S.P.A.L, Società Polisportiva Ars Labor, are a football club from Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna.
The club was founded in 1907 as a religious and cultural entity and soon became a multi-sports club and in 1910 joined the FIGC (Italian Football Federation) with the name Ferrara Foot-Ball Club. In 1913 the sports branch left the club and formed the Società Polisportiva Ars et Labor. From 1919 the football team took the name too. Ars et Labor means "Art and Work" in Latin.
Their first official game under the new name was against Triestina on June 16 1919. They had previously played a few friendlies including one against British soldiers based in Bologna.
Between 1920 and 1925 SPAL were in the top national flight. In 1922 they reached the semi-finals but were defeated by Sampierdarenese. They were then relegated and in 1933 won the Prima Divisione and joined the newly formed Serie B.
Between then and the Second World War the Ferraresi went between Serie B and C. They however had many of their players join Serie A such as Abdon Sgarbi who would play for Italy and Mario Romani and Aldo Barbieri who went to Milan.
After the war the president was former manager Paolo Mazza and SPAL had renewed ambitions. In 1946 they returned to Serie B and in 1951 won a historic promotion to Serie A under Antonio Janni. This coincided with the opening of their renovated stadium. SPAL then finished 9th in A.
There followed the best twenty years in their history. They stayed in A until 1964 and in 1960 finished 5th, their best ever. In 1962 they reached the Coppa Italia final beating Juventus 4-1 in the semi-final but then lost 1-2 to Napoli in Rome.
In 1964 they were relegated but bounced straight back up again and stayed another three seasons. One of their best players in this period was a young Fabio Capello.
In 1968 SPAL were relegated and for the next 50 years or so went between Serie B and C and even four seasons in C2. In 1999 they won the Serie C Coppa Italia.
In 2012 due to financial problems they were docked points and ended up relegated to the 4th tier. On July 13 SPAL were excluded from the upcoming league and in March 2014 declared bankrupt.
They started up in Serie D with new owners and in 2014 joined the new unified Lega Pro (3rd tier). In 2016 they won promotion to Serie B under Leonardo Semplici and in 2017 promotion to Serie A.
They stayed in A for three seasons. In the first they finished 17th, in the second 13th but in the third were relegated, closing in 20th place. In these three seasons they had some great wins including Atalanta 2-0, Roma 2-0 away and 2-1 at home, Lazio 1-0 and 2-1 at home, Juventus 2-1 at home plus Parma three times. In the third season promotion hero Semplici was sacked towards the end and replaced by Gigi Di Biagio but as said the Estensi went down and have not been back since.
There followed three years in B but then relegation to C in 2023 (they even tried Daniele De Rossi and then Massimo Oddo as managers).
In 2023-24 SPAL finished 11th in C. Their current coach is Franceso Baldini while their owner is American lawyer Joe Tacopina.
SPAL's colours are blue and white. These were adopted by the original Salesian priests of San Giovanni Bosco. The only exception was between 1939 and 1944 when they played in the town colours of black and white. The shirts are blue and white vertical stripes. The club symbol is a fawn.
The Comunale stadium since 1982 has been called the Paolo Mazza and has a capacity of 16,134. Its maximum was about 25,000 in the 1950's. It is the fifth oldest stadium still in use in Italy.
The player with most appearances is Giulio Boldrini with 287 while the foreigner with most games is Argentine Oscar Massei with 253 and he also has most goals in Serie A (47). The absolute top scorer is Mario Romani with 130 in total, followed by Franco Pezzato with 95. On a Lazio note, current Biancoceleste Manuel Lazzari is 7th for total appearances for SPAL with 215 (2013-19).
Some famous players who have played for the Biancazzurri include, in order of time: Abdon Sgarbi, Egisto Pandolfini, Fulvio Nesti, Franco Zaglio, Beniamino Di Giacomo, Armando Picchi, Saul Malatrasi, Adolfo Gori, Fabio Capello, Ruben Buriani, Manuel Lazzari, Salvatore Esposito. Their first player to be called up for the national side was keeper Ottavio Bugatti for the 1952 Olympics where SPAL forward (and future Lazio) Alberto Fontanesi also played.
Prominent managers include: Walter Alt, Paolo Mazza, József Violak, Antonio Janni, Paolo Tabanelli, Fioravante Baldi, Luigi Ferrero, Giovan Battista Fabbri, Giovanni Galeone, Massimiliano Allegri and Leonardo Semplici.
The most important owner is obviously Paolo Mazza who was president from 1944 to 1977.
The SPAL fans are estimated to be about 121,000. The most passionate supporters sit in the East stand. Over the years there have been numerous organised fan groups but the biggest current one is the Curva Ovest Otto Settembre. They have friendly relationships with Ancona in particular plus Genoa, Perugia, Cosenza, Potenza and L'Aquila. Their rivals are mainly regional with Bologna, Reggiana, Parma, Modena, Cesena, Rimini and Ravenna but also with Vicenza, Padova, Verona, Como, Brescia, Atalanta, Triestina, Spezia and Ascoli.
SPAL are rated as the 26th club for Serie A results and 27th by the FIGC for footballing tradition.
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