Tiny Carpi, playing fifth division football only five seasons ago, completed a remarkable rise on Tuesday when they were promoted to Serie A for the first time after a 0-0 draw with Bari.
Carpi, whose Sandro Cabassi stadium holds only 4,144 people, made sure of their place with four matches to spare as they moved 12 points clear of third-placed Bologna, with a better head-to-head record. The club are based in the town of the same name, with a population of only 67,000, in the Emilia Romagna region of northern Italy.
Carpi were originally founded in 1909 although they were declared bankrupt in 1999 and re-established the following year. Their rise began in the 2009-10 season, when they were promoted out of Serie D which at the time was the fifth tier of Italian football. They also won promotion in two of the next three seasons and took part in Serie B for the first time in 2013/14, finishing 12th.
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“It’s been an extraordinary journey and I’m delighted with this promotion,” coach Fabrizio Castori, himself a journeyman who took over at the start of the season, told Sky Sport Italia. “This team has improved step by step and these lads have a great future,” he added.
There are questions over where Carpi will play next season, however, as Serie A rules require a minimum capacity of 20,000, although special exemptions are sometimes approved. In February, Lazio president Claudio Lotito caused uproar over a leaked telephone conversation in which he said that Carpi’s promotion would be a financial disaster for Serie A.
“If Carpi come up..if teams come up who are not worth lira, in two or three years we won’t have a penny,” he said.
PTI