Little-known FC Pompei were well and truly rising from the ashes as they spewed from tier-five anonymity to turning professional as they stepped up to Italy’s Serie C within four seasons. But now things reached whole new levels of difficulty as Robí Sulpicius attempted to rebuild a squad nowhere near ready for this standard of football with the ongoing threat of crippling debt.
The good news was that the promotion saw the board double the weekly wage budget to £8,400 and give the manager an £11k transfer kitty. However, Serie C requires a minimum stadium capacity of 1,500, compared to Vittorio Bellucci’s 470 capacity, but the club was able to delay expansion by a year. It also has a rule of full-time players having to be paid a minimum of £450 per week, which was nearly four times more than Pompei’s top earner in Serie D – which meant relegation would be absolutely disastrous.
Additionally, finding players who wanted to fight for the Pompei cause proved extremely challenging. The summer signings were led by striker Guglielmo Mignani, who replaces the retired Cristiano Ingretolli, young defender Filippo Penatti and former Roma left back Aboudramana Diaby. They also brought in centre backs Francesco Tiozzo and Tommaso Silvestri, midfielder Alessando di Paolantonio and young winger Andrea Russo.
Several of last year’s players remain in the first 11, including winger Matteo Malasomma who is now the best player at the club but is only considered a leading Serie D player. And, given the step up in quality, Sulpicius took a slightly more defensive approach by dropping one of his midfielders into a holding role.
A Tough Serie C Challenge
Not for the first time, Pompei faced the impossible as they entered Serie C Girone C, in which strange rules see one to three teams relegated automatically and four teams enter relegation playoffs. While up to 11 of the 20-team division go into the promotion playoffs. The bookies made Pompei relegation favourites with massive title odds of 450/1, significantly higher than Ostio Mare (50/1), Campobasso (33/1) and Virtus Francavilla and Turris (25/1). Catanzaro are title favourites at 7/5 along with Crotone, who were in Serie A as recently as 2021, (2/1) and Reggio Calabria (5/1).
Pompei’s first game in the third tier took them to Casertana and offered some promise. They defended superbly until a dodgy red card call and late 30-yard free kick saw them lose 1-0. A tougher task followed in their first game at Vittorio Bellucci at this level as favourites Catanzaro beat them 2-0. Magnani earned their first point with the equaliser at Virtus Francavilla, which ended his personal nightmare of 26 games without a goal, before a hard-earned 0-0 at home to Reggio Calabria. And they claimed their first win at Avellino, who scored inside 2 minutes, but Antonio Orefice equalised then laid on the winner for Mignani.
Damiano Campisi suffered an injury on the eve of the season but returned with a man-of-the-match performance to earn a 0-0 at home to Picerno before a 2-0 loss at 2nd-place Cavese. Mignani earned a late draw at home to Taranto before a huge game at fellow relegation favourites Ostia Mare, who were flying in 4th, and a rare goal by centre back and captain Simone Signorini earned a point. That gave them some confidence as Mignani’s strike and a strong defensive display earned a 1-0 at home to Cerignola before only losing 1-0 at Crotone.
But that began a run of five games without a win before Mignani created the opener for midfielder Michele Grande and scored the winner to defeat next-to-bottom Juve Stabia. That took Pompei into 16th place, still in the potential relegation places but only 4 points off 11th and certainly overachieving, heading into 2028.
Pompei’s First Cup Matches
The first few seasons had lacked any cup competitions but the step up to tier three saw Pompei enter the Serie C Cup with a surprise 1-0 win at Montevarchi before di Paolantonio’s first goal for the club earned a 1-0 extra-time win over Renate. They backed that up with the underperforming Malasomma scoring his first two goals of the season to down Turris 2-0 but a tired squad eventually lost 2-0 to Taranto.
Relegation Battle Goes To The Final Day
Pompei began the new year with a 2-0 loss at title-battling Catanzaro. But they responded with their most dominant Serie C performance as Orefice, a di Paolantonio free kick, a Mignani brace and Pennati’s header secured a 5-0 thumping of 19th-place Casertana. And they backed that up with another Mignani brace downing Virtus Francavilla 2-0 to lift them all the way to 12th.
A defeat at Reggio Calabria was followed by back-to-back 1-0 wins at Picerno and at home to Cavese that moved Pompei 9 points clear of relegation trouble. A tricky run followed, including a 2-0 loss at home to Crotone, but with five games remaining Pompei retained a 5-point gap to the bottom five. Pompei’s winless streak extended to 10 as they lost three games in a row 2-0 at home to Latina and Siracusa and, most worryingly, at 19th-place Juve Stabia. But the gap was only reducing to four points with two games remaining.
The struggles continued in a 1-1 at 16th-place Turris, which at least meant they couldn’t finish below 16th but took the relegation fight to the final day. Pompei faced a tricky challenge at home to 4th-place Olbia while 15th-place Avellino hosted 16th-place Brindisi.
Pompei began on the back foot and succumbed to the pressure by conceding on 19 minutes and conceded immediately after half time, while Avellino led Brindisi 2-1. They finally showed some fight as Signorini halved the deficit but fell apart and lost 4-2.
But Avellino won 3-2, which meant Pompei secured survival by 3 points as they finished in 15th place. However, they finished the season with a worrying 12-game winless streak. But, nevertheless, they secured an unfancied survival with 38 points after 8 wins, 14 draws and 16 defeats, scoring 38 and conceding 55, which was only 3 more than 3rd-place Olbia.
Relegation Successfully Avoided
Sulpicius was delighted with his team’s efforts this season, successfully avoiding the drop albeit more narrowly than he’d hoped going into the final few games. Their cause was led by Mignani, who scored 15 in 39, followed by Malasomma (5) and loanee Sasha Nardi, Grande, Orefice and de Paolantonio (3). But it was clear they needed greater attacking impetus if they were to make any improvement in Serie C.
Pompei’s overachievement saw Sulpicius offered job interviews by Serie B side Como and Frosinone, who’d just been relegated from Serie A. But the manager remained committed to the task of leading Pompei’s rise from the ashes. There were also signs of positivity off the field as, for the first time, Pompei made monthly profits courtesy of receiving TV revenue. But they still remained heavily in debt.
Could Sulpicius continue to drag overperformance out of his Pompei side to avoid a relegation fight next season? Join us next Friday to find out!
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