Parma Calcio 1913 was founded in 1913 as Verdi Football Club in honor of the centenary of famous opera composer Giuseppe Verdi who was born in the province of Parma. The club adapted yellow and blue as its colours. The club played in Serie B for many years before being bought by the diary giant Parmalat in the 1980s. They promoted to Serie A, they won the 1993 UEFA Cup Winners Cup and the UEFA Cup in 1995 and 1999. Financial troubles were brought about in late 2003 by the Parmalat scandal which caused the parent company to collapse and resulted in the club operating in controlled administrationuntil January 2007. The club was declared bankrupt in 2015 and refounded in the Serie D. Parma maintains rivalries with regional and national clubs; some of these are keenly fought local derbies, “Derby dell Enza” opponents Reggiana are the club’s bitterest rivals. The ill-feeling with Reggiana comes from a traditional city rivalry between Parma and Reggio Emilia. Parma contests the “Derby dell’Emilia” with Bologna. Bologna and Parma are Emilia-Romagna’s two most decorated clubs. Two other local derbies are the “Derby del Ducati” which is contested with neighbours Modena, and the “Derby del Ducato” which is played against Piacenza.] Despite their relative obscurity, Lombardian side Cremonese and Tuscan outfit Carrarese, to Parma’s north and south, respectively, are both seen as rivals too. Juventus is considered a great rival of Parma largely due to their recent duels. Originally the club wore yellow and blue chequered shirts in honour of the city’s traditional colours, which date back to 1545 when the Duchy of Parma was established, but white shirts with a black criss on the chest were introduced after the First World War, drawing inspiration from Juventus’ colours, following a name change. After decades in the lower divisions, Parma was promoted to Serie A in 1990, where the side immediately became a major force in the battle for major trophies, on many notable occasions in direct opposition to Juventus, who would become fierce rivals of Parma’s. This rivalry and the influence of Parmalat led to the demotion of the white shirts to the away kit, so the side wore yellow and blue hooped shirts at home for six seasons between 1998 and 2004, and navy blue shirts often worn as third choice in this period. This was a time of great success for the club, thus the shirts became synonymous with Parma, often still called the Gialloblù (Yellow and Blues) today, despite a recent reversion to the traditional white shirts emblazoned with a cross caused by parent company Parmalat’s collapse and the clubs subsequent re-foundation as Parma Football Club. Yellow and blue were Parma’s traditional change colours, used in various combinations from 2004 to 2015, such as vertical stripes, hoops, crosses or as solid colour designs. Parma’s logo changed in 2005 to reflect the name change from Parma A.C. to Parma F.C., but the logo otherwise remained the same, encompassing the city colours of yellow and blue and the club’s traditional black cross set on a white background, and has not changed much in years, although it was dramatically overhauled to feature a prancing bull for one season in 2000–01 before it was criticised and discontinued in favour of the old badge. A new badge with broadly similar features was introduced for the 2014–15 season following the use of a commemorative centenary badge for the 2013–14 campaign. The newly formed club in 2015 adopted a new logo before acquiring the rights to a number of legacy items for €250,000 a year later.
