Formed: 1926
Nickname: Viola (Purples)

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• European Champion Clubs' Cup: (1957)
• UEFA Cup: (1990)
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1961; (1962)

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 2 (1969)
• Italian Cup: 6 (2001)

History
• Associazione Calcio Fiorentina were founded by the merger of Club Sportivo Firenze and Palestra Ginnastica Libertas, as Florence sought to provide a challenge for domestic honours. Coached by the Hungarian Károly Csapkay, they wore red and white before adopting the familiar purple in 1928. Three years later they were in Serie A.

• The Viola were soon established in the upper echelons of Italian football, and in 1940 they began gathering a trophy haul befitting that status: beating Genoa CFC in the Coppa Italia final. Their maiden Scudetto came in 1955/56, Fulvio Bernardini guiding them there with five games to spare, and the following season Fiorentina became the first Italian team to contest a European Champion Clubs' Cup final, losing 2-0 to Real Madrid CF.

• It was the precursor to a memorable decade. In 1960/61 the Viola claimed the Coppa Italia and beat Rangers FC 4-1 over two legs to capture the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. They came close to defending that European title only to come unstuck in the final replay against Club Atlético de Madrid, but three years later they won another Coppa Italia. Despite the subsequent departure to AC Milan of Kurt Hamrin – scorer of 151 goals for the club – coach Bruno Pesaola guided Fiorentina to a second Scudetto in 1968/69.

• In 1975, with Giancarlo Antognoni the fulcrum, Fiorentina won the Coppa Italia again though, losing the 1989/90 UEFA Cup final to Juventus, it was 21 years before the Viola's next title. Inevitably it came in the Coppa Italia as Gabriel Batistuta scored in either leg of the final against Atalanta BC.

• Another Coppa Italia followed in 2000/01 but a year later Fiorentina were in Serie C2 – the fourth tier – following bankruptcy. The only player to remain at the club in its new incarnation was Angelo Di Livio. Helped by him and new ownership in the shape of the Della Valle family, they returned to grace almost as quickly as they had lost it and since Cesare Prandelli's 2005 appointment, Fiorentina have gone from strength to strength.

Club records
Most appearances, Serie A: Giancarlo Antognoni (341)
Most goals, Serie A: Gabriel Batistuta (152)
Record victory: 8-0 v US Sestrese Sestri Ponente (Coppa Italia, 26 December 1935)
Record defeat: 0-11 v Juventus (First Division, 7 October 1928)

* Last updated on 1 January 2010