Calcio Catania have declared bankruptcy and as a result, the club has been excluded from the 2021-22 Serie C season.
Despite playing some exciting attacking football this season, scoring 53 goals in 34 matches, the Rossoazzurri will need to register in Serie D as a phoenix club next season.
The Italian Football Association (FIGC) officially announced the exclusion of the Sicilian side from Serie C’s Group C and that the group’s table would change accordingly.
Lega Serie C chief Francesco Ghirelli expressed his disappointment with the decision: “With great pain, I must confirm the club has been declared bankrupt and cannot continue in Serie C. This is a situation that I, as President of the League, wished I never had to deal with.”
“In this final phase, some entirely senseless proposals were put forward, leading to the most unpleasant of conclusions,” he added.
Catania will not participate in the remaining three games of this season, and the Group C table will change considerably following their exclusion. For the remaining 19 teams, all matches played against Catania will not be counted towards the standings and the goals scored and conceded in these matches will also be removed from each team’s goal differential.
Here are the updated Serie C Group C standings:
- Bari 74
- Palermo 63
- Avellino 61
- Catanzaro 58
- Monopoli 55
- Virtus Francavilla 55
- Monterosi 50
- Foggia 48
- Juve Stabia 47
- AZ Picerno 46
- Turris 43
- Campobasso 43
- Latina 41
- ACR Messina 39
- Taranto 37
- Potenza 35
- Fidelis Andria 29
- Paganese 26
- Vibonese 21
- Catania (excluded)
Catania was bought by Benedetto Mancini back in March and the Roman entrepreneur plans to revolutionize everything on and off of the pitch at the club. Mancini had previous attempts to acquire lower-league sides Latina and Rieti but negotiations for both clubs were unsuccessful.
It remains to be seen whether Catania’s new owner will be the right person to relaunch the Sicilian giant but the coming months will be crucial to sorting out the side’s significant debt and financial issues.
Catania were founded in 1946 and were last in Serie A between 2006 to 2014. They were relegated to Serie C in 2015 following bankruptcy.