An Italian club gets promoted every year a Pope dies: Is it really true?

Unione Sportiva Avellino 1912, football club in Campania, Italy, has a curious and somewhat upsetting history regarding promotions in Italian football... and death of Popes. After Pope Francis died on Monday, a story has been circulating that Avellino always gets a league promotion when a Pope dies. Is it true?

For the most part, yes. Every year a Pope has died, Avellino has earned promotion to a higher league in Italy. But not the other way around (not every time that Avellino has been promoted a Pope has died). Thankfully.

Brief history of Avellino's promotions and deaths of Popes

Although Italian football has changed the structure and names of its football divisions a lot in the last century, Avellino's first "promotion" happened in 1930, when they jumped from Third to Second Division, although that happened due to Neapoli's renunciation. No Pope died in 1930. Avellino has also been relegated and then promoted back several times due to legal or administrative reasons, like in 1950 - no Pope died that year, either.

In 1959, however, they were automatically admitted to Serie C, apparently for reasons of geographical representation. That year, Pope Pius XII died. The following four years, Avellino jumped back and forth from Serie C and D. No Pope died in 1961, but in 1963 Pope John XXIII died, the year that Avellino was promoted back to Serie C, where it would remain for nearly a decade, until 1973, where it was promoted to Serie B (no Pope died last year).

1978 was an awful year at Vatican, with the deaths of Paul VI and John Paul I 40 days later. That year was the best for Avellino, as they were promoted for the first time to Serie A, where they would remain ten years.

Avellino fell back to Serie B and later to Serie C and C1, and only got back to Serie B in 2003. Then back to Serie C1 in 2004, and back to Serie B in 2005, the year John Paul II died. As you can see, not every year that Avellino gets promoted a Pope dies, so Francis' successor will not need to keep an eye to this Italian club's luck.

The curse has some flaws, however, as Benedict XVI didn't die in 2013, simply resigned (that year Avellino were promoted to Serie B). Benedict XVI died in 2022, and Avellino was not promoted that year.

However, it is certainly disturbing that Pope Francis died just two days after Avellino confirmed their latest promotion to Serie B with a 2-1 victory to Sorrento. And just a few months earlier, Pope Francis, who was a football fan, visited the club, blessing and signing the club's shirt...