114-year-old Italian club Brescia goes bankrupt and faces expulsion from league

The club is owned by a former Leeds United owner

For many football fans out there, Brescia won't be an uncommon name to hear, but sadly it might get rarer and rarer as the club looks set to disappear after falling on financial difficulties.

The club is known for having had an incredible amount of legendary players down the years for a relatively small team.

Such names include Roberto Baggio, Alessandro Altobelli, Pep Guardiola, Andrea Pirlo, Luca Toni, Gheorghe Hagi, Luigi Di Biagio, Marek Hamšík, Rodrigo Palacio, Mario Balotelli, Roberto De Zerbi, and Alessandro Matri.

The club is owned by Massimo Cellino who owned Leeds between 2014 and 2017 and has owned Brescia since he sold Leeds in 2017.

A troubled tenure at the Yorkshire club saw fan protests and much discontent.

Meanwhile, in his native Italy, Cellino looks ready to let Brescia be confined to the history books as he has reportedly decided not to pay the €3m (£2.5m) required to settle the club’s debts.

La Gazzetta dello Sport wrote: "Massimo Cellino deliberately killed Brescia. He decided not to register the club. Period."

The paper cited when he first bought the club saying "Here you have become accustomed to mediocrity."

They did indeed achieve promotion after his arrival to Serie A, however, the club has been financial plagued in that period.

Due to not paying their debt, the club was unable to register in Serie C, after being relegated from Serie B last season.

The club will now play in amateur leagues.

They certainly won't be the first Italian to take this route with Napoli, Fiorentina and Palermo experiencing similar hardships.

Brescia have played 23 seasons in Serie A, however, are known for being true Serie B stalwarts, playing more seasons than any other club in Italian's second division.