The performance of Brescia in the Italian football league structure since the first season of a unified Serie A (1929/30).
Brescia Calcio, commonly referred to as Brescia (Italian pronunciation:[ˈbreʃʃaˈkaltʃo]), was an Italian football club based in Brescia, Lombardy. The team last played in Serie B, the second tier of Italian football, and was set to compete in Serie C in the 2025–26 season due to financial issues. However, the club was dissolved following the scandal.[2]
The club held the record for the total number of seasons (66) and consecutive seasons (18, from 1947–48 to 1964–65) in Serie B, which they won four times. Their best finish in Serie A came in the 2000–01 season when they placed eighth. At the beginning of the 21st century, led by 1993 Ballon d'Or winner Roberto Baggio, the club also qualified for the UEFA Intertoto Cup twice, reaching the final in 2001 but being eliminated on the away goals rule by Paris Saint-Germain. During this era, Pep Guardiola, former FC Barcelona captain and later a highly decorated manager, and Andrea Pirlo, a product of Brescia Calcio's youth sector who went on to win numerous trophies with AC Milan and Juventus, also played for the club.
The team was founded in 1911 as Brescia Football Club, joining the Terza Categoria division the same year. In 1913, Brescia was promoted to the First Division for the first time. Founding members of Serie A in 1929-30, Brescia would play there for six of the next seven seasons. The club have since fallen out of the top two divisions only three times: in 1938, when they spent a single season in Serie C; in 1982, when they spent three seasons there; and 2025, after a controversial administrative relegation for alleged financial infringements. As of 2025, only 11 Italian clubs have played fewer seasons outside the top two divisions of Lega Calcio than Brescia (four)[citation needed], and no club has spent more seasons in Serie B than Brescia (66)[6].
1940–41 Brescia team
Brescia won the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1994, the biggest achievement in their history to date. The club gained greater prominence in 2000 after signing former FIFA World Player of the YearRoberto Baggio, who led Brescia to a seventh-place finish in the 2000–01 season, thus qualifying for the UEFA Intertoto Cup. Brescia then reached the finals, where they lost to Paris Saint-Germain via the away goals rule, drawing 0-0 away in the first leg[7] and 1-1 at home in the second leg[8]. Baggio spent four years at Brescia before retiring in 2004, during which time Brescia became widely known as "Baggio's Brescia"[citation needed]. During Baggio's four-year spell with Brescia, the club recorded its longest stay in Serie A; in the very first season after Baggio's retirement (2004–05), Brescia were relegated on the final day. They returned after beating Torino 2-1 on aggregate in the 2009–10 . In the 2010–11 season, however, they were relegated back to Serie B. In the 2014–15 season, they were relegated to Lega Pro after finishing second from last. However, after Parma's declaration of bankruptcy and demotion to Serie D, Brescia was among the teams selected to replace them in Serie B.[9] A new promotion to Serie A was secured in the 2018–19 season, with two games to spare,[10] but the team got relegated in the next season.[11]
In the 2024–25 season, Brescia avoided relegation places in Serie B by one point, yet they finished with a four-point deduction and subsequently declared bankruptcy after their president, Massimo Cellino, failed to settle approximately €3 million in debts.[12] However, on 7 June 2025, Brescia announced that it would not participate in the 2025–26 Serie C season, due to ongoing financial strain.[13]
Colours and badge
The traditional home kit
Colours and kit
The first Brescia kit in 1911 was blue (the national colour) with a thick white vertical stripe down the middle, a design which returned for the club's centenary season in 2011. The first appearance of a white "V" was in 1927, added so that the team could use Stadium, the newly built home of another team, Virtus. This style remained until 1940 when the "V" was removed and a plain blue shirt was used.
Substantial changes after World War II saw the shirt become plain white with blue shorts. This was short-lived and, in 1954, the plain blue shirt returned. The white "V" also returned eventually in 1961 as a show of goodwill by the new chairman at the time.
The "V" disappeared again in 1969, replaced by a diagonal white sash, then returned, but much smaller, in 1974 for two years. The "V" was situated over the heart with the inclusion of the lioness, the symbol of the city of Brescia. The shirt remained plain blue until 1991, when the "V" returned and has been used ever since.[14]
Badge
The first badge appeared on Brescia kits in the 1980s; a blue crest with a golden outline featuring a lion. The city of Brescia is known as Leonessa d'Italia (the Lioness of Italy) after ten days of popular uprising that took place in the city in the spring of 1849 against Austrian rule.
The crest was changed for the centenary of Brescia Calcio in 2011, incorporating a gold shield and laurel branches to celebrate the club's 100th anniversary, and updating the lettering to use a font in the style of the period when the team was founded. The lion was also updated in order to fix some errors in heraldic iconography (the absence of nails, muscle weakness and weak curvature of the tail), and to create a more toned and ferocious look.[15]
Seasons
1913/14 – North League Qualifying round Group E 5th place
1914/15 – North League Qualifying round Group E 3rd place
The first ground at which football was played in Brescia was Campo Fiera, where, in 1905, the English workers at the Tempini plant played on their breaks.
In 1911, in the wake of enthusiasm following the foundation of the new club, a fenced ground was built shortly after on Via Milano.[16]
In 1920 came the opening of the new ground on Via Cesare Lombroso, Brescia, which was used by the team until 1923. In 1923, the team moved into a larger, more modern facility located at Porta Venezia (then Via Naviglio), built for the town's sports club Virtus and simply called "Stadium".
It was in 1956 that the municipality had the idea to move the club to a stadium more suited to host Serie B matches, and began renovating the stands at the existing ground at Via Giovanni Novagani. This was completed in 1959 and Brescia began to play their home games in the newly-christened Stadio Mario Rigamonti (named after the Torino player, Mario Rigamonti, who died in the Superga air disaster).
Over the years, the stadium has undergone several refurbishments (construction of roofing, press room, etc.), the most significant of which was in 2007 with the installation of new security measures.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
