Pisa S.C. After promotion to
Serie B in 1965, Pisa took three years to reach
Serie A for the first time. Pisa was relegated on the final day of the 1968–69 season. Spending much of the 1970s in Serie C, Pisa returned to Serie B in 1979 (by which time the club had come under the presidency of the much-loved
Romeo Anconetani) and were promoted to Serie A in 1982, embarking on a period of six out of nine seasons in Serie A. With Danish international
Klaus Berggreen among their stars, Pisa managed a credible 11th place in the 1982–83 Serie A with 27 points and 27 goals scored and conceded in 30 games. The following season brought relegation (during which they recorded just 3 wins and 16 draws) with 15,000 fans travelling to
Milan for the fateful penultimate game. Promotion followed in 1985, and the team seemed capable of staying up until losing their last three games. The cycle was repeated in 1987, only for a side containing players like
Dunga and
Paul Elliott to stay up. The last promotion to Serie A was achieved in 1990, and with the talents of players like
Maurizio Neri,
Michele Padovano, and
Lamberto Piovanelli up front and
Diego Simeone,
Henrik Larsen, and
Aldo Dolcetti in midfield, the side started well and was briefly atop the standings, only to suffer another relegation. Relegation brought considerable financial strains to the club, and by 1994 they had lost a relegation play-off and were condemned to
Serie C1.
Pisa Calcio Administration saw Pisa reformed in
Eccellenza, only to return to
Serie C2 in 1996 and C1 in 1999. Pisa have since worked towards attaining Serie B status, which was achieved in 2007. Their crowds have been among the better in Italy's lower divisions owing to the dedication of their fans. In May 2002
Maurizio Mian's "Gunther Reform Trust" became the owner of Pisa, installing wealthy celebrity
German Shepherd dog Gunther IV as honorary president. In the
2002–03 Serie C1 season, Pisa reached the play-off final but were defeated in
extra-time by
UC AlbinoLeffe. President Gunther would attend matches at Arena Garibaldi and
bark in support of the team. On one occasion
Rival Livorno ultras unfurled a
banner bearing the legend: "Poisoned meatballs for Gunther". After two further seasons ended in mid-table finishes, Mian sold Pisa in 2005. In 2005–06, the team, initially thought to be a protagonist for the promotion, were in continuous struggles, and avoided relegation after playoffs in two dramatic regional derbies against
Massese. The
2006–07 season, with new boss
Piero Braglia, brought Pisa back to fight for a promotion spot: the
nerazzurri ended the regular season in third place, and eventually won the promotion playoffs by defeating
Venezia in the semi-finals and
Monza in the finals. For the
2007–08 Serie B campaign, the first in 13 years,
Gian Piero Ventura was named to replace Braglia at the helm of the
nerazzurri. Despite initial predictions of a mid-low table place, Pisa's impressive performances brought the team to fight for a direct promotion spot, also thanks to a forward line composed by
Alessio Cerci,
José Ignacio Castillo and
Vitali Kutuzov which proved to be among the finest in the league. The club ended the regular season in sixth place, therefore achieving a spot to the promotion playoffs, where Pisa was later defeated by
Lecce. In 2008–09, the club was acquired by Rome entrepreneur
Luca Pomponi, who initially failed into appointing
Alessandro Costacurta as new head coach, thus confirming Ventura as
nerazzurri boss. The club, which was weakened by the departures of Cerci, Castillo, Kutuzov and several other players, did not manage to repeat its performances, with Ventura being ultimately sacked in March 2009, with the club in mid-table place. The appointment of
Bruno Giordano, which was made to improve the team results, however proved to be disappointing in terms of results, as Pisa slowly lost positions in the table, and shockingly got directly relegated in the final game of the season due to an injury-time home defeat to
Brescia which left the Tuscans in 18th place. The unexpected relegation also unveiled a number of massive financial issues which prevented the club from registering in the
Lega Pro Prima Divisione, and in July 2009 the club was excluded by the Italian Football Federation for the second time in its history.
A.C. Pisa 1909 Pisa has been refounded with the denomination of
A.C. Pisa 1909 S.S.D. (in which S.S.D. is a legal suffix required by
FIGC) to start again from
Serie D under new ownership. The team was then admitted to
Lega Pro Prima Divisione for the
2010–11 season to fill vacancies created by a row of club exclusions in second and third tier of Italian football league system. Thus the S.S.D. legal suffix was drop and replaced by
S.r.l. On 12 June 2016 Pisa gained promotion to Serie B after seven years by defeating
Maceratese (3–1),
Pordenone (3–0 on aggregate) and
Foggia in the two-legged play-off final (5–3 on aggregate), however, the club was relegated to Serie C the following season after finishing second-last.
Pisa Sporting Club Having moved back to
Serie B in 2019, the club changed back its name to
Pisa Sporting Club in the summer of 2021. Under the leadership of coach
Filippo Inzaghi, Pisa secured promotion to Serie A by finishing as runners-up in the
2024–25 Serie B season, marking a significant milestone in the club's resurgence and ending a 34-year absence from the top tier of Italian football. == Current squad ==