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Background

MAPEI is an Italian company founded in 1937 by Rodolfo Squinzi in Milan, Italy. It evolved from a small wall paint producer into a worldwide producer of adhesives, thinsets and sealants for buildings (building materials).

MAPEI stands for "Materiali Ausiliari Per l'Edilizia e l'Industria",

In the 1930s Rodolfo Squinzi founded MAPEI as a small family business in Milan, Italy, with the intent to fill a void in the local construction industry by manufacturing interior and exterior paints and masonry repair products for commercial buildings, hospitals and airports. MAPEI commenced business on February 12, 1937, with a three-person workforce.

Under Squinzi's guidance, MAPEI expanded its manufacturing to adhesives for laying floors and floor coverings. The company's first adhesives were for linoleum, later followed by ceramic tile, stone, carpet, PVC and wood. As the flooring industry grew, especially the Italian ceramic tile market, MAPEI recognized a need for setting materials that would make tile installation faster and more secure, and developed products accordingly.

Rodolfo's son, Ing. Giorgio Squinzi, an industrial chemistry graduate, now heads MAPEI, which has become a leading manufacturer of mortars, adhesives, grouts, sealants, waterproofing agents, additives for concrete and other specialty products for the building industry. MAPEI remains a family-owned and -operated business and is a privately held entity generating annual revenues of more than one billion euros.

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Sports

Giorgio Squinzi, the CEO of Mapei Group, which oversees worldwide operations, is a fan of road bicycle racing and under his leadership the company sponsored the highly successful Mapei cycling team in the 1990s, which included stars such as Tony Rominger, Abraham Olano, Johan Museeuw, Frank Vandenbroucke, Andrea Tafi, Michele Bartoli and Paolo Bettini. The company also sponsored a development team which nurtured the younger generation of riders such as 3-time world time trial champion Michael Rogers, Fabian Cancellara, Filippo Pozzato, and many others.

To increase the sport support, the company founded the Mapei Sport Center, a training center for endurance sports. Mapei also was a primary sponsor of NASCAR driver/owner Robby Gordon for several races for the 2007 NASCAR schedule. During the 2008 Sprint cup season Mapei sponsored the #7 of Robby Gordon at Kansas Motor Speedway. In 2009, Mapei will be the sponsor of the #7 Toyota driven by Robby Gordon in Phoenix, Daytona, Kansas, and Texas and also provided sponsorship on his #7 Dodge in the 2012 Daytona 500.

Mapei also owned and sponsored Italian football team U.S. Sassuolo Calcio, currently (as of 2016-17 season) playing in Italy's Serie A. Mapei appointed Carlo Rossi as the chairman of the football club as in 2016–17 season.

Mapei was a major sponsor of the 2015 UCI Road World Championships in Richmond, Virginia, and of the 2016 UCI Road World Championships in Doha, Qatar.

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U.S. Sassuolo Calcio

Unione Sportiva Sassuolo Calcio is an Italian professional football club based in Sassuolo, in the province of Modena. Their colours are black and green, hence the nickname "neroverdi".

Founded in 1920, Sassuolo have played in Serie A from the 2013–14 season, joining a select group of teams not belonging to a provincial capital city: Empoli, Legnano, Pro Patria, Carpi and Casale.

In the 2012–13 season, under the guidance of new head coach Eusebio Di Francesco, Sassuolo won the Serie B title, thus achieving direct promotion to Serie A and ensuring a first top-flight campaign ever for the 2013–14 season.

Towards the end of January 2014, Sassuolo were in bottom place and so manager Di Francesco was relieved of his duties and Alberto Malesani was brought in. The managerial change did not have the desired effects and so in early March, Sassuolo re-entrust the side to the management of Di Francesco. Sassuolo won its away match against Fiorentina 4–3 on 6 May 2014, and after winning 4–2 against Genoa on 11 May, Sassuolo guaranteed its place in Serie A for the 2014–15 season. Berardi finished in equal 7th place in the Serie A top scorers list, with 16 goals for the season.

The Neroverdi had a much better 2014–15 Serie A season, finishing comfortably beyond relegation in 12th place. Berardi was once more the club's top goalscorer with 15 league goals.

Sassuolo improved again in the 2015–16 Serie A season, finishing ahead of the likes of Milan and Lazio in sixth place. The season included an opening day win over Napoli, a Round 10 1–0 victory over Juventus at Mapei Stadium and a 1–0 victory over Inter at the San Siro.

On 21 May 2016, Sassuolo achieved their first ever Europa League qualification after finishing sixth in Serie A courtesy of a Juventus Coppa Italia win over Milan as Milan would have gone to Europe instead if they had won the final. On 25 August 2016, Sassuolo qualified for the Europa League group stage after beating out Red Star Belgrade 4–1 on aggregate in the playoff round.