The first documented football match in Italy was played in Bologna on 9 May 1891 as part of a gymnastics competition organised by the Virtus Physical Education Society for its twentieth anniversary. In the same years, in Turin, Genoa and then Milan, the first football clubs were emerging as the footballing offshoots of exclusive British cricket clubs. At the same time, gymnastics clubs pushed for a more popular and nationalistic vision of the game, which was destined to prevail over the cosmopolitan one. Riding a wave of widespread press coverage and the successes of Pro Vercelli, a team made up entirely of Italian players, in 1909 the Federazione Italiana Football became the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC), asserting a distinctly national identity.
In Bologna, from the early 1900s onwards, university students and young people from the middle classes began gathering at Prati di Caprara, outside Porta San Felice. The catalyst was Benito Álvarez Buylla y Lozana, a student at the Royal College of Spain, who managed to get a leather ball from England and became known as “the ball man” in the eyes of his companions. In November 1906, the first match featuring a Bologna representative team was organised: Felsineo Football Club together with Società Sportiva Studentesca versus Ferrara Football Club. Between 1906 and 1907, practice sessions at Prati di Caprara had become a regular occurrence: all that was missing was someone capable of turning that passion into a proper club.
CAPTIONS
1 – Friendly match played in Bologna against Black Star of Trieste, in which Emilio Arnstein, future founder of Bologna FC, was playing.
2 – Article from “L’Avvenire d’Italia” on 4 November 1906 reporting on the match between Felsineo FC and Ferrara FC.
3 – Map of Prati di Caprara.
4 – Photo of some students of the Collegio di Spagna in 1912.