Como 1907 () is an Italian professional football club based in Como, Lombardy, that competes in Serie A, the top flight of the Italian football system. Founded in 1907 as Como Foot-Ball Club, the team traditionally plays in royal blue and has hosted home matches at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia since 1928. The club was acquired in 2019 by the Hartono brothers (Robert Budi Hartono and Michael Bambang Hartono) through Djarum Group. Minority shareholders in the club include head coach Cesc Fàbregas and former international footballer Thierry Henry.
Como made its top-tier debut in the 1913–14 Prima Categoria and remained in the top division until its relegation in 1922. During the 1930–31 Prima Divisione season, head coach Gedeon Eugen Lukács guided the team to promotion to Serie B; Como went undefeated throughout both the regular season and the promotion play-offs, scoring 90 goals and conceding 24 in 32 matches.
In the 2000s, severe financial distress led to consecutive relegations for the club. Como was declared bankrupt in 2004 and excluded from professional league participation. Re-established in Serie D—the top level of non-professional Italian football—the club spent three seasons in the division before earning promotion to Serie C2 in 2007. Following another bankruptcy in 2016, a new corporate entity refounded the club in 2017, re-entering competition in Serie D.
Under the ownership of the Hartono brothers—ranked among the world's wealthiest individuals by Forbes and the richest owners in Italian football—the club climbed back to Serie B before securing promotion to Serie A in 2024, ending a 21-year absence from the top flight. Como finished 10th in their return season. In the 2025–26 season, the club placed 4th, securing qualification for European competition for the first time since participating in the 1980–81 Mitropa Cup and earning its debut appearance in the UEFA Champions League.
History Foundation and early years
The club was founded on 25 May 1907 as Como Foot-Ball Club, by a committee of members gathered at the Taroni bar, located in the central Via Cinque Giornate, the first headquarters of the club. In the first years after its foundation, Como played friendly matches and local tournaments, competing against teams from Milan and Switzerland. On 1 October 1911, the club took part in the inauguration of the Campo via dei Mille by playing in a friendly match, defeating Bellinzona 3–1. Como then used the ground to host their home matches for the next few years.
In 1912, after merging with the student club "Minerva", the club participated in the qualification for entry into the Prima Categoria. On 20 October, in the first round, Como were beaten 3–1 by Savona in Turin. The club was registered in the Lombardy Promozione group, and played its first match on 17 November 1912, a 5–0 win over Brescia at Campo via dei Mille. Their first appearance in top-flight competition came in the 1913–14 Prima Categoria season, after the team was invited to join, and remained there until 1922.
In 1927, Como merged with Esperia and was renamed Associazione Calcio Comense, which won the Coppa Volta in the same year, eliminating Inter 3–0 in the semi-final and beating Genoa 1–0 in the final. In the following year, the club moved their home ground to Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia. The stadium was inaugurated on 30 July 1927. Como secured their illustrious history in the 1930–31 Prima Divisione, as led a victorious promotion to Serie B, finishing unbeaten in both the regular season and the play-offs of the Prima Divisione, scoring 90 goals in 32 matches and conceding only 24 goals. The following year, in their first experience of Serie B, Como avoided relegation, finishing in ninth place with a young Marco Romano as their top scorer.
World War II dramatically affected the entire Italian football movement, but Como managed to bounce back. In 1945 when there was no national championship, the club won the Torneo Benefico Lombardo (Tournament for Lombard clubs) which included Milan, Ambrosiana-Inter, Novara and other Lombard clubs. After the war, Como competed in Serie B and spent three years battling for the top spot before finally being promoted to Serie A for the first time in 1949 with Mario Varglien as their coach. Como's first experience in the top division lasted four years, where in their first year, they finished in sixth position with the same points as Torino in fifth. In the following seasons, Como aroused sympathy throughout the peninsula for their choice to field only Italian players in their third year in Serie A. The club also became the sole leader of Serie A for the first time in its history when on 23 September 1951 after the third day of the 1951–52 Serie A season, one point ahead of Inter, Juventus, Milan and Napoli.
Mixed times
In the early 1960s, Como's campaign in the second division had to be stopped following the "Bessi case", a case that began at the start of the 1962–63 Serie B season when the club fielded defender Paolo Bessi for five matches, who had just been bought from Tau Altopascio without knowing that the player had not yet finished serving the disqualification sentence imposed on him by the Tuscany Regional Committee of the Lega Nazionale Dilettanti. After saving themselves on the pitch, Como were punished with five default defeats which saw them relegated to Serie C. In their first year of relegation to Serie C, the club finished third in Group A after a squad completely rejuvenated and renewed by coach Vinicio Viani, with Bruno Ballarini and Giovanni Invernizzi remaining the club's mainstays. After four years in Serie C, promotion finally came in the 1967–68 season when the team finished top of Group A under coach Franco Viviani and still led by historic captain Bruno Ballarini, Como's record appearance holder in the competitive matches.
In the 1973–74 season, following the arrival of Giuseppe Marchioro as coach, Como again fought for promotion with a solid defense of Antonio Rigamonti and Vito Callioni, but the team could only finish in fourth place. The following season, still managed by Marchioro and with the contribution of rising star Marco Tardelli, a second promotion to Serie A arrived, but the team lasted only a season before being relegated back to Serie B. After being relegated to Serie C1 in 1978, Como were once again coached by Marchioro supported by sporting director Lamberti, immediately gaining two consecutive promotions by winning Serie C1 in the 1978–79 season and Serie B in the 1979–80 season with Adriano Lombardi as their best player. They then remained in Serie A for two seasons.
Como managed another promotion to the top flight in 1984, with a five-year stint in Serie A proving to be the club's most successful period. The strikeforce of Dan Corneliusson and Stefano Borgonovo oversaw a 9th-place finish in 1986, which was repeated the following year with far fewer goals scored. The club's defence, led by hard man Pasquale Bruno, proved more than up to the task. Two consecutive relegations to C1 in the 1990s led to a poor decade for Como, who found themselves floating for most of the 1990s in Serie C1. The only exception to those poor years was when they managed to gain promotion to Serie B in the 1994–95 season. Como also won the 1996–97 Coppa Italia Serie C, beating Nocerina in the two-legged final with an aggregate score of 4–2.
Bankruptcy and brief promotion to Serie B The 21st century saw Como experience a brief revival. Promotion to Serie B in 2001 was marred by an appallingly violent incident in a game against Modena, resulting in captain Massimiliano Ferrigno being handed a three-year ban. They nonetheless managed promotion to Serie A in the 2002–03 season; however, the return to Serie A proved a major disappointment with the side in the bottom two all season, and a ban on games at the Sinigaglia after crowd violence. Consecutive relegations have caused financial difficulties; in December 2004 the club was declared bankrupt. No investor was successful in taking over the club as the bid from Enrico Preziosi was denied, and thus the company Calcio Como S.p.A. was liquidated. Due to FIGC regulations, a new entity, which was named Calcio Como S.r.l., was granted approval to compete in the 2005–06 Serie D. The liquidator also found former chairman Preziosi had transferred some assets such as the contracts of the players to his new club Genoa, causing the financial failure at Como. In the 2007–08 season, Como won Girone B of Serie D by finishing top of the group, and earned promotion to the fourth-tier, Lega Pro Seconda Divisione. In this season, the club also won the Coppa Italia Serie D after beating Colligiana by an aggregate score of 3–1 in the two-legged final. In 2009, Como finally returned to the third-tier Lega Pro Prima Divisione, by winning the promotion play-offs after defeating Rodengo Saiano with 1–1 aggregate and Alessandria with 4–1 aggregate. In 2015, Como finished fourth in the third-tier. They qualified for the promotion play-offs and earned promotion to Serie B after beating Bassano Virtus by an aggregate score of 2–0 in the two-legged final. They were relegated back down to Lega Pro the following season.
New economic problems arose in the 2016–17 season, forcing the club to be declared out of business and put up for auction. At the fourth auction, the assets of the club were acquired by Akosua Puni Essien, wife of the Ghanaian footballer Michael Essien and who is also the first foreign businesswoman in Italian football (through her company F.C. Como S.r.l.). The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) rejected the application of F.C. Como as Como's successor for the 2017–18 Serie C, as the club did not fulfill all the criteria in Article 52 of NOIF At the start of season, another company, which was named Como 1907 S.r.l., was admitted to the 2017–18 Serie D instead, excising another sub-clause of Article 52.
New ownership and return to Serie A
In 2019, the club was acquired by Indonesian tobacco company Djarum Group, led by Robert Budi Hartono and Michael Bambang Hartono, after the club won Girone B of the 2018–19 Serie D despite tobacco advertising being banned in football since 1987. Como returned to professional football that year under the ownership of the brothers, who as of 2022, earn €4 million per hour according to Forbes. From 2021 to 2024, the club was sponsored by Djarum's streaming service subsidiary, Mola. In 2021, former Chelsea player Dennis Wise was appointed CEO of the club after previously playing an advisory role since 2019. In the 2021–22 season, former club player Giacomo Gattuso was appointed as coach and managed to survive the Serie B relegation zone by finishing in thirteenth position, the club's best result in the last twenty years in the second division. That result was repeated in the 2022–23 season, with the club finishing the season in thirteenth place once again under Moreno Longo, who replaced Gattuso who had to leave the club due to personal reasons midway through the season. In August 2022, former Arsenal, Chelsea and Barcelona player, Cesc Fàbregas arrived as a minority stakeholder, while also playing for the club as a player. Another minority stakeholder is French football legend, Thierry Henry who also joined later in the month.