Genoa Cricket and Football Club (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒɛːnoa]) is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa, Liguria. The team competes in Serie A, the top division of the Italian football league system.
Established in 1893, Genoa is Italy’s oldest existing football team. The club has won the Italian Championship nine times, with their first being Italy’s inaugural national championship in 1898, and their most recent coming after the 1923–24 season. They have also won one Coppa Italia title. Overall, Genoa are the fourth most successful Italian club in terms of championships won. Il Grifone have played their home games at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris since 1911, sharing with local rivals Sampdoria. The fixture between the two teams, known as the Derby della Lanterna, was first played in 1946.
In 2011, Genoa was included in the “International Bureau of Cultural Capitals” (a sort of historical sporting heritage of humanity, in line with that of UNESCO) at the request of President Xavier Tudela. The club was admitted to the “Club of Pioneers”, an association comprising the world’s oldest football clubs, in 2013; other members include Sheffield F.C. and Recreativo de Huelva.