Hellas Verona FC: A match day experience.
Recently, I made the short 2 hour flight from Ireland to the city of Verona for a weekend trip with my partner. As many of football fans can relate to, I frequently plan my city breaks to coincide with a game of football taking place. This gives the best scenario for me, I enjoy a city break and get to see the sights of a new enviroment and also get to experience a game in a stadium I would have seen on TV many times before.
Hellas Verona are the only active team in the city, it was not until a tour guide mentioned the other that I actually remembered this was not always the case with Chievo Verona previously being the other. They disbanded in 2021 after being expelled from the professional game due to financial reasons.
The club was founded in 1903 by a group of university students, the club was named Hellas which is the Greek word for Greece) because a classics professor within the university requested this. Later, in 1929 the club merged with two lower level city rivals Bentegodi and Scaligera to form A.C Verona hoping to become the top team in the city and in 1959 the final merging took place when they became Hellas Verona FC and stayed the same ever since.
The current logo of Hellas Verona FC is below and it is an emblem representing the essence of the city. The famous ladder of the Scala family is present.
The Scala family were a prominent Italian noble family that has its roots in Verona, a city in northern Italy. The family’s history can be traced back to the 12th century when they first emerged as a powerful force in the city’s political and economic landscape.
The Scala family’s rise to power began when they were appointed as judges in Verona, a position that allowed them to consolidate their political influence. They soon became the leading family in the city and established themselves as the rulers of Verona, a position they held for over a century.
Under the Scala family’s rule, Verona prospered both culturally and economically. The family was known for their patronage of the arts and commissioned numerous works of art and architecture, including the famous Castelvecchio fortress in Verona.
The Scala family was also known for their military prowess, and they successfully defended Verona against foreign invaders, including the powerful Visconti family from Milan. However, the family’s fortunes declined in the late 14th century when they were ousted from power by the Visconti family, who went on to establish their own rule in Verona.
Despite their downfall, the Scala family remained an influential force in Verona, and many members of the family continued to hold positions of power in the city’s government. Today, the Scala family is perhaps best known for their association with the world of Italian wine, with their vineyards producing some of the most sought-after wines in the region. Famous wines include Lugana and Amarone.
The teams main colors are yellow and blue and as a result the clubs nickname is gialloblu in Italian which means yellow and blue.
The team play in the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi with a capacity of 39,211 specators. It is the eight largest stadium in Italy by capacity and was named after the historic patron of Veronese sport Marcantonio Bentegodi who even had a team in his name as seen earlier in the first merging of clubs for Hellas Verona.
When I took the trip to Italy for the game Verona v Monza, Verona has had a poor 22/23 season and were languishing in 18th place one place from survival in Italy’s top league Serie A. They faced a Monza team who are owned by infamous Italian politician Silvio Berlusconi. The team was doing much better than Verona and were in midtable. The stadium is a short taxi from the city’s main Piazza Bra which would take 25–30 minutes walking.
A nice surprise is that you can buy alcoholic drinks of Paulinho beer for around 5 euros. Most stadiums in Europe prohibit the sale of alcohol on site.
The tickets cost 40 euro each to sit in the Poltrone Ovest section which had a nice view of the pitch and surrounds. I bought these before hand on viagogo just to avoid the hassle but it would be definately feasible to buy tickets on the day as most of the stadium was not full. Tickets were as cheap as 15 euros!. The toilets were literally a hole in the ground and were shared between men and women, not a problem for me but for any females it would no doubt be a little awkward :D. Staff were friendly and wanted to know where we were from and we definately didnt look Veronese.
The weather was lovely at 19 degrees celsius for March. The first half was poor in terms of the quality of match play but in the second half we were treated to 2 goals and the match ended in a 1–1 draw.
The highlight of such a low scoring game as football is the moment a goal is scored. The video below captures the fanfare and the stadium annoucer declaring the name of the goal scorer, a personal favourite of mine watching the way Italians celebrate.
Overall, the experience was great, I have been to Napoli for a game and I can say the Verona fans are no where near as crazy. The stadium had a real family feel to it and I would definately encourage football fans to take a visit to a game if in the city of Verona!
