History of the first football clubs in Italy

[7][8][9] Gymnastics football, officially called "giuoco del calcio", had its origins in the city of Rovigo, where the professor of physical education Francesco Gabrielli began to promote it in 1893, and in Treviso, where the first edition of the Gare Nazionali dei Giuochi Ginnastici was held in 1896.

[10] However, FIF, which, unlike FGNI, adopted the full IFAB regulations from the outset, did not join the organization until 1913, when the newly formed Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) became a member.

[15] Also in the Piedmontese capital, the Foot-Ball Club Torinese was founded in 1894 as the football section of the Circolo Pattinatori Valentino 1874,[15][21][22] (and became an autonomous club three years later),[23] followed in 1897 by Unione Football (a little-known gymnastics team whose founding date is purely indicative),[24] and Sport-Club Juventus, and in 1899 by Sport-Club Audace Torino.

According to some accounts, the sport was introduced to the people of Alessandria in 1891 by Edoardo Bosio,[24] and in 1894 a match was played between a local team and Genoa.

[31] In 1898, there are also reports of a match between gymnastic teams in Cuneo,[32] and the foundation of the Unione Sportiva Trinese (fully active in football since 1919).

[44][45] Similarly, the Unione Sportiva Sestri Ponente 1897, based in the Genoese suburb of the same name (an autonomous municipality at the time), founded a football section in the century following the one in question, which was later incorporated into the Fratellanza Sportiva Sestrese Calcio 1919,[46][47] while the Società Ginnastica Nicolò Barabino, founded in 1897 in Sampierdarena, did not create a specific section for football.

[42] Outside the context of Great Genoa, one finds the Fratellanza Ginnastica Savonese and the Unione Sportiva San Filippo Neri of Albenga, founded in 1883 and 1893 respectively, which did not develop the practice of football in an official capacity until the century following their foundation.

Also in the last years of the 19th century, but with doubtful dates, the Labor Sportiva of Seregno (which merged in 1920 with the Seregno Foot Ball Club 1913)[61] and the Unione Ginnastica Vogherese (which also officially founded its football section in 1920, later merged with the Associazione Vogherese Calcio) were founded.

In Mestre, a town that was first autonomous and later became part of the capital of Veneto in 1926, the Società Ginnastica Marziale was founded in 1878, whose section dedicated to football was unofficially created in 1892 and officially inaugurated in 1904 (already in 1889, British officers stationed in Mestre introduced the game to the inhabitants, eventually involving Marziale).

[63] Other early gymnastic associations in Veneto that were involved in football were the Istituzione Comunale Marcantonio Bentegodi, founded in 1868 as the Società Veronese di Ginnastica e Scherma (which began playing football in the early 20th century);[64] the Società Rodigina di Ginnastica Unione e Forza, founded in 1874 by the aforementioned Francesco Gabrielli and which began playing football on April 28, 1893; the Società Ginnastica Vicentina Umberto I[65][66] and the Fortitudo of Schio, the latter dating back to 1875.

Also unknown is the year of foundation of the Società Ginnastica Velocipedistica Trevigiana and the Vittorio Veneto of Treviso, which took part in the first gymnastics federation tournament in 1896.

[citation needed] The only old Bolognese club dedicated to football was the Società Sezionale di Ginnastica in Bologna, founded in 1871 (and now known as the Società di Educazione Fisica Virtus), which organized the first recorded football exhibition in Italy on May 9, 1891, and opened a section dedicated to the discipline in 1910.

[72] These clubs were followed in 1879 by the Società Ginnastica La Patria of Carpi, which later also operated a football school,[73] and the Palestra Ginnastica Ferrara, which won the FGNI tournament in 1898 and operated exclusively in the gymnastics field;[74] in 1898 the Unione Sportiva Forti e Liberi of Forlì was founded, which in 1919 formed its football section (today's Forlì FC).

[78][79] A similar fate befell the Sienese multisport club Mens Sana in Corpore Sano, founded in 1871.

[80][81][82] However, the date of foundation of a similar club, Libertas,[83] which was active in football without apparently creating an official section, remains uncertain.

[citation needed] In addition to the Perugian clubs, Nestor Marsciano (1904), SPES Gubbio (1908) and Unione Sportiva Orvietana (1913) are also worth mentioning.

[88] In the rest of the Lazio region, the sport was also practiced by the Associazione Ginnastica Forza e Libertà of Rieti, founded in 1891, which participated in the 1901 FGNI tournament.

[citation needed] Apulia was one of the first areas in southern Italy where football was played, especially in Bari, where English merchant ships, especially those of the Cunard Line, docked and traded with the city.

[109][110] The Società Sportiva Pro Italia of Taranto, on the other hand, was the first to be founded outside of the regional capital: its origins date back to 1904.

[citation needed] The first football match recorded in the history of Cagliari was played in 1902 between a group of students from the city and a team of sailors from Genoa.

[116][117] The first recorded football matches on the island, however, took place in Calangianus at the end of the 19th century between British workers and technicians called in to build a railway line.

[117] The two clubs that inaugurated the official Sardinian football activity were the Società Educazione Fisica Torres of Sassari and the Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica Ilvamaddalena of La Maddalena (1903).

At the same time, the disappearance of the football teams coincided with the definitive dissolution of the corresponding association, with the exception of the four clubs mentioned above, which are still active.