This is the history of Bologna Football Club 1909, an Italian football club based in the city of Bologna.
The beginnings
The foundation
The founder of Bologna was Emilio Arnstein, a Bohemian native of Wotitz - later Votice - a small town in the Benešov district near Prague. Having become interested in football during his university studies in Prague and Vienna, in Habsburg Trieste, he had already founded with his brother Hugo, other Bohemians and a few Englishmen the Black Star Football Club. Arnstein arrived in Bologna in 1908 and immediately inquired where football was played in the city. After some inaccurate information, a tram driver finally appeared. He told him that he could find people playing football in Piazza d'Armi, in the so-called Prati di Caprara..
Among the boys who played at Prati di Caprara were the Gradi brothers, Louis Rauch, a young Swiss dentist who had settled in Bologna, and students from the College of Spain, including Antonio Bernabéu, brother of Santiago, legendary player and president of Real Madrid. Arrigo Gradi came to training wearing the red and blue shirt of the team from the Swiss school Wiget auf Schönberg in Rorschach,Almost all sources, including official ones such as the Bologna website, report that the college was only called Schönberg and was located in Rossbach, a location that is not in Switzerland. However, Swiss sources and subsequent research prove the incorrect information on the name and location of the college, although there is no certainty as to the exact transcription of the name. Cf. ., Cf. . in which he had studied, and these colours soon became the club's uniform.. They, under the name “Felsineo,” had already played a match against their rivals from Ferrara, on November 4, 1906, which ended 3-3;. this would be the first real football match ever played in Bologna. Years passed before the decision was made to form a club. Carlo Sandoni, president of the Circolo Turistico Bolognese, became interested in the matter. After a few meetings, on October 3, 1909, a Sunday morning, the pioneers were called to a meeting. Sandoni declared himself willing to sponsor their initiative, a charter was drafted, and thus the Bologna Football Club, a section of the Circolo Turistico, was born..
Louis Rauch was elected President, Guido Della Valle Vice-President, Enrico Penaglia Secretary, Sergio Lampronti Treasurer and Emilio Arnstein and Leone Vicenzi Councillors. The role of team captain was given to Arrigo Gradi, as he was the only player who held a little more experience than his other teammates, by virtue of having already played in Switzerland.. The headquarters was the same as the Circolo Turistico Bolognese, that is, the old Ronzani Brewery, at number 6 Via Spaderie; the Caprara Fields were the venue. The club colours were officially red and blue, in quarters,. following the pattern of the shirts Gradi had brought with him from Switzerland. The shorts were white.
The first matches and championships On March 20, 1910, the Emilian Championship was organized, qualifying as a Terza Categoria for the teams of the time. Only two other teams, also from the city of Bologna, joined it: the Sempre Avanti! and Virtus.. They competed for the title in two matches, played one after the other: Bologna first outclassed the Sempre Avanti! 10-0, then, after a rest of about ten minutes, inflicted a 9-1 victory on Virtus..
With the intention of registering for the Prima Categoria championship, Bologna had to revolutionize its corporate structure: it appointed Domenico Gori as president, moved its headquarters to the Bar Libertas on Via Ugo Bassi in Bologna,. and finally identified a piece of land that could suit Bologna, which would be named “Cesoia,” after the tavern that owned the field.. The uniforms also changed: from the red-and-blue quartered shirt, they switched to red-and-blue seven-ribbed jerseys with a neckline and fastening string.. After a friendly match against the reigning Italian champions, Internazionale, in which the rossoblù were beaten but showed great skill, the club received permission to enter the Prima Categoria, the first division..
In that season and the next two Bologna did not shine, finishing in the last places of the Veneto-Emilia group. At the end of this last championship, in 1913, Bologna had to leave the Cesoia field and move to the Sterlino stadium: a ground that was finally worthy of a club on the rise. The stadium was not the best in terms of levelness: there was a difference of one metre in height from one goal to the other, and one half was played uphill and the other downhill. It was inaugurated at the first home match against Brescia.
The championships continued until May 21, 1915, when the Federation suspended the tournament due to the impending outbreak of World War I..
Bologna during and after the First World War To make up for the hiatus, the FIGC in 1916 decided to organize a substitute tournament, the Coppa Federale. Bologna, included in the Emilian group with Modena and Audax Modena, finished second behind the canarini, thus losing the chance to participate in the final phase. Due to the worsening of the conflict, the tournament was never repeated. Then, the Emilian Regional Committee organized both in 1916 and 1917 the Emilia Cup, the first edition of which Bologna won, placing first with 14 points ahead of Reggio Emilia, while it lost the second one in the play-off against Modena. In addition to these events, numerous friendly matches were organized.
By the time it resumed its activities, the club was in a disastrous state: the ground had fallen into disrepair, the stand had collapsed, the fence had disappeared, the members were scattered and the club's coffers were empty.. Seven first-team players were also absent. Others were injured. Their sacrifice was commemorated on 19 September 1920 with a permanent plaque placed under the new Sterlino stand.
1920s
Felsner's arrival
The rise to the top
Bologna's championship restarted on October 12, 1919, with a victory against GS Bolognese.. The 1919-1920 Prima Categoria championship was the one that for the first time saw the debut of a player purchased from another team: Bernardo Perin, bought from Modena for 2 lire..
The team was now competitive in its group, but it lacked a figure that had emerged over the years: the coach. The rossoblù board then decided to provide for the hiring of a professional coach. Bologna's president, Cesare Medica, placed an advertisement in a popular Viennese newspaper. Several people responded and then Arrigo Gradi was sent on a mission to Vienna. The choice of Bologna's historic founder fell on Hermann Felsner. In Felsner's first year, the 1920-1921 season, Bologna a won the Emilian title by beating rivals Modena in 3 games in the finals, and thus went through the national semifinals all the way to the Lega Nord final against Pro Vercelli.. Bologna suffered their first league defeat at the hands of the Piedmontese, although it was not without controversy as Rampini scored the decisive goal in an alleged offside position.
In the next two seasons Bologna consistently placed third in its group...
The first Lega Nord final
In the 1923-1924 season the Veltri made it to the Lega Nord final by losing to Genoa,. in two fiery matches that kicked off a fierce rivalry.. The two rossoblù teams faced each other for the Lega Nord final on June 15, 1924, at Genoa's Via del Piano field in Marassi. The match was settled in favor of the hosts only in the final, thanks to a goal by Neri, despite a clear supremacy on the part of the Felsinei. Bologna later lodged an appeal against the homologation of the result - for a punch delivered by Giovanni Battista Traverso to Giuseppe Della Valle -. but this was rejected. Genoa was fined 1,000 liras for the pitch invasion, while Traverso was disqualified.
The return match took place in Bologna a week later, on the Sterlino field. Bologna maintained a clear dominance of the match, but the Grifoni responded promptly in the first half with a goal by Santamaria. The match resumed and the young Emilian formation managed to equalize with a penalty converted by Alberto Pozzi. Tempers flared and Milanese referee Panzeri got completely out of hand. The match was abandoned with just minutes to go, with the referee explaining that he had taken the decision because of the intemperance of the home fans. The referee also wrote in his match report that he had given the penalty to Bologna "on the pretext of avoiding incidents on the pitch and in the stands". The FIGC's decision was then in favour of the Ligurian side..
One of the more memorable victories of the season came against Pro Vercelli, who had been unbeaten for ten years, with a 2-1 win at the Eusebian stadium.
The first scudetto
In the 1924-1925 season, Bologna, placed in Group B of Lega Nord, finished the championship in first place, surpassing Juventus and Pro Vercelli in the standings by only two points.. Again Bologna found itself in the final of Lega Nord ahead of Genoa, triumphant in Group A. It took five matches to determine the winner. The first one was played in Bologna on May 24, 1924: Bologna, in a white jersey with a horizontal red-blue band,. was defeated 2-1 by Genoa, with goals by former Felsinei striker Cesare Alberti and Edoardo Catto; shortening the gap for Bologna was a young Bologna striker, Angelo Schiavio. The return match was played in Genoa on May 31 and the game ended 2-1 again, but this time in Bologna's favor (Giuseppe Muzzioli and Giuseppe Della Valle scored for the Felsinei, Aristodemo Santamaria scored the Ligurian equalizer) in a very heated confrontation with several stoppages due to clashes on the pitch and in the stands.
A play-off was therefore necessary, set for the following Sunday, June 7, in Milan. Genoa took a double lead with Daniele Moruzzi and again Alberti.. When a shot from Bologna's Muzzioli found its way into Genoa's goal in the sixteenth minute of the second half, referee Mauro pointed to the goal for a corner, believing that the Genoa goalkeeper had deflected the ball out of play and into the net, but a large crowd of Bologna supporters took to the pitch and surrounded the referee. After about a quarter of an hour of suspension, the referee decided to validate the goal to appease the Bologna supporters; finally, Bologna secured the equalizer thanks to Alberto Pozzi. Normal time ended in a draw, but Genoa refused to play extra time and asked for a replay after Muzzioli's phantom goal was conceded; Bologna responded by claiming automatic victory on the basis that the Ligurians had not gone to extra time. Although the regulations did not provide for the retrospective annulment of the entire match as a result of the referee's challenge, thus obliging the body de facto to side with one of the two teams, the league did not recognise the 2-2 draw and rejected both the Ligurian and Emilian appeals, ordering the play-off to be replayed..
There were no pitch invasions during the final quarter of the game, which ended 1-1. After the game, however, there were clashes at the Porta Nuova station, with two Genoans injured by gunfire. After insults and bickering between the leaders of Bologna and Genoa, and the threat of disqualification for the Felsinei by the Federal Council (which provoked a street protest in Bologna), peace was restored on 26 July with the mediation of the Lega Nord, and another play-off was scheduled.