Extreme Football Tourism: SAN MARINO: SS Serenissima (1969-1973) / AC San Marino (1973-1988, 1993-2000) / San Marino National Team (1986-) / Calcio San Marino (1988-1993) / San Marino Calcio (2000-2018)

San Marino Stadium / Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle (San Marino National Team, formerly SS Serenissima / AC San Marino / Calcio San Marino / San Marino Calcio)

San Marino, castello: Serravalle

October 2022 / no match visited

Timeline

1931 / Foundation of San Marino's Football Association, the so-called Federazione Sammarinese Giuoco Calcio (FSGC). For the first fifty+ years of its existence, San Marino's FA refrains from joining FIFA or UEFA, while also shunning the organisation of a domestic football league. Sammarinese clubs play their football in the lower reaches of Emilia-Romagna's non-league system.
1959 / The decision is taken by FSGC authorities to found a football club with the express goal of reaching the national level of Italy's football pyramid: Società Sportiva (SS) Serenissima. The colours chosen for the new club are the blue and white of San Marino's flag.
1960 / SS Serenissima settles at Campo Sportivo del Castello di Fiorentino, a ground in the southwestern corner of the country.
1965 / Administered by FSGC's governing body for the first six years of its existence, SS Serenissima is taken over by a group of private investors under the leadership of industrialist Carlo Tonolli.
1969 / Abandoning the pitch in Fiorentino, SS Serenissima moves into the newly built Stadio Polisportivo di Serravalle, a multisports stadium with an athletics track as well as a stand at its southwestern end. Apart from SS Serenissima, non-league clubs SC Faetano and SS Juvenes also play their home matches at the ground in Serravalle during parts of their history (but it is unclear in which years exactly).
1973 / SS Serenissima concludes a merger deal with SS Juvenes, forming Associazione Calcio (AC) San Marino. Although the merger is ultimately unsuccessful, resulting in SS Juvenes breaking away to continue as an independent club in 1976, the name SS Serenissima is never reinstated.
1985 / Organisation of San Marino's first domestic league championship; all Sammarinese teams taking part in Italian non-league make the leap to the new home league, except for AC San Marino. That same year, Stadio Polisportivo di Serravalle hosts the first edition of the Games of the Small States of Europe (GSSE), the partipants being eight of nine countries in Europe with a number of inhabitants lower than one million: Andorra, Cyprus, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, and San Marino itself; unsurprisingly, Vatican City refrains from participation. The GSSE, in which all Olympic summer sports are represented, have since been held every second year - with San Marino again taking on the organisation in 2001 and 2007. On the occasion of the first edition of the GSSE in 1985, the stadium is renamed Stadio Olimpico di Serravalle.
1986 / A San Marino national squad plays its first, non-official, international game, hosting Canada's U23 side in Serravalle. The guests from North America win the encounter 1-0. That year, FSGC takes the decision to apply for membership of FIFA and UEFA.
1988 / After two years of provisional membership, San Marino's Football Association is admitted by FIFA as well as UEFA as a full member. That same year, AC San Marino, guided by manager Gabriele Lucchi and president Germano De Biagi, manages an impressive third promotion in four seasons, climbing all the way up from Prima Categoria to Serie C2, the fourth tier of the Italian football pyramid. After the successful 1987-88 season, the club takes on a new name, Calcio San Marino.
1989 / Calcio San Marino's first season in Serie C2 ends in disappointment, as the club finishes seventeenth - resulting in relegation to the fifth division. For most of the 1990s, the club plays its football at this level.
1990 / Taking part in the Euro 1992 qualification process (1990-91), in which it is drawn in a group with Scotland, Bulgaria, Switzerland, and Romania, San Marino loses all of its eight matches. The first of these encounters, a home game against Switzerland, played in Serravalle, ends in a 4-0 defeat. With the introduction of regular international football in San Marino, the Stadio Olimpico now becomes the country's official national stadium; apart from World Cup and Euro qualifiers, the stadium also hosts the final of the Sammarinese cup, the Coppa Titano.
1993 / Drawn in a World Cup qualification group with Poland, Norway, England, Turkey, and the Netherlands, San Marino's FA takes the decision to move its home ties against the English and the Dutch to Bologna's Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, as the ground in Serravalle is deemed unsuitable to receive groups of potential hooligans. The 'home' match against England (final score 1-7) was a memorable occasion due to San Marino's Davide Gualtieri scoring 1-0 after 8,3 seconds - the fastest goal in an international game ever until the record is broken by Belgium's Christian Benteke against Gibraltar in 2017 (8,1 seconds). The home game in Serravalle against Turkey ends in a 0-0 stalemate - San Marino's first positive result in an international game ever.
2000 / AC San Marino ends in first place in Serie D Group F, resulting in a return to Serie C2 after an absence of eleven years. That summer, the club is renamed San Marino Calcio. Meanwhile, the FSGC enters a team in European football for the first time. Title holders SS Folgore/Falciano take part in the UEFA Cup, in which the club suffers defeat in the first qualifying round at the hands of Switzerland's FC Basel (12-1 on aggregate); the home tie is played in Serravalle - and henceforth, the Stadio Olimpico hosts all encounters played by Sammarinese clubs in UEFA competitions.
2003 / In a thorough renovation of Serravalle's Stadio Olimpico, a new main stand is constructed at the northeastern end of the ground - much larger than the old stand opposite, which remains in place. Completion of the works is seriously delayed due to parts of the roofing of the new stand being blown away in a heavy storm. The all-seater stadium in its new shape, with two stands, has a total capacity of 4,887.
2004 / In a friendly match at Serravalle in which San Marino entertains fellow-minnows Liechtenstein, the Sammarinese record their first-ever international victory - a 1-0 with Andy Selva scoring the only goal.
2005 / Winning the Serie C2 promotion play-offs, San Marino Calcio manages a historic promotion to Serie C1, the third tier of Italy's league pyramid. The adventure at this level lasts for two years, with relegation following in 2007.
2006 / Inauguration of the Museo dello Sport e dell'Olimpismo (Museum of Sports and the Olympics) under Stadio Olimpico's main stand. That same year, the microstate's national team suffers its biggest defeat ever, a 13-0 drubbing in a Euro 2008 qualifier in Serravalle at the hands of Germany.
2007 / SS Murata is San Marino's first representative at Champions League level; in the first qualifying round, it is defeated by Finland's Tampere United (4-1 on aggregate, with the first leg in Serravalle ending in 1-2).
2009 / As one of the first pitches worldwide, Stadio Olimpico is equipped with a hybrid surface.
2011 / On his visit to San Marino, Pope Benedict XVI celebrates mass in Stadio Olimpico in front of a gathering of 20,000.
2012 / San Marino Calcio succeeds in returning to the third tier of Italian football - meanwhile renamed Lega Pro Prima Divisione.
2013 / In its best season ever, San Marino Calcio finishes ninth in group A of Lega Pro Prima Divisione. That same year, SP Tre Penne manages a first-ever Sammarinese victory in a UEFA club championship, defeating Shirak SC 1-0 in Serravalle; however, due to the first leg in Gyumri having finished in a 3-0 defeat, the Armenian side progresses to the second qualifying round.
2014 / Minor renovation works are undertaken on the stadium, involving, most notably, the addition of several facilities for press and officials on the main stand; upon completion of the works, Stadio Olimpico di Serravalle is renamed San Marino Stadium. Also that year, after an uninterrupted losing streak of ten (!) years, San Marino's national squad avoids losing a match - managing a goalless draw against Estonia in a Euro qualifier.
2015 / After a second spell of three years in Lega Pro - and a total of five seasons at the third level of Italian football -, San Marino Calcio drops back into Serie D.
2018 / San Marino Calcio is forced out of San Marino Stadium by FSGC authorities - the main reason being the approaching U21 European Championships due to be held in 2019 in six stadiums across the northeastern half of the Italian peninsula, including Serravalle, for which works are undertaken to improve the state of the pitch. By this time, however, relations between the football association and San Marino Calcio are also at a low point - and FSGC is happy to use the U21 Euros as a pretext to rid themselves of the club. Forced by circumstances, San Marino Calcio moves its home games for the 2018-19 season to Stadio Massimo Sbrighi in Castiglione di Ravenna, over 50 km to the north of San Marino's borders.
2019 / The ownership of San Marino Calcio concludes a merger with fellow-Serie D side Cattolica Calcio. The merger club, given the name Cattolica SM, cuts its geographic ties with San Marino once and for all, as all activities move to Cattolica's Stadio Giorgio Calbi - Cattolica being a coastal resort halfway between Rimini and Pesaro, across the border in Italy. In practice, this is the end of the only Sammarinese club which spent its entire existence, before as well as after the introduction of San Marino's home league in 1985, in the Italian league system.
2020 / With the introduction of the UEFA Nations League, a biennial football competition in which all European countries are subdivided in divisions based on strength, the weakest nations on the continent are offered more possibilities to achieve positive results; yet, San Marino reinforces its reputation as Europe's weakest football nations, not managing a single win in the first two editions of the tournament - only two goalless draws, both in 2020, in an away match in Vaduz against Liechtenstein and a home tie against Gibraltar.
2021 / Refoundation of San Marino Calcio as Associazione Sportive Dilettantistica (ASD) Victor San Marino. The new club, which is placed in Eccellenza, the fifth step of Italy's football pyramid, does not play in Serravalle, but in the newly renovated Stadio di Acquaviva in Gualdicciolo.