1996-97, AC Fiorentina opened the season by defeating Milan 2–1 in the Italian Super Cup after two goals from Gabriel Batistuta. the Viola were the first to win the Super Cup after having triumphed in the Italian Cup. The lily team only finished ninth in the league, remaining out of the European cups.
The home shirt was largely the same as last season, apart from the stripes on the collar and the numbers being of a different type. The white fields on the pants were also slightly different compared to last season. The away shirt was white with purple stripes on the sleeves and the red third shirt was the same as last season except the collar was purple. For the matches in the Cup Winners' Cup, the symbol of the sponsor logo Sammontana had been removed so that only the text remained and the text Reebok had also been removed from the shirt manufacturer's logo. In the semi final against Barcelona, however, the same shirts as in the league were used.