Football in Italy

Football (calcio ) is the most popular sport in Italy. The Italy national football team is considered one of the best national teams in the world. They have won the FIFA World Cup four times (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), trailing only Brazil (with five), runners-up in two finals (1970, 1994) and reaching a third place (1990) and a fourth place (1978). They have also won two European Championships (1968 and 2020), also appeared in two finals (2000, 2012), finished third at the Confederations Cup (2013) and the Nations League (2021 and 2023), won one Olympic football tournament (1936) and two Central European International Cups (1927–30 and 1933–35).

Italy's top domestic league, the Serie A, is one of the most popular professional sports leagues in the world due to the fact that it is often depicted as the most tactical national football league, and is among the top five European football leagues. Italy's club sides have won 48 major European trophies, making them the second most successful nation in European football. Serie A hosts three of the world's most famous clubs as Juventus, Milan, and Inter, all founding members of the G-14, a group which represented the largest and most prestigious European football clubs; Serie A was the only league to produce three founding members.

Juventus, Milan, and Inter (the Big Three), along with Roma, Lazio, and historically Parma and Fiorentina but now Napoli and Atalanta, are known as the Seven Sisters of Italian football due to their popular support and dominance in league and cups between the 1990s and 2020s. Italian managers are among the most successful in European football, especially in competitions such as the Champions League. More players have won the coveted Ballon d'Or award while playing in Serie A than any other league in the world after La Liga.

Ancient times and calcio fiorentino
Other forms of football were played in Italy in ancient times, the earliest of which was Harpastum, played during the times of the Roman Empire. This game may have also been influential in other forms throughout Europe due to the expansion of the Roman Empire, including Medieval football. From the 16th century onwards, calcio fiorentino, another code of football distinct from the modern game, was played in the Piazza Santa Croce in Florence. Some famous Florentines were among the players of the game, particularly the Medici family including Piero, Lorenzo, and Alessandro de' Medici, as well as popes who played the game in the Vatican, such as Clement VII, Leo XI, and Urban VIII. The name calcio ("kick") was later adopted for football in Italy (attested first in 1889, "Il Foot-ball ovvero il Giuoco del Calcio"), becoming the synonym for Italian association football worldwide,  as well as the most popular sport in Italy.

Italian football is born in Turin and Genoa
The modern variation of the game was brought to Italy during the 1880s. Edoardo Bosio, a merchant worker in the British textile industry, had visited England and experienced the game. He returned to Turin in 1887 and was motivated to help spread football in his homeland. He founded the first football club in Italy (Torino Football and Cricket Club) that year, while Nobili Torino (Turin Nobles) soon followed. The second club bore the name noble because it contained Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi, and Alfonso Ferrero de Gubernatis Ventimiglia, who would later become president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC). The two merged in 1891 to form Internazionale Football Club Torino. Genoa Cricket and Football Club, formed as a cricket club to represent England abroad, was founded by Englishmen in 1893. In 1896, a man named James Richardson Spensley arrived in Genoa and introduced the football section of the club, becoming its first manager.

Some early tournaments were organised by the Italian Gymnastics Federation (FGI, then FGNI) between 1895 and 1897 and until 1913. In 1898, a new federation, the future FIGC but then known as Federazione Italiana del Foot-ball (FIF) until 1909, had been formed, with its centre originally in Turin and the first president as Mario Vicary. The FIGC created the Italian Football Championship with the four founding clubs being; Genoa, Torinese, Ginnastica Torino, and Internazionale Torino. Its first competition, the 1898 Italian Football Championship, was held at the Velodrome Humbert I in Turin on 8 May 1898, and was won by Genoa. While it was common for clubs to compete in both FIGC and FNGI competitions early on, the titles won in the FIGC championship are the only ones officially recognised by the modern-day league. 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. Until 1904, the tournament was dominated by Genoa, who won six titles in seven years. Between 1905 and 1908, a Final Group among regional champions was contested to award the title and the Spensley Cup. Juventus won his first title and Spensley Cup in 1905, while the following two championships were won by Milan.

Italianisation and split of the championship
In November 1907, the FIF organised two championships in the same season:
 * 1) Italian Championship, the main tournament where only Italian players were allowed to play; the winners would be proclaimed Campioni d'Italia (Italian Champions) and would be awarded the Bruni Cup.
 * 2) Federal Championship, a secondary tournament where foreign players (if they lived in Italy) were also allowed to play; the winners would be proclaimed Campioni Federali (Federal Champions) and would be awarded the Spensley Cup.

The FIF wanted to organise two different championships in order to allow weaker clubs, composed only of Italian players (squadre pure italiane, "pure Italian teams"), to win the national title, and to relegate simultaneously the big clubs, composed mostly of stronger foreign players (squadre spurie internazionali, "spurious international teams") in a minor competition for a "consolation prize". The majority of big clubs (Genoa, Milan, and Torino) withdrew from both the championships in order to protest against the autocratic policy of the FIF. The Federal Championship was won by Juventus against Doria, while the 1908 Italian Championship and the Bruni Cup were won by Pro Vercelli, beating Juventus, Doria, and Milanese. The Federal Championship won by Juventus was later forgotten by FIGC due to the boycott by the dissident clubs. 1908 also saw a scission within Milan that led to the foundation of Inter.

In the 1909 Italian football season, the two different championships were organised again, with the Oberti Cup in lieu of the Spensley Cup for the Federal Championship. This time, the majority of big clubs decided to only withdraw from the Italian Championship in order to make the Federal competition the most relevant tournament and to diminish the Italian one. The Federal Championship was won by Pro Vercelli, beating Milanese in the Final, while the Italian Championship was won by Juventus, again beating Milanese in the Final. Ultimately, the dissenters' strategy worked out, as the failure of the Italian Championship won by Juventus forced the FIGC to later recognise the Federal Champions of Pro Vercelli as "Campioni d'Italia 1909", disavowing the other tournament and depriving Juventus of another title.

The format was modified for the 1909–10 Prima Categoria, 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 for the last time to assign two titles at the end of the season. In fact, the FIGC established to proclaim as Federal Champions (now turned into the main title) the first-placed club in the general classification, while recognised as Italian Champions (now become the secondary title) would be the best placed club among the four "pure Italian teams", depending on the head-to-head matches. At the end of the season, Pro Vercelli and Inter finished joint-top, 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 Inter, having defeated Pro Vercelli in the final by a score of 10–3. Even the Italian title won by Pro Vercelli was later forgotten.

National championship
A first national competition organised by the Italian Gymnastics Federation (FGNI–FGI) was played in 1896, the same year of the first modern Olympic Games, and won by a team from Udine, an Italian northeast city in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, named Udinese. In 1897, a second national gymnastic-football tournament was won by SG Torinese. In 1898, the Federazione Italiana del Foot-ball (FIF–FIGC) was finally formed and the first national championship was organised, with regional tournaments and playoffs. Held in Turin on the occasion of the International Exhibition for the fiftieth anniversary of the Albertine Statute, with about one hundred spectators in attendance, it included four clubs, three matches, and lasted a single day. This is considered to be the first proper national football championship and was won using the Pyramid formation (2–3–5) by Genoa,  which then went on to win five more championships in six years. Caffaro, a newspaper in Genoa, headlined "The Genoese winners of the national championship", while another reported that the competitors gathered at a restaurant, where they had dinner and the championship cup was delivered to the winning team. To celebrate the event of the first national football championship, Franco Bernini wrote a book in 2005 entitled La prima volta.

National teams
The Italy national football team, called Azzurri or squadra azzurra for their blue shirts, are the third-most successful national team in the World Cup for number of medals. During the 1970s to early 1990s, Italy became famous for their catenaccio, thus heralding a long line of world class defenders, such as Virginio Rosetta, Pietro Rava, Carlo Parola, Giacinto Facchetti, Armando Picchi, Gaetano Scirea, Antonio Cabrini, Claudio Gentile, Franco Baresi, Giuseppe Bergomi, Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Nesta, Fabio Cannavaro, Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci, and Giorgio Chiellini. Defence is traditionally the best part of Italian teams, and Italian defence is generally considered historically the best in the world. A women's team, an under-21 team, an under-20 team, an under-19 team, and an under-17 team also compete. Their honours include:

World Champions squads

 * 1934 FIFA World Cup squad
 * 1938 FIFA World Cup squad
 * 1982 FIFA World Cup squad
 * 2006 FIFA World Cup squad

European Champions squads

 * UEFA Euro 1968 squad
 * UEFA Euro 2020 squad

European competitions for clubs

 * 12 UEFA European Cups/Champions Leagues won in 29 finals (third behind Spain and England)
 * 7 UEFA Cup Winners' Cups won in 11 finals (first is England with 8 wins in 13 finals)
 * 9 UEFA Cups/Europa Leagues won in 17 finals (tied for second behind Spain)
 * 1 UEFA Europa Conference League won in 2 finals (tied for first with England)
 * 9 UEFA Super Cups won in 13 finals (tied for second behind Spain)
 * 9 Intercontinental/Club World Cups won in 13 finals (tied for third behind Spain and Brazil)

In total:
 * Italy, 47 cups and 85 finals (second behind Spain)

UEFA Champions League
The following teams have reached the final of the UEFA European Cup/Champions League. Bold indicates winners, italics indicates runner-ups.
 * Fiorentina (1956–57).
 * Inter (1963–64, 1964–65, 1966–67, 1971–72, 2009–10, 2022–23)
 * Juventus (1972–73, 1982–83, 1984–85, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98, 2002–03, 2014–15, 2016–17)
 * Milan (1957–58, 1962–63, 1968–69, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 2002–03, 2004–05, 2006–07)
 * Roma (1983–84)
 * Sampdoria (1991–92)

Italian football stadiums
Stadiums with a capacity of 40,000 or higher are included.