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8th June 2025
11:59am BST
A 114-year-old Italian football club has gone bankrupt and faces expulsion from professional leagues in Italy.
For many football fans out there, Brescia won't be an uncommon name to hear, but sadly it might get rarer and rarer as the club looks set to disappear after falling on financial difficulties.
Massimo Cellino owned Leeds between 2014 and 2017 and has owned Brescia since he sold Leeds in 2017.
A troubled tenure at the Yorkshire club saw fan protests and much discontent.
Meanwhile, in his native Italy, Cellino looks ready to let Brescia be confined to the history books as he has reportedly decided not to pay the €3m (£2.5m) required to settle the club’s debts.
This decision hasn't gone down great with players and fans with captain Dimitri Bisoli writing on Instagram: "114 years of history trampled on, but Brescia is not Cellino. Brescia is us, and it will never die."
Meanwhile La Gazzetta dello Sport wrote: "Massimo Cellino deliberately killed Brescia. He decided not to register the club. Period."
Due to not paying their debt, the club was unable to register in Serie C, after being relegated from Serie B last season.
The club will now play in amateur leagues.
They certainly won't be the first Italian to take this route with Napoli, Fiorentina and Palermo experiencing similar hardships.
Brescia have played 23 seasons in Serie A and some of the game's greats have donned their shirt such as Roberto Baggio, Alessandro Altobelli, Pep Guardiola, Andrea Pirlo, Luca Toni, Gheorghe Hagi, Luigi Di Biagio, Marek Hamšík, Rodrigo Palacio, Mario Balotelli, Roberto De Zerbi, and Alessandro Matri.
