A history of Roman football 1900-1927. Part four 1926-1927
- Simon Basten
- 1 day ago
- 18 min read
The 1925-26 season ended in chaos. The championship had been undermined from the outset by the so-called "lists of recusation", through which clubs blacklisted referees they considered unacceptable. A major refereeing controversy erupted, culminating in an indefinite strike by match officials. At the time, referees were former club officials or players who were required to be registered with a single club and were therefore often regarded as biased.
On 27 June, the FIGC Federal Council resigned. Rather than convening a new Federal Assembly to elect a replacement, it delegated its powers to the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI), which was already under the control of the Fascist regime through its president, Lando Ferretti. Ferretti acted swiftly, appointing a commission of three experts—Paolo Graziani, Italo Foschi and Giovanni Mauro, president of the Italian Referees' Association (AIA)—to draft a plan for the reorganisation of Italian football.
Meeting in Viareggio, the three men completed their work in a remarkably short time. On August 2, 1926, they published what became known as the Viareggio Charter, which was immediately approved by CONI under emergency procedures and came into force the very same day.
Viareggio Charter: Players
The first major change was a move towards professionalism. So far, and on paper, all the football clubs were amateur even though some were less amateur than others. With the introduction of two different categories, amateur and non-amateur, the Italian Federation de facto opened up to professionalism whilst at the same time did not go against FIFA and the International Olympic Committee rules.
A second one was that all transfers were suspended with the exception of:
Players called up for military service, for the duration of their compulsory service, who wished to join a club based where they were stationed, subject to the supervision of the Amateur Commission.
Foreign players already registered with Italian clubs during the 1925–26 season who had become surplus to requirements under the new regulations limiting the participation of foreign players in the championship.
Players who had remained inactive for at least one year, having taken part in no official matches for their club during the 1925–26 season.
Players who, before 31 July 1926, had developed irreconcilable differences with their club for reasons of exceptional seriousness, particularly of a moral nature, or players whom their club formally declared—giving its reasons—it no longer wished to retain on its books.
As one can ready between the lines, this obviously opened up the free transfer of players. Two clubs immediately took advantage of this new formula: Torino, who signed Gino Rossetti from Spezia and more importantly, Inter, who signed Fulvio Bernardini from Lazio for an incredible fee of 150,000 lire.
No more foreign players were allowed to play unless already in Italy but a maximum of two per club with only one allowed to play any one time. From 1928 no foreign players at all were allowed. This created a massive problem because there were 80 foreigners playing in Italy at the time, the majority being Hungarian and Austrian. This led the way to the phenomenon of the “oriundi”.
This is the Italian term used to describe footballers born abroad who are of Italian descent and therefore eligible to represent Italy through their ancestry. The phenomenon became especially significant during the 1920s and 1930s. As millions of Italians had emigrated to South America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many talented footballers of Italian heritage emerged there. The FIGC actively encouraged these players to return to Italy, where they strengthened both club football and the Italian national team.
The New National Division
Another major change was the new National Division which would take the place of the First Division. The league would no longer be regionally based, hence no more north nor south, but one national division made up of 20 teams that would be divided into two groups of ten. Since there was a considerable difference in level between the two different league, 17 clubs would come from the North and just three from the South.
Of those 17, 16 were the ones that had arrived in the top eight places of each group the previous season (Bologna, Torino, Modena, Verona, Inter, Casale, Andrea Doria and Brescia from Group A; Juventus, Cremonese, Genoa, Padova, Livorno, Sampierdarense, Pro Vercelli and Milan from Group B). The last club would be determined by a preliminary round of the four lower placed teams from each group. From the Southern League the two finalists from the previous season, Alba Roma and Internaples, were allowed to participate along with Fortitudo who by an incredible chance just happened to have as President Italo Foschi. The justification was that the new National Division needed to have two representatives from the capital just like other major Italian cities such as Milan, Genoa and Turin.
The First Division became the second tier. Initially, the competition was to be organised into groups of eight teams, but this was later increased to ten clubs per group. A Northern Section of thirty teams was therefore established, divided into three equal groups, alongside a Southern Section consisting of a single group of ten clubs.
The Northern Section comprised the seven clubs relegated from the play-offs for admission to the new National Division, together with twenty-two of the strongest teams from the 1925–26 Second Division. They were joined by Anconitana from the Marche, which was transferred to the Northern competition. The Southern Section, organised as a single group, was made up of the clubs that had finished in the middle of the table in the previous season's First Division, excluding the three promoted to the National Division and those relegated to the Second Division.
Below this came the Second Division, which formed the third tier of Italian football. In the North, it was organised in exactly the same way as the new First Division, while in the South it consisted of around thirty clubs from the dissolved Southern League that had failed to secure places in the higher divisions.
Beneath these national competitions, the Regional Directorates were responsible for organising the Third Division, with its structure depending on the number of clubs affiliated to each region. The Fourth Division was abolished altogether, as all clubs that had been affiliated with the FIGC for at least two years were automatically promoted to the Third Division. As an exception, however, Lombardy and Emilia were permitted to continue organising a Fourth Division until the 1927–28 season, allowing the more recently affiliated clubs to be admitted to the Third Division on a gradual basis.
More financially solid clubs
One issue which the Viareggio Charter also took care of was the fact that a) there was the need to have stronger Central South clubs in a League where the Northern clubs dominated and b) the need to merge clubs in financial difficulty to make them more solid and with a multi-sport outreach, thus embracing the fascist values.
In Florence, Fiorentina was founded by Club Sportivo Firenze and Palestra Ginnastica Fiorentina Libertas. Internaples had already gone through a change in 1922 when Naples and Internazionale Napoli merged. It dissolved and moved into a new club in 1926: Napoli. In the subsequent years there were more new clubs: Bologna Sportiva and Palermo FC. Turin did not have to merge Juventus and Torino but there were plans to create one big team in Genoa with Genoa, Andrea Doria and Sampierdarense. The Rossoblu were not too keen on the idea so the latter two merged into La Dominante. Inter in 1928 absorbed US Milanese and became Ambrosiana- Inter.
Consequence for Roman Clubs
This massive change meant that the majority of clubs were no longer competing at national level. Lazio and Roman were forced to play in the First Division, now second tier, Juventus Roma, US Romana, Tivoli and Vittoria Roma in the third tier.
In order to strengthen Alba and Fortitudo, the fascist regime forced the merger of Audace Roma with Alba, now to be called Alba Audace, and Pro Roma with Fortitudo, now to be called Società Fascista Fortitudo Pro Roma. There will be more later.
Scudetto 1926-27
The new national division with twenty teams was divided into two groups with the top 3 going forward to a final round robin to determine the winner of the scudetto. Juventus Inter and Genoa qualified in Group A, Torino, Milan and Bologna in Group B. In the final round robin, Torino topped the table and won the scudetto.
But there was a problem.
The Allemandi case
In 1927 there was the first Italian match fixing scandal. It involved three Juventus players who were allegedly paid to let Torino win the derby. It was a very controversial case. The Torino accountant, Guido Nani, and a student who knew many of the players, Francesco Gaudioso, approached Luigi Allemandi to try to get him and other players to “help” Torino win the derby. Toro not only won the match coming from behind, but also won the scudetto.
Apparently, the deal between Nani and Gaudioso was an upfront payment first, and the remainder of the money if Torino won the championship. When the Granata became champions, Gaudioso wanted his part of the deal but for unknown reasons Nani refused. At this point the student leaked the story to the press and the case exploded.
In the sporting investigation that followed, the whole story came out. Gaudioso had bribed Allemandi, Federico Munerati and Piero Pastore, the latter two the worst players on the pitch (Pastore had even been sent off for a retaliatory foul). Allemandi was paid in cash, Munerati in booze and Pastore betted on Juventus losing.
Torino’s title was revoked, Allemandi got a life ban (later revoked, he even went on to win the World Cup for Italy in 1934) and the other two had an official warning.
The scudetto was not reassigned.
This is another of those cases alongside Lazio’s 1914-15 scudetto claim, still waiting for a decision.
Roman Clubs
It was a disastrous year for Alba Audace and Fortitudo Pro Roma. Alba arrived second last and Fortitudo came last. Both were supposed to be relegated.
Lazio instead won their First Division Group and were promoted. Hence for the next National Division League, Lazio would have been the sole representative for Rome. In their group there was also Roman who came ninth out of ten. None of the Rome based teams in Second Division were able to get promoted.
Foschi was in trouble. He had pushed for Fortitudo to be part of the National Division but the level of the team was so low that the result had been embarrassing. Not only. Fortutudo was heavily indebted. There was only one way to salvage the situation. The creation of a single club for Rome, a type of best of from the various major teams.
Agreement Alba-Fortitudo and the birth of AS Roma
Foschi had already tried to merge Fortitudo with Lazio in 1926, but Lazio had refused. In the meantime he became president of Alba’s football section. His plan was to first get Alba and Fortitudo to join forces and then go for Lazio forcing the Biancocelesti, whether they want to or not, to join the new club.
Ulisse Igliori, the Fascist hierarch and president of US Alba-Audace, gave his approval to Italo Foschi's initial merger proposal. A secret agreement was reached and, on Sunday, April 24, as part of the political and sporting celebrations marking the anniversary of the founding of Rome, a friendly match was staged at the Stadio Nazionale between a combined Alba-Fortitudo side and FC Lugano. Newspapers described the fixture as the "farewell match" of the two clubs, which were expected to unite for the forthcoming football season. The Roman edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport praised the quality of the combined team. While both Fortitudo and Alba continued to fulfil their remaining official fixtures of the season, Foschi and his fellow Fascist official Umberto Guglielmotti—editor of the newspaper Roma Fascista and Foschi's eventual successor as Fascist Party secretary in Rome—concluded another secret agreement for the creation of Associazione Sportiva Roma.
The agreement to establish Associazione Sportiva Roma was reached on May 2, 1927 at the offices of the Roman Fascist Party. Although no original founding document survives, the earliest known AS Roma statute, published in 1951, confirms this date and states that the club was created through the merger of Fortitudo-Alba, Roman and Pro Roma, with the aim of promoting football and other sports in the city of Rome.
But the regime wanted Lazio to be part of the new club and Foschi was forced to try to find an agreement.
The attempted merger of Lazio and Fortitudo
Lazio had no idea this was going on but Olindo Bitetti who was Lazio President with Gerardo Branca (not of the football section but the whole Lazio Sports Club) sensed that there was a need for political backing and he called up his old friend General Giorgio Vaccaro for a hand. Despite the military career, Lieutenant General of the Militia Giorgio Vaccaro was still in love with sport and was councillor of the Fencing Federation as well as President of the Rugby Federation. In 1926 he was nominated councillor of the Italian Football Federation and President of the Italian Olympic Committee which he remained until 1939. He had joined the board of Lazio in 1920.
Vaccaro suggested that Bitetti immediately call for a board meeting and nominate him Vice President and Nicolò Maraini President General of the Sports Group. In this way Foschi would have to deal not with politically weak sport directors, but with much stronger Fascist party members. Mariani had been President of Alba and member of the board of Roman.
After initial contacts in late May, on June 6 there was a meeting which should have defined the merger between Lazio and Fortitudo. The Biancocelesti had already gone looking for players that could help them in the upcoming season but everything had been put on hold since the merger seemed to be imminent and Fortitudo had a lot of interesting players. But during the meeting, the representatives of Fortitudo wanted to immediately talk about money. The Fortitudo debt was much higher than that initially described. The Lazio people were taken aback, but had not ruled out the possibility of discussing the issue further. But Fortitudo left the meeting. A few hours later the merger between Alba, Fortitudo and Roman was announced.
General Vaccaro on hearing of this, sent the minutes of the meeting to the newspaper Il Tevere. In summary:
On 6 June 1927, representatives of Lazio and Fortitudo met to discuss the possibility of a merger in the interests of Roman football. Lazio's vice-president Giorgio Vaccaro confirmed that the club was willing to join a new organisation and stated that Alba would also participate under the same conditions. The meeting focused on the proposed club's name, colours, governance, playing staff and, above all, its financial position.
The negotiations quickly collapsed over finances. Lazio sought full recognition of the 200,000 lire it had spent to secure its place in the Divisione Nazionale, while proposing to recognise only 50% of Fortitudo's liabilities. Fortitudo rejected the proposal, revealing that its financial problems were far greater than previously declared: in addition to 100,000 lire in commercial debts, the club also owed around 300,000 lire in advances from private backers, who could demand immediate repayment if the merger went ahead. Although these financiers were willing to continue supporting Fortitudo as an independent club, they were unwilling to risk their investment in a new organisation with uncertain finances. Despite Vaccaro's willingness to consider alternative arrangements, Fortitudo refused to continue negotiations, and the meeting ended without an agreement.
Foschi wrote back to the newspaper saying that Lazio’s proposal was not doable because it did not take into account Alba’s debt and that they would have never agreed anyway on the name of the new club, Vaccaro replied that he had no idea that Fortitudo was there to safeguard the interests of Alba and that they had never even touched the issue of the name.
AS Roma
It seems clear that Foschi was not really interested in a merger with Lazio. He had already found a solution to the debts of Fortitudo and Alba. That extra 300,000 lire was that of Alba and he need 400,000 lire to cover the deficits totally or at least partially. Roman came to the rescue, agreed to join the merger and covered the debts. AS Roma was born.
Foschi’ first task was to get the federation to allow Roma to join the National Division. He succeeded as the 1927-28 National Division was to have 22 clubs. The teams that should have been relegated, Alba, Fortitudo, Napoli and Cremonese were all saved, the first two because Roma was added, Cremonese because with the merger between Andrea Doria and Sampierdarense created an extra space, and Napoli for geographical/political and probably numerical reasons.
Aftermath: Road to Serie A
The new season for the National Division saw Lazio and Roma in two different groups, so no derby. Roma played at the Motovelodromo Appio which became their home for this first season. In their second the moved to the Stadio Nazionale, and later in 1929-30, after one game played at Lazio’s ground, they transferred to Campo Testaccio.
The Biancocelesti did not do well. Thinking that they would merge with Fortitudo they had stopped looking for players, convinced the best of the other Roma-based club would be enough to secure a decent position. But when it fell through, they had to quickly find new ones with limited financial resources. They did not do well arriving second last and theoretically relegated.
Roma did slightly better, avoiding relegation by one point.
However, just two weeks after the end of the initial group matches, the Federation changed everything. During the course of the season it had been clear that those clubs which were going to be relegated would all be saved in some way or another, and this probably conditioned the outcome.
A new league would be formed for the 1929-30 season, the Serie A. Hence 1928-29 became a type of qualifying round. There would be two groups of 16, the top eight of each one would play the new Serie A, the next six in Serie B, the last two in Serie C. If this had not been decided there would have been no Southern Italian clubs present in the National Division since Napoli had also been relegated in 1927-28. In this way Lazio avoided the second tier for 1928-29 and was able to prepare with enough time the very important 1928-29 last National Division.
Lazio started badly but in the last ten games they managed to win seven. In the final match they faced Napoli at home. Both clubs were on the same points in eighth place. The winner would go on and play in Serie A. It ended goalless. A playoff was therefore necessary. At San Siro on June 23, Lazio went ahead in the first half but Napoli in the second first equalised then took the lead. Carlo Cevenini V managed to score the 2-2 with ten minutes left.
Another playoff was needed. But then came another change. The Federation needed both Napoli and Triestina in the new first tier so that the South of Italy and the newly acquired territory of Friuli-Venezia Giulia could have a representative. So, instead of the new Serie A with 16 clubs, two more were added. No need for a second playoff, Lazio could start in the new Serie A. Roma had done quite well arriving third in Group A (Lazio was in Group B). The capital would be represented by two clubs.
But in Serie B and the First Division (the new third tier), there would be no clubs from Rome.
Conclusion
De facto the great majority of Rome-based teams, in one way or another, became part of AS Roma.
Pro Roma merged with US Romana to become US Pro Roma and then joined Fortitudo and the two became SS Fortitudo Pro Roma.
SS Juventus Roma merged with Audax Roma to become Juventus Audax. The club then disbanded in 1924 and according to some sources most of the players moved into Fortitudo.
Audace Roma merged with FC Esperia to become Esperia Audace and these then joined Alba to become Alba Audace.
Fortitudo, Alba and Roman joined to become AS Roma.
That is a lot of clubs. By 1927 there were basically just two teams in Rome: Lazio and Roma.
The general consensus which most of you will read almost everywhere is that AS Roma was formed with the aim of creating a club that could consistently battle it out with the powers of the North. But this is probably just one of the the reasons. The other three are that a) Fortitudo and Alba were in great debt, would have never have been competitive if they had not got together and found enough money to do so. Roman came to their rescue, the financial difficulty was solved; b) Italo Foschi want to go up the Fascist Party ladder and used the creation of Roma to do so. If Lazio had joined he would not have been so central since there was competition from General Vaccaro, much more important in the Fascist and sporting world than he would ever be; c) The Fascist party had put Rome central to all the propaganda, hence a team named after the capital should have been an important part of it that is why they wanted Lazio to join, but the Biancocelesti already had a long history of their own, there was no way they would have accepted to change name and disappear. So Lazio lived on and became a thorn in the side of Roma.
What about the fans of Alba and Fortitudo? They began to support Roma with no questions asked. One did really question any decision from the Fascist party in those days.
The President of Alba, Umberto Farneti, forced to step down to favour Foschi, became a strong fan of Lazio and was even private consultant for Lazio President Remo Zenobi. But this is probably the only voice of dissent.
To use the immortal words of General Vaccaro “Lazio is different. Lazio does not come from, Lazio is. Lazio was born first and the fans came later. For the others there were already fans and a club was created for them to support”.
Rome-base clubs after the founding of AS Roma
Since then the founding of AS Roma there have been a few Rome based clubs that have done marginally well but none of them have done better than the third tier. Almas Roma, founded in 1944, played for four seasons in Serie C2 towards the end of the 1970s; Banco di Roma, founded in 1970, played five times in Serie C2 before it disbanded in 1983; Lodigiani, founded in 1972, was the more successful of Rome’s third teams spending many seasons in Serie C1 and later changed name to first Cisco Roma and then Atletico Roma before going bust; MATER, founded in 1933, even made it to Serie B in 1942-43 before folding over financial difficulties following the second world war; Chinotto Neri, founded in 1950, played once in the third tier and a few seasons in the fourth before stopping activity in 1957 merging first into Fedit and then Tevere Roma; the latter, founded in 1959, played in the third tier until the mid 1960s and in the fourth until the early 1970s; Astrea, founded in 1948, played six consecutive seasons between 1990 and 1996 in Serie C2; Ostiamare, founded in 1945, spent a couple of years in Serie C2 starting from the end of the 1980s and for the 2026-27 season will be playing in the third tier for the first time.
In the rest of the region Frosinone has played three times in Serie A (always relegated) and is about to start its fourth season, Latina has been in Serie B four times and once went close to promotion and Rieti played twice in the second tier after World War II. The rest have never gone better than the third tier.
Consequences of the new Serie A
Of the 95 Serie A championships contested from 1929–30 to 2025–26, 72 have been won by Juventus, Inter and Milan. Genoa, Pro Vercelli and Casale, who had won 17 titles out of 28 prior to 1929-30, have never won since.
With few short term exceptions, Torino in the 1940s and Bologna a decade earlier, wins outside of the three stripped clubs has been sporadic, more of a one-off and not backed by continuity.
The move to a more professional-based league has favoured those clubs which were financially and politically, both sport politics and non, stronger than all of the others. This however did not just happen in Italy. In Spain, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid have won 80% of the titles and in Germany, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Mönchengladbach have won 70%. In England and France it has been more even over the course of time. Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal have dominated some periods but have faced harsh competition particularly in the recent years from Chelsea and Manchester City. In France, the last 15 years have been dominated by PSG but in the past there have been consistent wins from Saint Etienne, Marseille and Lyon.
If we compare this to NBA and NFL we can see that in US basketball the top three winners have won 54% of the titles whereas in the US Football it has been just 27%. There are enormous differences (no promotion or relegation for example) but there is something we can learn. The salary caps and a more equal revenue sharing iron out the differences and make the leagues more competitive.
In the Premier League revenue from the TV is divided 50% equally among all clubs, 25% based on league position ("merit payments") and 25% based on the number of televised matches ("facility fees"). In Italy 50% equally among clubs, 28% based on sporting results and 22% based on audience/supporter criteria which includes historical results, number of fans and city population. As a consequence in Premier League the ratio between first and last is roughly 1.5–1.7:1, whereas in Serie A The ratio between top and bottom is closer to 2–3:1.
The domination in Serie A of the big three will continue. They have acquired very large debts, but their political importance is so massive that the Federation has allowed them to continue spending incessantly without intervening because the “brand” is too strong. Unless major checks are put in place to lessen debts, there is little room for others.
AS Roma an inevitability but…
AS Roma was created to compete on a par with the big three. Ultimately the idea was not a bad one, but, with rare occasional exceptions, it has failed. But had it never happened, Alba and Fortitudo would never have survived alone and in the long run would have been forced to join forces either together or with Lazio. AS Roma, or something similar, would have been inevitable anyway.
The move to a more professional culture did halt the development of football structures in the capital. All of the places were football had been played up to 1927 gradually disappeared. Only Campo Rondinella was able to survive at least until the late 1950s. Campo Testaccio was used by Roma until 1939-40 then taken down. The Stadio Nazionale first and the Stadio Olimpico later meant that no more stadiums were needed and in case they were, there was the Stadio Flaminio, which was built in place of the Stadio Nazionale for the 1960 Olympic games.
As far as Lazio is concerned, we can only hope that the restructured Stadio Flaminio will generate an interest in future investors, and pump in the necessary large financial resources needed to be on a par with Juventus, Milan and Inter.
Sources
Various pages on Lazio Wiki, Wikipedia and Lazio Stories