8 May 2011

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.

Related pages

Foundation of first Irish football club: 20th September 1879
First black international footballer: 12th March 1881
English Football Association legalises professionalism: 20th July 1885
First live radio broadcast of a soccer match: 22nd January 1927
Uruguay win first FIFA World Cup: 30th July 1930
First English club to win European Cup: 29th May 1968
Pelé scored his 1000th goal: 19th November 1969

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