AC Monopoli

Monopoli is a Puglian port city with a name that misleads, since it was born from nine villages united, not from a single lord. The club was born in 1966, quickly climbed the national tiers and lived its first great cycle between the 1980s and 90s, always steady among the professionals of Serie C1 and C2. The biancoverdi colours dress the city's coat of arms, three silver roses on a red field, officially recognised in 1935 and linked by tradition to Monopoli's sworn loyalty to Frederick II, and the most visible symbol across the shirts' history has been a seagull holding a ball between its claws, the sea ever present in the identity. After refoundations and crises that are routine in provincial Italian football, Monopoli rose again in 2004/05 with a record 102 points in the Puglian Eccellenza, and returned to professional football the following decade, with the Stadio Vito Simone Veneziani continuing to be the launchpad for those dreaming of big football out of Puglia.