Cesena

Founded in 1940, Cesena reached Serie B in 1968 and were promoted to Serie A for the first time in 1973.^[] With players such as Pierluigi Cera and Gianluigi Savoldi, the club held its own^[] and finished a respectable^[] 11th place in their debut season, repeating that finish the following year.^[] In the 1975–76 season, Cesena surprised Italy by finishing sixth and subsequently qualifying for the UEFA Cup.^[] The glory^[] was short-lived and they would be relegated the next year.^[]

A second promotion to Serie A followed in 1981 and finished a respectable^[] 10th before being relegated once more in 1983, staying in Serie B for four years.^[] After winning a play-off, they were back in Serie A for 1987–88 and enjoyed^[] a four-year stay, being obdurate enough^[] to just avoid relegation in this time.^[]

After relegation in 1991, Cesena had another chance to return to Serie A in 1994.^[] With players such as Alessandro Teodorani, Emiliano Salvetti, Luigi Piangerelli, Aldo Dolcetti, and Dario Hübner, this was a team of considerable ability.^[][] They finished level on points with Padova, however, and lost a promotion play-off which would be a bitter blow^[] for the club, who would suffer^[] relegation to Serie C1 in 1997.^[] Whilst promotion followed, a relegation play-off against Pistoiese in 2000 would see them condemned^[] to a four-year stay in the third division.^[]

In the 2005–06 Serie B, Cesena surprisingly^[][][] emerged as contenders for promotion to Serie A, ending in sixth place and being therefore qualified for the promotion play-offs.^[] They escaped relegation the following season, but not in 2007–08.^[]

Cesena's first campaign in Serie C1, now rebranded Lega Pro Prima Divisione, started with former Foligno boss Pierpaolo Bisoli as new head coach.^[] Throughout the season, Cesena quickly emerged as major contenders^[] for direct promotion, and managed to^[] take first place in the league on Week 33, with only one game remaining and a two-point advantage to challengers Pro Patria.^[] On the final week of the season, Cesena's 0–0 draw with Verona, coupled with Pro Patria's 0–0 draw with Padova, gave the bianconeri the league title and direct promotion back to Serie B, after only one season in the Italian third tier. Cesena went to as 3rd in Round 33,^[] one point behind Brescia in the 2009–10 season.^[] Cesena earned^[] their second consecutive promotion after a 1–0 victory at Piacenza and Brescia's 2–1 loss in Padua against Padova on 30 May 2010, finishing 19 years of absence from the Serie A.^[]

Serie A and B

Cesena returned to Serie A after 19 years of absence in 2010.^[] After the 2011–12 season, Cesena were relegated from the top tier to the Serie B.^[]

Since relegation Cesena also restructured their finance, which the company revered merger with intermediate holding company Cesena 1940 Srl in December 2012. The company held 98.23% shares of AC Cesena SpA. After the merger, another intermediate holding company, Opera Cesena Calcio Srl represented by Igor Campedelli (from unknown investor through Romagna Sport Srl), which previously own 65.03% shares on Cesena 1940 Srl, sold 27.6% shares of Cesena to GMG Srl, a company of Giorgio Lugaresi, who already owned 30.06% shares of Cesena 1940 Srl before the merger. On 24 April 2013 Giorgio Lugaresi was re-elected as the president of A.C. Cesena SpA. After the transactions the club also recapitalized €9.5 million during 2013–14 season in order to avoid bankruptcy, which GMG Srl through subsidiary Cesena & Co. Scarl, held 9,499,000 out of 9,500,000 shares (99.9895%) of Cesena as of 30 June 2014, with a nominal value of €1 per shares. In February 2014 Cesena was under criminal investigation for the fraud in Campedelli era. Campedelli was banned 6 months in March 2013 by FIGC.

Despite the financial difficulties, Cesena won promotion back to Serie A on 18 June 2014, winning Latina in playoffs in 4–2 aggregate.^[] In that match, most of the players (12 out of 20) were on loan from other clubs, with only 4 players were under^[] Cesena contract in starting lineup^[] (Renzetti, De Feudis, Garritano and Defrel) and 4 players on the bench (Alberto Iglio, Consolini, Rodríguez and Succi).^[] Financially, Cesena had another year of negative EBITDA in 2013–14 season, for about €11 million, if excluding windfall profit from player trading from the calculation.

In September 2016, the club and former chairman Campedelli were also sued by the prosecutor for false accounting in player-swap (Fabbri–Palumbo as well as Nagatomo–Caldirola–Garritano) Eventually the directors were inadmissible from the charge due to expiry of the legal proceeding but the club chose to plead guilty for a fine of €80,000.

In June 2018, Cesena was charged for false accounting again in the player swap with Chievo. The prosecutor request to penalize Cesena for up to 15 points, accusing the price tag in the deals were inflated. However, as Cesena was folded in 2018, the club was not penalized. An appeal to a department of Italian National Olympic Committee, stating the point deduction should be applied to 2017–18 season, causing Virtus Entella, which originally relegated in 2017–18 Serie B season, made another appeal to Tribunale Amministrativo Regionale del Lazio, for re-admission back to 2018–19 Serie B.

On 16 July 2018 Cesena declared bankruptcy and were banned from participating in 2018–19 Serie B.