Scudetto

The Italian football champions (Italian: Scudetto, "little shield", plural: scudetti) are the annual winners of Serie A, Italy's premier annual football league competition. The title has been contested since 1898 in varying forms of competition. Juventus are the current champions, and have won a record 28 titles. The first time the Scudetto was used was in 1924 when Genoa won its 9th championship title and decided to add a little shield to their shirt as to reward and celebrate themselves as champions.

The finals of the first Italian Football Championship was decided in a single day with four teams competing, three from Turin and one from Genoa. The title was decided using a knock-out format between the finalists with Genoa Cricket and Athletic Club, the inaugural winners. The knock-out format was used until the 1909–10 season, when a league consisting of nine teams was formed. The championship, which had been confined to a single league in the north of Italy, became a national competition in 1929 with the foundation of Serie A and Serie B.

Several times in history mark when a champion was not named. World Wars suspended the official Championship from both 1915 to 1919 and 1943 to 1945, although unofficial championships were contested in both 1916 and 1944. Allegations of match fixing prevented a champion being declared in both the 1926–27 and 2004–05 seasons with Torino Football Club and Juventus Football Club being stripped of their titles, respectively.

History[link]

Prima Categoria[link]

Juventus, 1903 runners-up

The first official national football tournament was organised in 1898 by the Italian Football Federation (Italian: Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio, FIGC).^[1] This tournament, the final matches of the first Italian Football Championship, were held in a single day on 8 May 1898 in Turin. Genoa Cricket and Athletic Club were crowned as champions, defeating Internazionale Torino by 3–1, following extra time.^[1] In the following years, the tournament (called Prima Categoria) was structured into regional groups with the winners of each group participating in a playoff with the eventual winners being declared champions.

In November 1907, FIF organised two championships in the same season:^[2]

1. Federal Championship, where also foreign players (if they live in Italy) are allowed to play; the Federal Champions win Coppa Spensley^[3]
2. Italian Championship, where only italian players are allowed to play; the Italian Champions win Coppa Buni

FIF wanted to organize two different championships in order to allow weaker clubs composed only by italian players ("squadre pure italiane", "pure italian teams") to compete and win against the big clubs composed mostly by stronger foreign players ("squadre spurie internazionali", "spurious international teams"). The big clubs (Genoa, Torino and Milan) withdrew from both the championships in order to protest against the autarchical policy of FIF. The Federal Championship was won by Juventus against Doria.^[4] However, Juventus didn't receive Spensley Cup because Milan (the former champions) refused to give the Cup to the new Champion, Juventus, giving it to Spensley and his team, Genoa.^[5] In November 1908, FIF decided to award permanently Spensley Cup to Milan. The Italian Championship 1908 and Coppa Buni were won by Pro Vercelli beating Juventus, Doria and US Milanese. However, only Pro Vercelli was later recognized as "Italian Champions 1908", forgetting the Federal Championship won by Juventus.

In 1909 season, too, two different championships were organised:

1. Federal Championship, where also foreign players (if they live in Italy) are allowed to play; the Federal Champions win Coppa Oberti
2. Italian Championship, where only italian players are allowed to play; the Italian Champions win Coppa Buni

The Federal Championship was won by Pro Vercelli, beating in the Final US Milanese. The Italian Championship was won by Juventus, beating in the Final US Milanese.^[6] However, only Pro Vercelli was later recognized as "Italian Champions 1909", forgetting the Italian Championship won by Juventus.

The format was modified for the 1909–10 season which was played in a league format. Nine clubs participated playing each other both home and away. The split between Federal and Italian championship was not completely abolished, because, while unifying these tournaments, it was decided to assign to the end of the season two titles:

I Campionati Nazionali di calcio sono di I e II Categoria. Quello di I Categoria é suddiviso in Campionato Federale e Campionato Italiano. Al primo possono prendere parte anche giuocatori di nazionalità estera, residenti in Italia, il secondo è riservato esclusivamente ai giuocatori di nazionalità italiana.["There are two National Football Championships: Prima and Seconda Categoria. The Prima Categoria Championship is divided into Federal and Italian championship. In the first one foreign players living in Italy, too, are allowed to play, in the second one only players of Italian nationality are allowed to play. " (Article 2 of the Championship Rules promulgated the FIGC to Milan on August 8, 1909)] ^[7]

According to an article in the newspaper La Stampa dated December 24, 1909, at the end of the season will be "proclamed Italian Champions the best placed club among pure italian teams and Federal Champions the best placed club among Spurious International Clubs".^[8] At the end of the season, Pro Vercelli and Inter placed both in the first place, so a playoff was needed in order to assign the Federal title (the italian one was won by Pro Vercelli). This season was the first victory for Football Club Internazionale Milano, who defeated Unione Sportiva Pro Vercelli Calcio in the final by a score of 10–3.^[9]

In the 1910–11 season, teams from Veneto and Emilia were admitted for the first time to the championship. The championship was divided in two groups: Liguria-Piemonte-Lombardia group, the most important one, and Veneto-Emilia group. The winners of each group qualified to the Final for the title. The 1912–13 season saw the competition nationalised with North and South divisions^[10]. The 1914–1915 Championship was suspended because of World War I while Genoa was placed in the first place in Northern Italy Finals and only when the war ended, in 1919, FIGC decided to award the 1915 title to Genoa. In 1916, Associazione Calcio Milan won the Coppa Federale, which for that season was a substitute for the championship, which had been suspended because of World War I.^[11] The tournament that year was limited to clubs from the north, with the exception of Pro Vercelli, but was not treated as an official trophy or recognised by FIGC as an Italian title.

Prima Divisione[link]

Controversy hit the Championship in the 1921–22 season which saw the major clubs (including Pro Vercelli, Bologna and Juventus) in dispute with the FIGC. The best 24 teams had asked for a reduction in the number of clubs in the top division in accordance with a plan drawn up by Vittorio Pozzo, the Italian national team coach. Pozzo's plan was dismissed and the CCI (Italian: Confederazione Calcistica Italiana) was founded and organised a 1921–22 CCI league (Prima Divisione) to run concurrently with the 1921–22 season (Prima Categoria) organised by the FIGC.^[12] Therefore, that season saw two champions: Novese (FIGC) and Pro Vercelli (CCI). The schism ended when FIGC accepted to reduce the Northern Championship 1922–23 to only 36 clubs ("Compromesso Colombo/Colombo compromise"); from 1923–24 the Northern Championship was reduced to 24 clubs divided into two groups.^[13]

Divisione Nazionale[link]

The Carta di Viareggio/Viareggio charter (1926) was drawn up to legalise professionalism, ban foreign players, and rationalise the championship creating a new national top league where Northern and Southern teams play in the same championship: Divisione Nazionale. To the new Championship were admitted 17 teams from Lega Nord (Northern League) and 3 teams from Lega Sud (Southern League) for a total of 20 teams, divided into two national groups of 10 teams each.

Further scandal followed in the 1926–27 season when title-winners Torino Football Club were stripped of their Scudetto following an FIGC investigation. A Torino official was found to have bribed opposing defender Luigi Allemandi in Torino's match against Juventus on 5 June 1927, and thus the season finished with no declared champions.^[14]

Serie A[link]

In 1929 Divisione Nazionale (two groups of 16 teams each) splited into two Championships: Divisione Nazionale Serie A (the new Top Division) and Divisione Nazionale Serie B (the new second level of Italian Football).^[15][16] The 1929–30 season was the inaugural Serie A season and was won by Internazionale (called Ambrosiana at the time). The next 11 years were also dominated by Juventus and Bologna, when all of the Scudetti were won between the three of them, Juventus winning five times in a row, a record only equalled by Grande Torino in 1948 and by Internazionale in 2010. The competition was truncated as the Championship was suspended in 1943 due to World War II.^[12] A Championship was held in 1944, the Campionato Alta Italia, and won by Spezia.^[17] The title was not officially recognised by FIGC until 2002 and even then the Scudetto is considered a "decoration."^[18]

The post-war years were dominated by Torino (then called The Great Torino), a team which found a dramatic end in the Superga air disaster in 1949.^[12] The 1950s saw the gradual emergence of Milan, with the help of Swedish striker Gunnar Nordahl, who was Serie A's leading scorer (Italian: Capocannonieri) for five out of six seasons. Juventus began to dominate throughout the 1970s and early 1980s with nine Scudetti in fifteen seasons while the 1990s saw Milan come to prominence.^[12]

Serie A was dealt another blow by the 2006 Italian football scandal which involved alleged widespread match fixing implicating league champions Juventus, and other major teams including Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio, and Reggina.^[19] The FIGC ruled Juventus be stripped of their title, relegated to Serie B and start the following season with a nine-point deduction. The other clubs involved suffered similarly with relegation and points deduction.^[20]

Winners[link]

Prima Categoria[link]

Year	Winner	Runners-up	Third Place	Top scorer (club) (goals)
1898	Genoa (1)	Internazionale Torino	(Unknown)	(Unknown)
1899	Genoa (2)	Internazionale Torino	Ginnastica Torino	(Unknown)
1900	Genoa (3)	Torinese	Milan	(Unknown)
1901	Milan (1)	Genoa	Juventus	Umberto Malvano (Juventus) (4)
1902	Genoa (4)	Milan	Torinese	(Unknown)
1903	Genoa (5)	Juventus	Milan	(Unknown)
1904	Genoa (6)	Juventus	Milan	(Unknown)
1905	Juventus (1)	Genoa	US Milanese	(Unknown)
1906	Milan (2)	Juventus	Genoa	(Unknown)
1907	Milan (3)	Torino	Andrea Doria	(Unknown)
1908	Pro Vercelli (1)	US Milanese	Andrea Doria	(Unknown)
1909	Pro Vercelli (2)	US Milanese	Genoa	(Unknown)
1909–10	Internazionale (1)	Pro Vercelli	Juventus	(Unknown)
1910–11	Pro Vercelli (3)	Vicenza	Milan (2nd in Piedmont-Lombardy-Liguria round-robin); Verona (2nd in Veneto-Emilia Romagna round-robin)	(Unknown)
1911–12	Pro Vercelli (4)	Venezia	Milan (2nd in Piedmont-Lombardy-Liguria round-robin); Vicenza (2nd in Veneto-Emilia Romagna round-robin)	(Unknown)
1912–13	Pro Vercelli (5)	Lazio	Genoa (2nd in Northern Italy final round); Naples (2nd in Southern Italy final round)	(Unknown)
1913–14	Casale (1)	Lazio	Genoa (2nd in Northern Italy final round); Internazionale Napoli (2nd in Southern Italy final round)	(Unknown)
1914–15	Genoa (7) [21]	Torino	Internazionale	(Unknown)
1916–19	Postponed due to First World War
1919–20	Internazionale (2)	Livorno	Juventus (2nd in Northern Italy final round); Fortitudo Roma (2nd in Southern Italy final round)	(Unknown)
1920–21	Pro Vercelli (6)	Pisa	Bologna (2nd in Northern Italy final round); Livorno (2nd in Southern Italy final round)	(Unknown)
1921–22 (F.I.G.C.)	Novese (1)	Sampierdarenese	SPAL	(Unknown)

Prima Divisione[link]

Year	Winner	Runners-up	Third Place	Top scorer (club) (goals)
1921–22 (C.C.I.)	Pro Vercelli (7)	Fortitudo Roma	Genoa (2nd in Northern Italy final round); Puteolana (2nd in Southern Italy final round)	(Unknown)
1922–23	Genoa (8)	Lazio	Pro Vercelli (2nd in Northern Italy final round); Savoia (2nd in Southern Italy final round)	(Unknown)
1923–24	Genoa (9)	Savoia	Bologna (2nd in Northern Italy final round); Alba Trastevere (2nd in Southern Italy final round)	Heinrich Schönfeld (Torino) (22)
1924–25	Bologna (1)	Alba Trastevere	Genoa (2nd in Northern Italy final round); Anconitana (2nd in Southern Italy final round)	Mario Magnozzi (Livorno) (19)
1925–26	Juventus (2)	Alba Trastevere	Bologna (2nd in Northern Italy final round); Internaples (2nd in Southern Italy final round)	Ferenc Hirzer (Juventus) (35)

Divisione Nazionale[link]

Year	Winner	Runners-up	Third Place	Top scorer (club) (goals)
1926–27	No winner [22]	Bologna	Juventus	Anton Powolny (Internazionale) (22)
1927–28	Torino (1)	Genoa	Juventus	Julio Libonatti (Torino) (35)
1928–29	Bologna (2)	Torino	Milan	Gino Rossetti (Torino) (36)

Serie A[link]

Year	Winner	Runners-up	Third Place	Top scorer (club) (goals)
1929–30	Internazionale (3)	Genoa	Juventus	Giuseppe Meazza (Internazionale) (31)
1930–31	Juventus (3)	Roma	Bologna	Rodolfo Volk (Roma) (29)
1931–32	Juventus (4)	Bologna	Roma	Pedro Petrone (Fiorentina) Angelo Schiavio (Bologna) (25)
1932–33	Juventus (5)	Internazionale	Bologna	Felice Placido Borel II° (Juventus) (29)
1933–34	Juventus (6)	Internazionale	Napoli	Felice Placido Borel II° (Juventus) (31)
1934–35	Juventus (7)	Internazionale	Fiorentina	Enrico Guaita (Roma) (31)
1935–36	Bologna (3)	Roma	Torino	Giuseppe Meazza (Internazionale) (25)
1936–37	Bologna (4)	Lazio	Torino	Silvio Piola (Lazio) (21)
1937–38	Internazionale (4)	Juventus	Milan	Giuseppe Meazza (Internazionale) (20)
1938–39	Bologna (5)	Torino	Internazionale	Aldo Boffi (Milan) Ettore Puricelli (Bologna) (19)
1939–40	Internazionale (5)	Bologna	Juventus	Aldo Boffi (Milan) (24)
1940–41	Bologna (6)	Internazionale	Milan	Ettore Puricelli (Bologna) (22)
1941–42	Roma (1)	Torino	Venezia	Aldo Boffi (Milan) (22)
1942–43	Torino (2)	Livorno	Juventus	Silvio Piola (Lazio) (21)
1944–45	Postponed due to Second World War
1945–46	Torino (3)	Juventus	Milan	Guglielmo Gabetto (Torino) (22)
1946–47	Torino (4)	Juventus	Modena	Valentino Mazzola (Torino) (29)
1947–48	Torino (5)	Milan	Juventus	Giampiero Boniperti (Juventus) (27)
1948–49	Torino (6) [23]	Internazionale	Milan	István Nyers (Internazionale) (26)
1949–50	Juventus (8)	Milan	Internazionale	Gunnar Nordahl (Milan) (35)
1950–51	Milan (4)	Internazionale	Juventus	Gunnar Nordahl (Milan) (34)
1951–52	Juventus (9)	Milan	Internazionale	John Hansen (Juventus) (30)
1952–53	Internazionale (6)	Juventus	Milan	Gunnar Nordahl (Milan) (26)
1953–54	Internazionale (7)	Juventus	Milan	Gunnar Nordahl (Milan) (23)
1954–55	Milan (5)	Udinese	Roma	Gunnar Nordahl (Milan) (26)
1955–56	Fiorentina (1)	Milan	Internazionale	Gino Pivatelli (Bologna) (29)
1956–57	Milan (6)	Fiorentina	Lazio	Dino da Costa (Roma) (22)
1957–58	Juventus (10)	Fiorentina	Padova	John Charles (Juventus) (28)
1958–59	Milan (7)	Fiorentina	Internazionale	Antonio Valentin Angelillo (Internazionale) (33)
1959–60	Juventus (11)	Fiorentina	Milan	Omar Sivori (Juventus) (28)
1960–61	Juventus (12)	Milan	Internazionale	Sergio Brighenti (Sampdoria) (27)
1961–62	Milan (8)	Internazionale	Fiorentina	José Altafini (Milan) Aurelio Milani (Fiorentina) (22)
1962–63	Internazionale (8)	Juventus	Milan	Harald Nielsen (Bologna) Pedro Manfredini (Roma) (19)
1963–64	Bologna (7)	Internazionale	Milan	Harald Nielsen (Bologna) (21)
1964–65	Internazionale (9)	Milan	Torino	Sandro Mazzola (Internazionale) Alberto Orlando (Fiorentina) (17)
1965–66	Internazionale (10)	Bologna	Napoli	Luis Vinicio (Vicenza) (25)
1966–67	Juventus (13)	Internazionale	Bologna	Gigi Riva (Cagliari) (18)
1967–68	Milan (9)	Napoli	Juventus	Pierino Prati (Milan) (15)
1968–69	Fiorentina (2)	Cagliari	Milan	Gigi Riva (Cagliari) (21)
1969–70	Cagliari (1)	Internazionale	Juventus	Gigi Riva (Cagliari) (21)
1970–71	Internazionale (11)	Milan	Napoli	Roberto Boninsegna (Internazionale) (24)
1971–72	Juventus (14)	Milan	Torino	Roberto Boninsegna (Internazionale) (22)
1972–73	Juventus (15)	Milan	Lazio	Giuseppe Savoldi (Bologna) Paolino Pulici (Torino) Gianni Rivera (Milan) (17)
1973–74	Lazio (1)	Juventus	Napoli	Giorgio Chinaglia (Lazio) (24)
1974–75	Juventus (16)	Napoli	Roma	Paolino Pulici (Torino) (18)
1975–76	Torino (7)	Juventus	Milan	Paolino Pulici (Torino) (21)
1976–77	Juventus (17)	Torino	Fiorentina	Francesco Graziani (Torino) (21)
1977–78	Juventus (18)	Vicenza	Torino	Paolo Rossi (Vicenza) (24)
1978–79	Milan (10)	Perugia	Juventus	Bruno Giordano (Lazio) (19)
1979–80	Internazionale (12)	Juventus	Milan	Roberto Bettega (Juventus) (16)
1980–81	Juventus (19)	Roma	Napoli	Roberto Pruzzo (Roma) (18)
1981–82	Juventus (20)	Fiorentina	Roma	Roberto Pruzzo (Roma) (15)
1982–83	Roma (2)	Juventus	Internazionale	Michel Platini (Juventus) (16)
1983–84	Juventus (21)	Roma	Fiorentina	Michel Platini (Juventus) (20)
1984–85	Verona (1)	Torino	Internazionale	Michel Platini (Juventus) (18)
1985–86	Juventus (22)	Roma	Napoli	Roberto Pruzzo (Roma) (19)
1986–87	Napoli (1)	Juventus	Internazionale	Pietro Paolo Virdis (Milan) (17)
1987–88	Milan (11)	Napoli	Roma	Diego Maradona (Napoli) (15)
1988–89	Internazionale (13)	Napoli	Milan	Aldo Serena (Internazionale) (22)
1989–90	Napoli (2)	Milan	Internazionale	Marco van Basten (Milan) (19)
1990–91	Sampdoria (1)	Milan	Internazionale	Gianluca Vialli (Sampdoria) (19)
1991–92	Milan (12)	Juventus	Torino	Marco van Basten (Milan) (25)
1992–93	Milan (13)	Internazionale	Parma	Giuseppe Signori (Lazio) (26)
1993–94	Milan (14)	Juventus	Sampdoria	Giuseppe Signori (Lazio) (23)
1994–95	Juventus (23)	Lazio	Parma	Gabriel Batistuta (Fiorentina) (26)
1995–96	Milan (15)	Juventus	Lazio	Igor Protti (Bari) Giuseppe Signori (Lazio) (24)
1996–97	Juventus (24)	Parma	Internazionale	Filippo Inzaghi (Atalanta) (24)
1997–98	Juventus (25)	Internazionale	Udinese	Oliver Bierhoff (Udinese) (27)
1998–99	Milan (16)	Lazio	Fiorentina	Márcio Amoroso (Udinese) (22)
1999–00	Lazio (2)	Juventus	Milan	Andriy Shevchenko (Milan) (24)
2000–01	Roma (3)	Juventus	Lazio	Hernán Crespo (Lazio) (26)
2001–02	Juventus (26)	Roma	Internazionale	David Trezeguet (Juventus) Dario Hübner (Piacenza) (24)
2002–03	Juventus (27)	Internazionale	Milan	Christian Vieri (Internazionale) (24)
2003–04	Milan (17)	Roma	Juventus	Andriy Shevchenko (Milan) (24)
2004–05	No award[24]	Milan	Internazionale	Cristiano Lucarelli (Livorno) (24)
2005–06	Internazionale (14) [25]	Roma [25]	Milan [25]	Luca Toni (Fiorentina) (31)
2006–07	Internazionale (15)	Roma	Lazio	Francesco Totti (Roma) (26)
2007–08	Internazionale (16)	Roma	Juventus	Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus) (21)
2008–09	Internazionale (17)	Juventus	Milan	Zlatan Ibrahimović (Internazionale) (25)
2009–10	Internazionale (18)	Roma	Milan	Antonio Di Natale (Udinese) (29)
2010–11	Milan (18)	Internazionale	Napoli	Antonio Di Natale (Udinese) (28)
2011–12	Juventus (28)	Milan	Udinese	Zlatan Ibrahimović (Milan) (28)

Performances[link]

Clubs[link]

The following table lists the performance of each club describing winners of the Championship. 16 teams have been champions.

Cities[link]

The following table lists the Italian football champions by city.

Provinces[link]

The following table lists the Italian football champions by province.

Regions[link]

The following table lists the Italian football champions by region.

Region	Titles	Winning clubs
Piedmont	44	Juventus (28), Pro Vercelli (7), Torino (7), Casale (1), Novese (1)
Lombardy	36	Internazionale (18), Milan (18)
Liguria	10	Genoa (9), Sampdoria (1)
Emilia-Romagna	7	Bologna (7)
Lazio	5	Roma (3), Lazio (2)
Campania	2	Napoli (2)
Tuscany	2	Fiorentina (2)
Sardinia	1	Cagliari (1)
Veneto	1	Verona (1)

See also[link]

• Football in Italy
• Italian football league system

Sources[link]

• Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio – La Storia 1898–2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005
• Carlo Chiesa, La grande storia del calcio italiano (The great history of italian football), Guerin Sportivo, 2012–
  • Second installment: 1908–1910, pp. 17–32, in Guerin Sportivo #5 (maggio 2012), pp. 83–98.

References and notes[link]

External links[link]

• (English) Italian Football Association
• (Italian) Official national league website