alessandro Tripaldelli 20 FW Gastón Pereiro 22 GK Marco Pissardo 23 DF Francesco Vicari (Captain) 93 MF Mehdi Dorval GK Michele Cerofolini DF Lorenzo Dickmann DF Sheriff Kassama (on loan from Trento) DF Moussa Mané MF Andrea D'Errico

No. Position Player MF Vincenzo Colangiuli MF Filippo Faggi MF Francesco Lops MF Riccardo Pagano (on loan from Roma) MF Karlo Lulić MF Vincenzo Onofrietti FW Hemsley Akpa-Chukwu FW Christian Gytkjær FW Giacomo Manzari FW Gabriele Moncini FW Giuseppe Sibilli

Bari's Youth Team

Bari also has a youth team, often called "Bari Primavera." This team helps young players develop their skills.

No. Position Player 12 GK Paolo De Lucci

No. Position Player 33 GK Flavio De Giosa

Club Presidents Over Time

Here is a list of the official presidents of Bari, from 1929 until today:

Coaching Team

Position	Name
Manager	Moreno Longo
Sporting Director	Giuseppe Magalini
Assistant manager	Dario Migliaccio
Athletic trainer	Francesco Saverio Cosentino
Goalkeeper coach	Roberto Maurantonio
Technical assistant	Luca Ceccarelli Nicola Fiorentino Filippo Giordano
Athletic Trainer manager	Paolo Nava
Doctor	Emanuele Caputo Giovanni Battista Ippolito Vito Ungaro
Physiotherapist	Alessandro Schena Francesco Sorgente
Osteopath	Francesco Loiacono

Bari's Managers Through the Years

Bari has had many different managers and coaches over the years. Sometimes, two managers even worked together to lead the team. Here is a list of them from 1928 onwards:

Bari's Trophies and Wins

Bari has won several important titles throughout its history:

• Serie B:
  • Champions: 1941–42, 2008–09
• Serie C
  • Champions: 1954–55, 1966–67, 1976–77, 1983–84, 2021–22
• Serie D
  • Champions: 1953–54, 2018–19

Mitropa Cup: 1

• Winners: 1990

Bari's League History

Bari has spent many years playing in different Italian football leagues.

• They have played 30 years in Serie A, the top league. Their last season there was 2010–11. They were moved down from Serie A 12 times.
• They have played 47 years in Serie B, the second league. Their last season there was 2022–23. They were promoted to Serie B 12 times and moved down from Serie B 5 times.
• They have played 11 years in Serie C, the third league. Their last season there was 2021–22. They were promoted to Serie C 5 times and moved down from Serie C once.
• They have played 3 years in Serie D, the fourth league. Their last season there was 2018–19. They were promoted from Serie D 2 times and have never been moved down from this league.

Overall, Bari has played 88 out of 91 years in professional Italian football since 1929.

See also

In Spanish: Società Sportiva Calcio Bari para niños

• 2003–04 AS Bari season
• 2012–13 AS Bari season