High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Genoa Cricket and Football Club, commonly referred to simply as Genoa (Italian pronunciation: ), is a professional Italian football club based in the city of Genoa, Liguria. Although the athletics and cricket club was founded in 1893 by Englishmen as a British sporting club abroad, whose membership was allowed to British citizens exclusively; the footballing section of the club was opened in 1897 by James Richardson Spensley making it the oldest existing club of its kind in Italy.