Raise your hands, those (few) of you who have ever heard about Avellino. Indeed, you must be quite aged to have witnessed this Campania-based side play in the Serie A.
And yet, the green-dressed Lupi have been a regular and welcome presence in the Italian top-flight between the end of the 1970s and the 1980s. Having made it to the Serie A in 1978, Avellino featured in the elite division for ten seasons in a row before falling back to the Serie B at the end of the 1987-88 campaign.
And even though they have not been seen in the top-flight anymore since then, the echoes of the Legge del Partenio (“Law of the Partenio”) are still fresh in the mind of fans and players who had to face Avellino at their impregnable home venue Stadio Partenio back in the days.
Whenever a team came home from Avellino empty-handed – which happened more often than one would believe even to the likes of Milan, Inter, or Juventus – it was common practice to say that they had submitted to the “Law of the Partenio”.
As one would expect, though, Avellino’s start in Serie A was not an easy one. It took four games for the Lupi to make their first full score on the elite stage of calcio.
On October 22, 1978, they received Verona at the Partenio after collecting three losses in a row in their maiden top-flight campaign. But goals from Gianluca De Ponti and Giuseppe Massa got the job done for the Biancoverdi, who could thus commence their thrilling ten-year ride in Serie A.
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