AC Fiorentina - Stadio Artemio Franchi - Capacity: 47,232 All Seater
The Stadium – Stadio Artemio Franchi Viala Manfredo Fanti 4
When the Tuscan sun shines on a lazy Sunday afternoon, there can be few better places to watch football than in the uncovered seats of the Artemio Franchi. The stadium is quite strange in design with two single tier stands that run the length of the pitch, but the stands behind the goal where the Ultras are located, are set back in a curve, meaning the views from here low down are not ideal.
The main stand – the Preferencia are covered, whilst the rest of the stadium is exposed to the elements. The stadium hosted three group games in the 1990 World Cup Finals as well as the infamous quarter final tie between a Maradona inspired Argentina and Yugoslavia. The Florence hardcore fans are located in the Curva Fiesole.
Who Plays There? No team can claim to have a more turbulent recent history than the Viola. Forced to begin again at the lowest level of Italian Professional football in the early part of the 2000’s, the club managed to climb their way up the pyramid structure, finishing in a Champions League spot at the end of the 2006 season, only to find themselves relegated due to the Match Fixing investigation during the summer of 2006. The gods must have been smiling on them though as on appeal, the FIGC decided to re-instate the Tuscans albeit with a huge points penalty, and relegate their arch rivals Juventus.
The original club were formed in 1909, adopting the original purple from the city’s coat of arms. For the first thirty years in their history, the club slowly rose up the divisions until they reached the top division in the 1930’s. In 1940 during the war years they won their first trophy by capturing the Italian Cup. The “purple” period in the clubs history started in 1956 when the team won their first Serie A title, and qualifying for one of the first ever European Cup finals. After an impressive run to the final, including victories over Grasshoppers and Red Star Belgrade the Tuscans met the team of the decade Real Madrid, losing 2-0. Another Italian Cup came in 1960, and this time their subsequent European adventure went one better than in 1957 when they beat Glasgow Rangers over two legs in the inaugural European Cup Winners Cup. At the end of this successful decade the team won the Championship for the last time, although a Quarter Final defeat to Celtic didn’t do the team justice. So the team start 2006/07 with a mountain to climb, but with quality up front in Luca Toni and Adrian Mutu nothing is impossible.
How to get to the Artemio Franchi The stadium is located out to the east of the city centre, around a 20 minute walk from the historic central area. There is a very convenient train station, Campo di Marte, located a five minute walk away from the ground. Trains run on a matchday from the central Santa Maria Novella station four times an hour. Remember to buy a ticket for the journey as the police check all passengers getting off the train at Campo di Marte.
For a more detailed view on who plays where in Italy, go to Footiemap.com to look at their excellent Italian football website.
How to get a ticket for the Artemio Franchi In the 2005-2006 season new laws have been introduced to help fight violence in football stadiums. Tickets are supposed to be issued to named individuals, upon provision of address and ID. The application of these laws is causing a headache for everyone, and as we write most clubs still haven't organised their online ticket sales or published guidelines for purchase. Some interpretations mean you need to buy your ticket in advance (with no sales on matchday at the stadium) upon presentation of ID, address and maybe even an Italian tax code. This seems to us to discriminate more against the innocent (like the overseas fans who turn out in force for Italian fixtures), than the guilty. Overseas fans buying tickets online will have been used to providing their details anyway, but now it is likely that full details are required for each member of your party. If you can't buy tickets online before your trip, purchase them as soon as you arrive in Italy. Hotels can sometimes be good sources of advice. Make sure everyone in your group takes their ID (passports are best) with them when you collect your ticket, and to the football ground.
Watching football in Florence can be very hit and miss. Some games will sell out for no apparent reason, whilst often the visits of AC Milan or Inter often have thousands of seats unsold. One thing is for sure that the games versus Juventus are a sell out. Where as in most grounds around Italy, the local Juventus fans come out in force to support their team as away fans, in Florence the story is very different. Juventus are the sworn enemy of Fiorentina, a rivalry that has gone back many years and been fuelled by a number of events, including the controversial title deciding game of 1982 and the transfer of Roberto Baggio in 1990. Tickets for most games go on sale from the ground (counter 16 at the stadium) from ten days before the game as well as from a couple of local bars – including Stadio in Via de Manfredo Fanti. The club’s website http://www.acffiorentina.it has details of forthcoming games and occasionally allows you to buy tickets online, which can then be collected from one of the booths on the north side of the stadium on a matchday. Ticket prices range from an astronomical €130 for a seat in the covered Tribuna D’Onore to €18 in the Curva Ferrovia. A good bet for the neutral is a set on the open Maratona Laterale which costs €28. On a sunny Tuscan afternoon this is an excellent place to watch the action for, and even for a half-time snooze!
Around the Artemio Franchi The stadium is located in a residential area of the city, and has a few good football themed bars in the area including Stadio in Via de Manfredo Fanti and Marisa in Via Carnesecchi. The stadium is also located close enough to the city centre to have a few good watering holes on the walk from the city centre.
Pisa is one of Ryanair’s European hubs, with flights daily to London Stansted, Dublin, Eindhoven, Hamburg and Frankfurt Hahn amongst others. Ryanair have at least 3 flights each way per day. The airport is located around 1 ½ km from the city centre. If you can’t get a train then there is a regular city bus route 1 runs every 20 minutes to the main station and in to the Field of Miracles.
The small and compact Amerigo Vespucci airport is located 4km to the north of the centre of Florence. A taxi from the airport takes around 15 minutes and costs €15. A regular bus service runs between the airport and the Santa Maria Novella railway station. The only airline that uses this small airport from the UK is Meridinia who fly daily from London Gatwick.
The Stadium – Stadio Artemio Franchi