Athletic Club Ajaccio (Corsican: Athletic Club Aiacciu), commonly referred to as AC Ajaccio, ACA or simply Ajaccio, is a French association football club based in the city of Ajaccio on the island of Corsica. The club was founded in 1910 and plays in Ligue 1. The club president is Christian Leca, and the first-team is coached by manager Olivier Pantaloni, following the sacking of Christian Bracconi in October 2014. Ajaccio play their home matches at the Stade François Coty and are rivals with fellow Corsican club Bastia, with whom they contest the Corsica derby (Derby Corse).
Based on the sources, it is believed that Ajaccio was first played in 1909-2010. The colors they chose to play with are white and red stripes. While they were playing in the stadium that was originally used as a sand pit the club decided to move to a safer, more clean stadium on the advice by Jean Lluis, father-in-law of the club's the president Louis Baretti. The stadium selected could hold 5,000 people and was operational from 1969 onwards.
AC Ajaccio were elected Corsican champions eight times, in 1921, 1920, 1934 (1939) 1948, 1950 and 1964. They are among the three major "island" teams alongside Gazelec Ajaccio, and Bastia the rivalry between the three teams being kept in the open. Fans at the 1946 Corsican Cup final, held between A.C.A. in addition to Sporting Bastia were handed umbrellas to keep them safe from violence. After refusing to award the penalty that would be awarded to ACA and Sporting Bastia, violence broke out between the fans who used umbrellas to create violence and to protect themselves from harm. The match was cancelled and replayed later.
A.C.A. was made a professional team in 1965, thanks to the determination of the club's leadership. They first adopted the emblem for the Polar Bear however, this was later removed in favor of the more stylised logo which incorporates a portion from the Corsican flag.
The team was formed in 1967. club was an initial Corsican club to compete in the top division of France. They last played at the top of Ligue 1 in the 2013-14 season, but were dismissed following their last finish after a period of more than three years in the highest division The drop was confirmed when they lost to their neighbours Bastia.
On November 14, 2014 Olivier Pantaloni returned for another spell as manager. The team finished third in 2017-18, and qualified for play-offs. In the play-offs, they defeated Le Havre in a semi-final that was marred by violence both on and off the field and then lost in the final against Toulouse. They were not promoted in 2019-20, when the season was cut short by ten games because of the coronavirus pandemic; Ajaccio were one point from the top two teams, which were the only team to be promoted because the play-offs were not able to be challenged.
As per detail below.
As of 11 July 2022.
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As of 12 October 2020.
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Division 2 (Second Division)
Championnat National (Third Division)
Ligue de Corse (Corsican League)