Genoa Cricket and Football Club (IPA: [‘dʒɛnoa], pronounced JEH-noa) is a professional football club based in the city of Genoa in Italy. Although the athletics and cricket club was founded in 1893 by Englishmen, the footballing section of the club was opened in 1896 by James Richardson Spensley making it the oldest of its kind still active in Italy.
In their history Genoa have won the Italian Football Championship nine times, the first of which was 1898 during the competition’s inaugural season, the last time they won the league was in 1924. They have also won the Coppa Italia once. Historically, Genoa are the fourth most successful club in Italian football. However, they are the fourth most successful in terms of championships won, even though they won these championships in the “pioneering age” of Italian football, – their last success dating back to 1924. The club currently play in the top league of Italian football; Serie A.
The club has played at Stadio Luigi Ferraris (which has a capacity of 36,541) since 1911, the stadium is shared (since august 1946) with crosstown rivals Sampdoria. Since the 1960s, Genoa have often bounced between Serie A and Serie B. In the 2006-2007 season the club competed in Serie B after spending a season in Serie C1 because of a match-fixing scandal, and obtained promotion to Serie A. The 2007-08 campaign for Genoa will be the first in the Italian top division since 1995.
Source: Wikipedia