On this day in history: First Italian football championship, 1898

The first official Italian association football competition was played in entirety on 8th May 1898. The newly formed Italian Football Federation (Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio, or FIGC) endorsed the event. Earlier that decade there had been other football competitions staged, initially by teams of English emigrants and later by Italian teams; however, they played in separate leagues.

The city of Turin hosted the first FIGC sponsored competition and supplied three of the four competing teams: FBC Torinese, Ginnastica Torino, and Internazionale Torino. The fourth team and winners of the competition, the Genoa Cricket and Football Club, was the oldest in the country. The team included three Englishmen, one player from the Island of Guernsey and another from Switzerland.

To learn more about the story of Italian football see the FIGC history pages.

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