History
The club was founded May 21, 1998 when entrepreneur Itair Machado, who is a former player for Atlético Mineiro and Cruzeiro, and at the time was the sponsor of Social Futebol Clube, which is a club located in Coronel Fabriciano city (a neighbor city of Ipatinga), with the support of Gercy Mathias, who was the president of the amateur club Novo Cruzeiro Futebol Clube, located in Ipatinga's neighborhood of Novo Cruzeiro; Cosme Mattos, former sportsman; Doctor Rinaldo Campos Soares, president of Sistema Usiminas; Doctor Ronaldo Monteiro de Souza, president of Usisaúde, and Francisco Carlos Delfino (also known as "Chico Ferramenta"), then mayor of Ipatinga. Together, they professionalized Novo Cruzeiro Futebol Clube and renamed the club as Ipatinga Futebol Clube.
After establishing a team of professional players the administrators entered the team to the state championship where the team came in second place in the second division in 1998. In the following year, the team competed in the first division, coming in second place in the 2nd Module of the division. As a result, in 2000 Ipatinga Futebol Clube played against the state's elite teams throughout the 1st Module of the first Division, ending the competition in fourth place.
Seven years after its foundation, the team won the state title in 2005, beating Cruzeiro and finished as runner-up of the competition in the following year. In 2006, Ipatinga competed in the Copa do Brasil, which is the second most important national competition in Brazil. By reaching the semifinals, the team beat Botafogo and Santos, respectively the champions of that year's (2006) Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo state championships. However, Ipatinga was eliminated by Flamengo, of Rio de Janeiro, in the semifinals. Shortly after the competition was over, three players and the coach of Ipatinga transferred over to Flamengo. In 2006, the club also finished in Campeonato Brasileiro Série C's third position, thus being promoted to the following year's Brazilian Championship Second Level. After being runner up in 2007's Campeonato Brasileiro Série B, Ipatinga gained promotion to the elite of Brazilian football in 2008's Série A.
In 2008 Ipatinga was relegated twice in the same season, first on the State Championship and then on the Série A. In the following years the club had mixed results, with eventual good campaigns in some championships followed by relegations in others. In 2012, with a severe financial crisis and losing the support of Ipatinga`s population, the club decided to move to Betim, changing its name to Betim Esporte Clube.
Read more about this topic: Ipatinga Futebol Clube
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