Genoa and Bologna will meet this weekend in a grudge match that goes back some 91 years to a clash that may well have been the most fractious meeting of any Italian championship
Although Genoa and Bologna may seem unlikely rivals now, in the pre-Serie A era, football in Italy was different and the two Rossoblu sides were forces to be reckoned with.
The 1920s were a fraught and difficult period in a Europe recovering from war. Football, perhaps, was not the sport in which the aftermath of the conflict was most obviously apparent, but the changing political landscape made its mark in all fields.
The rise of fascism in Italy was swift, taking root in Milan as World War One came to an end. By 1920, the Blackshirts were spreading outside Lombardy. Two years later, the Fascists had marched on Rome, and Mussolini was installed as Italy’s leader.
Bologna played host to one of Mussolini’s more famous speeches, in which he denounced non-Aryans, and it is fair to say that as the 1920s progressed, the city became more involved with the fascist movement. Numerous Italian cities did.
That political standing may not have played a direct role in the rise of the city’s football team, but they undoubtedly improved during the period. The arrival of the new regime was changing the footballing landscape and a meeting between Bologna and Genoa in 1925 was to illustrate this in the most pointed way.
The two teams were a contrast. Genoa had been at the top of the Italian game for over a quarter of a century and their Scudetto the previous season was their 9th. They were looking for a 10th, and to become the first side to earn the right to wear a star above their crest.
They had seen off a number of pretenders to their throne, but Bologna were evidently a rising force. In 1924, Genoa had won the Northern League playoff only after an abandonment because of a mass brawl in the second leg at the Stadio Sterlino. They were 2-1 to the good on aggregate at the time, but it was clear that tensions were high.
The two were to meet again for the right to face off against the Southern champions, a match-up viewed as a formality, in 1925. Both sides had won their respective divisions with some comfort, but with their nine titles in the bank already, Genoa were favourites.
The playoff was over two legs, so it wasn’t such a surprise to see Genoa win the first meeting of the contest away from home. Edoardo Catto’s 86th minute strike for the Grifone looked crucial, but it was Angelo Schiavio’s for the hosts three minutes later that proved to have a greater bearing.
Bologna went on to win the second leg by the same 2-1 scoreline, meaning a replay was needed, arranged for a week later, 7th June 1925, in Milan.
Just as in the first game, Cesare Alberti and Catto put Genoa 2-0 to the good, and the title looked to be heading to the team who had been the first to sport a shield on their chest that season. However, just after the hour mark, Bologna fashioned a chance that Giuseppe Muzzioli fired powerfully towards Giovanni De Pra’s goal.
The Genoese stopper appeared to put the ball round his post for a corner, but in doing so, prompted a pitch invasion from the Bolognese section of the stands. It did not take long to link the Blackshirts storming the field to the figure of Leandro Arpinati in the stands.
Arpinati was an important face for the fascist movement at this time, and a big name in Bologna; he was to become head of the city within 12 months. While stayed in his seat, distancing himself from the furore, the invaders met the referee with such vigour and force that he eventually changed his decision from corner kick to goal.
While Genoa seethed, Bologna found a second goal to draw them level. The saving grace for the nine-time champions was that, as the Felsinei were undoubtedly the cause of the interruption, the match should be awarded to them in the same way as the previous year’s had been.
Some reports even suggest the referee had told Genoa’s players that would be the case. Yet, at the full-time whistle, no such report was made, causing yet further consternation between the two.
With no blame apportioned, they had to agree on another replay, which took a month of wrangling and eventually ended in a similarly bad-tempered draw in Turin.
A further month down the line, the third replay, played early in the morning at a motor manufacturing plant in Milan ended with a 2-0 Bologna win.
In Genoa, their opponents have never been fully forgiven. The defeat became known as ‘the great theft’ and they have not won a Scudetto since. When they meet in Bologna on Sunday, they follow in the footsteps of some of Italy’s greatest ever players, but also one of the country’s greatest footballing scandals.
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com