1909 Italian Football Championship

The 1909 Italian Football Championship season was won by Pro Vercelli.

In this season, as in the previous one, two championships of Prima Categoria were played:
 * 1) Federal Championship, the first tournament where foreign players (if they lived in Italy) were also allowed to play; the winners would be proclaimed Campioni Federali (Federal Champions)
 * 2) Italian Championship, the second tournament where only Italian players were allowed to play; the winners would be proclaimed Campioni Italiani (Italian Champions)

The winner of Federal Championship was Pro Vercelli. They won as a prize Coppa Oberti.

The winner of Italian Championship was Juventus. They won as a prize Coppa Buni.

However, the "spurious international teams" (the clubs composed mostly of foreign players), adversing the autarchical policy of the FIF, decided to withdraw from Italian Championship in order to make the Federal competition the most relevant tournament and to diminish the Italian one. More, Pro Vercelli's victory of the Federal Championship (where Juventus was soon eliminated) with an all-Italian squad transformed the Italian Championship into a meaningless tournament. The dissenters' strategy worked out: the failure of the Italian Championship won by Juventus forced the Federation to later recognized the Federal Champions of Pro Vercelli as "Campioni d'Italia 1909", disavowing the other tournament.

Liguria

 * Played on 17 January and 7 February 


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 * Tie-break
 * Played on 21 February on neutral ground


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Lombardy

 * Classification


 * Results
 * Played on 10, 17 and 24 January

Round 1

 * Played on 10 and 17 January


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Due to the fact that both teams won a match (aggregate total was not applied), a tie break was needed.


 * Repetition
 * Played on 24 January on Juventus ground


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Torino advanced to Round 2.

Round 2

 * Played on 7 February and 14 March


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Veneto
Venezia was the only registered team.

Lombardy-Veneto

 * Played on 21 February and 28 March


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Piedmont-Liguria

 * Played on 21 and 28 March


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Final

 * Played on 4 and 25 April


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Italian Championship

 * 1909 Italian Championship of Football

References and sources

 * Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005
 * Carlo Chiesa, La grande storia del calcio italiano Chapter 2: Juve, scippati due titoli! Inter, l'atroce beffa (1908-1910), pp. 17–32, Guerin Sportivo #5, May 2012.
 * Digitalized online archive of Turin newspaper La Stampa.