Bologna Football Club 1909 is a football club from the city of Bologna in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna that was formed on October 3rd 1909 as Bologna Football Club by an Austrian called Emilio Arnstein.
The club played its first game the following March before starting out in regional football while playing at Prati di Caprara; which is nearby to where Maggiore Hospital now stands before moving on to Campo Cesoia when joining the national Prima Categoria in 1911-12.
The team played in Group Veneto-Emiliano of the Italia Nord section of the competition for four seasons until the outbreak of World War One having moved into Stadio Sterlino in 1913 where they constructed grandstands from scratch in the previously bare field.
Back in action Hermann Felsner was soon appointed as the first manager/head coach of the club as Bologna topped the Emilia-Romagna title in 1919-20; which was backed up the following season. The team progressed to the northern final where they were defeated by Pro Vercelli.
Angelo Schiavio began his illustrious career with Bologna in 1922 which would eventually see him net over 100 goals for the club before they fell in the northern final to Genoa in 1923-24. However, Bologna would not be denied the following season.
‘I Rossoblù’, the red and blues saw off Genoa in a series of matches marred by crowd disorder before defeating Alba Roma 6-0 on aggregate to become champions of Italy before falling in the northern final in 1925-26 to Juventus.
Bologna moved into the newly constructed Stadio Littoriale in 1927 before lifting a second Scudetto in 1928-29 as they won Divisione Nazionale after a tie-break victory over Torino in Rome before the round robin Serie A was introduced for the 1929-30 season.
Felsner headed off to take up other coaching appointments over the following years as Bologna tinkered to find the right man to fill his shoes. The team ended as runners-up in 1931-32 under Gyula Lelovics.
Árpád Weisz led the team who won the Serie A title in 1935-36 and again the following season as Carlo Reguzzoni came to prominence for his goalscoring in a career that would merit nearly 400 hundred appearances in the red and blue.
Felsner returned in 1938, as Bologna became Italian champions for a fifth time with Ettore Puricelli topping the scoring charts. The club won Serie A once again in 1940-41 with Amedeo Biavati, Reguzzoni and Mario Pagotto making most appearances.
World War Two saw the team break up. Alexander Popovic was the first head coach when football resumed at the renamed Stadio Comunale di Bologna. The club went through a succession of head coaches as they tried to emulate the successes of the past.
The goals of Gino Cappello along with those from Cesarino Cervellati, Giancarlo Bacci, Gino Pivatelli, Ezio Pascutti offered hope but fourth place under Giuseppe Viani in 1954-55 was the best that the decade could offer.
The appointment of Fulvio Bernardini in 1961 would be rewarded with success with Marino Perani and then Harald Nielsen netting regularly. A seventh Scudetto was lifted in 1963-64 as William Negri, Carlo Furlanis, Helmut Haller and Francesco Janich appeared in every Serie A game.
Bernardini headed off to Sampdoria in 1966 after taking Bologna to a runners-up spot in his final season. Luis Carniglia took over and led the team to the last eight of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1966-67 before going out to Leeds United.
The team reached the semi-finals of the same competition in 1967-68, where they were defeated by Ferencváros. Three further coaches came and went before Edmondo Fabbri’s arrival in 1969.
In his first season at the helm, Bologna lifted the Coppa Italia for the first time as they finished top of the final group thanks in part to the goals of Giuseppe Savoldi, legendary midfielder Giacomo Bulgarelli, on his way to becoming the club record appearance holder and Lucio Mujesan.
The 1973-74 campaign under the leadership of Bruno Pesaola saw Bologna lift the Coppa Italia for a second time. They trailed Palermo in the Rome final deep into stoppage time when they were awarded a controversial penalty which was converted by Savoldi, before winning on penalties.
Savoldi moved on in 1975 and was replaced by Sergio Clerici and Stefano Chiodi before the favourite returned in 1979. After several moderate seasons and a high turnover of head coaches, Bologna were relegated in 1981-82 under Tarcisio Burgnich.
Worse was to follow as the team were relegated to the third tier Serie C1 in 1982-83. In the summer of 1983 Stadio Comunale was renamed Stadio Renato Dall'Ara in honour of the former club president of thirty years who oversaw four Scudetto triumphs.
Bologna regained their Serie B place at the first time of asking as Giancarlo Cadè led the team. Luigi Maifredi was head coach as the Serie B title was lifted in 1987-88 with Lorenzo Marronaro scoring the goals.
Bologna qualified for the UEFA Cup in 1990-91 and reached the quarter final before going out to Sporting CP but Luigi Radice couldn’t save his side from relegation in the same season despite the goals of Kubilay Türkyılmaz.
The downward spiral continued as I Rossoblù went back down to Serie C1 in 1992-93 as four different coaches were employed throughout the campaign. The club was declared bankrupt in the summer of 1993 and reformed as Bologna Football Club 1909.
Renzo Ulivieri led the team to the Serie C1 title in 1994-95 with Luca Cecconi topping the goals chart before Bologna won Serie B in 1995-96. Carlo Nervo top scored as the club returned to the top flight.
Roberto Baggio and Kennet Andersson gave Bologna fans plenty to cheer about in the 1997-98 season before Carlo Mazzone took over as coach and bringing in Giuseppe Signori before he was succeeded by Francesco Guidolin in July 1999.
Mazzone returned in August 2003, remaining in charge until the team was relegated in 2004-05 after losing a tie-break game against Parma. Claudio Bellucci and then Massimo Marazzina chipped in with the goals which led to promotion in 2007-08 with Daniele Arrigoni coaching the team.
Off the pitch ownership of the club saw a series of wrangling which would see it change hands several times with a succession of coaches not helping stability on the pitch. The consortium, Bologna 2010, took control in December 2010 with the club in danger of bankruptcy once again.
The changes in ownership and head coaches continued before Bologna employed Stefano Pioli who calmed things down from October 2011 before the team were relegated in 2013-14 as Davide Ballardini took charge for the second half of the season despite the efforts of Alberto Gilardino and Alessandro Diamanti.
The sale of Diamanti in February 2014 raised the ire of the loyal red and blue support. Relegation unveiled serious financial problems. New coach Diego López was appointed before owner Albino Guaraldi sold the club to North American group BFC 1909 Lux SPV in October 2014.
Bologna reached the play-offs in 2014-15 and won back their Serie A place after victories over Avellino and then Pescara. Delio Rossi was brought in to replace López, but only lasted a few months until he was jettisoned for the arrival of Roberto Donadoni by owner Joey Saputo.
The side was captained by Archimede Morleo and then Daniele Gastaldello as Bologna consolidated their Serie A position with Simone Verdi providing the creative flair in the 2017-18 season with Filippo Inzaghi replacing Donodoni in June 2018.
Inzaghi lasted in the hot seat until January 2019 until he was replaced by Siniša Mihajlović for his second spell at the club, as the team skippered by Blerim Džemaili finished the 2018-19 campaign in tenth place.
Bologna were in the same position when the COVID-19 virus halted the 2019-20 season with Andrea Poli as captain and Riccardo Orsolini topping the scoring charts.
Bologna FC 1909 will play in Serie A in the 2020-21 season.
My visit
England 1 Belgium 0 after extra time (Tuesday 26th June 1990) World Cup Second Round (att: 34,520)
We were in remarkably good condition and in excellent spirits at the thought of watching England at such a great event. We were also remarkably naive! On our way to try and find the Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, and hopefully some tickets, we bumped into a AFC Bournemouth fan, Darren and Aston Villa fan Brian.
We made conversation and asked general advice. They were into their third week as they’d been in Sardinia for the group games. Some of their tales were pretty enlightening. To highlight our naivety they offered us drinks from a huge bottle after they came out of a shop and I naturally assumed it was lemonade. I didn’t realise it was necessary to buy bottled water.
The ticket queue outside the stadium
on the Sunday of our arrival.
We registered as members of the England Travel Club and hoped!
We got to the stadium but it was all locked up and there were no tickets available at that time. There was an official FA hut next door. Nick and myself filled out forms to become England travel club members on the understanding that the forms would be available at the next round if we progressed.
The lads told us they were staying on a camp site in the seaside resort of Rimini. It seemed cheap and a good idea to get out of the way. It was an hour away and we had free train travel, so we went along with the idea. We stayed there for the next two nights before the match.
Pitching our tent wasn't as easy as we’d thought but we weren’t bothered, especially after we went to a nice bar whose owner looked after us, after we had met up with some other top lads in Keith and Billy from Rugby. We travelled across the country to Genoa (see Sampdoria and Genoa posts) to watch Republic of Ireland v Romania which was a stroke of luck on the Monday.
By the time we returned some England fans had misbehaved, with plenty of intimidation in Rimini. They along with plenty of innocent fans, holiday makers and tourists from other countries were deported.
Nick tries to juggle his entire luggage outside
the stadium after the helpful local police unpacked
all our belongings.
On the day of the match we managed to pick up tickets from locals at Rimini station. Many had been handed out to locals to fill up the stadiums so as to make the stadiums look full, and they were taking full advantage. At Bologna station the local police ushered us onto awaiting buses destined to the stadium.
We were assured that there would be places to leave our luggage at the stadium, but of course this was a lie. This meant the police had to go through everyone’s luggage, taking great delight at confiscating as much stuff as possible at the same time.
We eventually got in to find our tickets were in the next block to most of the England fans behind the goal. There was no stewarding so we simply moved. Our block had consisted of Belgians and locals. People just stood wherever they wanted despite the stadium being all seated.
The Stadio Renato Dall'Ara was mainly an open bowl of yellow seats, save for a roof over the Main Stand where the VIP’s and media congregated. A brick tower was at the rear of the stand on the opposite side.
The atmosphere gradually built up. We were in the stadium from about ninety minutes before kick off. The England fans were sick and tired of the locals and the authorities who obviously wanted to see us knocked out and sent home. When the Mexican Wave circulated, the England fans remained still in their seats and offered loud advice, much to the annoyance of everyone else.
The game was tight. England played OK, but so did Belgium, who hit the woodwork three times. The England fans were getting nervy, and some did the rest of us no favours when they clashed with the Belgians. Needless to say the local caribinieri needed no second invitation to use brute force to sort things out.
The match was goalless and went into extra time. Some England fans were getting annoyed that the team weren’t attacking enough. Then with seconds remaining we got a free kick. Paul Gascoigne floated it into the area, where substitute David Platt span and volleyed the ball back across goal and into the corner.
Absolute mayhem broke out. The final whistle went soon afterwards and the players came across to us, with Gazza and Chris Waddle dancing as “Let’s all have a disco” broke out. To see David Platt's wonder goal, click here:
We eventually went to the pile of luggage that had formed and collected our gear. We filed out after a long wait with everyone letting the police know that we weren’t ready for going home. The buses on the way to the station were hot, packed and sweaty. Anyone with water shared it out. It was real camaraderie and us against them stuff. We sang all the way back to the station as the locals looked on as though they were watching a visiting freak show.
We all met up at the station and tried to sleep, but the police weren’t having it. We got on the very next train we could for the marathon journey south for the Quarter Final in the reportedly dangerous city of Naples. Click here for the Napoli section to find out how we got on.
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