The first football enthusiasts began to gather at Prati di Caprara — a diverse group of young men: alongside the Bolonios from the Royal College of Spain (Benito Álvarez Buylla y Lozana, Antonio Bernabeu, Miguel Angel Ortiz Milla, Natalio Rivas) there were typical Bolognese surnames such as Gradi, Lambertini and Della Valle, but also Pietro Bignardi, a student from Livorno, Louis Rauch, a Swiss dentist, Salvatore Chiara, a railway worker from Naples, and Emilio Arnstein, a sales agent from Prague, who was the most enterprising organiser of the group.
Bologna FC was not founded behind closed doors in a gym or an exclusive club, but from the bottom up, through spontaneous aggregation. However, funding, a headquarters and a statute were needed to transform that passion into a real club. Emilio Arnstein found the right support in the Circolo Turistico Bolognese, whose president agreed to host the founding assembly. Twenty-five young men met on Sunday, 3 October 1909 on the first floor of the Ronzani brewery in Via Spaderie — the premises of the Circolo, right in the city centre. They elected the club’s first officers: Louis Rauch as president and 15-year-old Guido Della Valle as vice-president. The captain's armband and the choice of the uniform were entrusted to Arrigo Gradi: the red and blue colours, borrowed from the uniform of the Swiss Wiget College in Rorschach where Gradi had studied, met with everyone's approval.
CAPTIONS
1 - Bologna FC’s first line-up 1909-10.
2 - Article from “Il Resto del Carlino” announcing the founding of Bologna FC, 4 October 1909.
3 - The Ronzani brewery.
4 - Louis Rauch, first president of Bologna FC.
5 - Group of students from the Collegio di Spagna, including Miguel Angel Ortiz Milla, president of Bologna FC in 1910, seated in the centre.