The 1944 Divisione Nazionale, better known as Campionato Alta Italia was a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

championship organized by the

Italian Social Republic The Italian Social Republic (, ; RSI; , ), known prior to December 1943 as the National Republican State of Italy (; SNRI), but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò (, ), was a List of World War II puppet states#Germany, German puppe ...

and disputed in

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating ...

and

Central Italy Central Italy ( or ) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first-level NUTS region with code ITI, and a European Parliament constituency. It has 11,704,312 inhabita ...

in 1944 among

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

and

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

teams plus others. The tournament was won by

Spezia La Spezia (, or ; ; , in the local ) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second-largest city in the Liguri ...

, and officially recognized as an "honorary" title by the

Italian Football Federation The Italian Football Federation (, ; FIGC ), known colloquially as (), is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and Centro Tecnico Federale di Coverciano, the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence. It manages a ...

(FIGC) only in 2002, following a long dispute. Following the decision of FIGC in 2002, Spezia is authorized by the Italian Federation to exhibit a tricolour badge on the official jerseys which is unique, being the only example of a permanent one in Italy. The badge has a different shape and size compared to the ordinary Scudetto.

Background

Following the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

liberation of

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

and later

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

in 1943, Italy suffered heavy

bombing A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...

s by the Allied Powers. The consequent multiple damages on

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

s and

street A street is a public thoroughfare in a city, town or village, typically lined with Building, buildings on one or both sides. Streets often include pavements (sidewalks), pedestrian crossings, and sometimes amenities like Street light, streetligh ...

s imposed to the FIGC to plan a special mixed championship for the 1943–44 season, with three different regional groups to reduce the teams movements. However, at the eve of his dismissal,

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...

suspended all sport activities. After Italy defeat in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, with the country divided by the "Gothic Line", the Italian Football Federation split in two: while the official FIGC remained in the south, under the rule by the Kingdom of Italy, the northern FIGC, ruled by the Italian Social Republic, moved its headquarters to Milan and organized a "campionato di divisione nazionale misto" (mixed national division championship). The so-called ''Campionato Alta Italia'' (High Italy Championship) was the only Italian championship organized on a more than regional basis: in Central and Southern Italy many regional championship were held. Originally, the Roman Championship won by Lazio was part of the Alta Italia qualifications, but the

Liberation of Rome The Battle of Anzio was a battle of the Italian Campaign of World War II that commenced January 22, 1944. The battle began with the Allied amphibious landing known as Operation Shingle, and ended on June 4, 1944, with the liberation of Rome. T ...

changed the plan. The Spezia players had to obtain the status of Firefighters from the La Spezia local command in order to be able to play football games traveling to other cities, as freedom of movement was restricted during war time in Italy. Similarly, Torino Calcio players were allowed to move freely and play football carrying FIAT documents. In 1944 the

Grande Torino The was the historic Italian football team of Torino Football Club in the 1940s, five-time champions of Italy, whose players were the backbone of the Italy national team and died on 4 May 1949 in the plane crash known as the Superga air di ...

, similarly to Spezia as VVFF, participated with the denomination Torino FIAT. In the northern FIGC's original plans, the winning team in the tournament would have been recognized as Champion of Italy; however; after the end of the championship, a statement from the northern Federation, following political pressure, announced that Spezia wouldn't be awarded the "Scudetto" title. Only in 2002 the Spezia title was officially recognised by FIGC as a decoration. Following the decision of FIGC in 2002,

Spezia Calcio Spezia Calcio is an Italian professional Association football, football club based in La Spezia, Liguria, currently competing in the Serie B. Spezia Calcio was founded in 1906 by the Swiss banker Hermann Hurni (or Hurny in some documents), who ...

is authorized by the Italian Federation to exhibit a tricolour badge on the official jerseys which is unique, being the only example of a permanent one in Italy. The badge has a different shape and size compared to the ordinary Scudetto.

Qualifications

Piedmont and Liguria

Standings

Results

Lombardy

Standings

Results

;Tie-breaker

Varese Varese ( , ; or ; ; ; archaic ) is a city and ''comune'' in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, north-west of Milan. The population of Varese in 2018 was 80,559. It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or exurban part ...

advanced to the semifinals

Veneto

Group A

;Standings ;Results

Group B

;Results

Final round

Treviso Treviso ( ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 87.322 inhabitants (as of December 2024). Some 3,000 live within the Venetian wall ...

and

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...

withdrew before the start of the round Both Venezia and Verona were admitted to the semifinals.

Venezia Giulia

Standings

Results

Emilia

Group A

;Standings ;Results

Group B

;Standings ;Results

Group C

;Standings ;Results

Group D

;Standings ;Results

Tuscany

Standings

The qualified team, Lucchese, was excluded from the championship following the allied invasion of Tuscany.

Lazio

Standings

Lazio was excluded from the championship following the

liberation of Rome The Battle of Anzio was a battle of the Italian Campaign of World War II that commenced January 22, 1944. The battle began with the Allied amphibious landing known as Operation Shingle, and ended on June 4, 1944, with the liberation of Rome. T ...

. The organisation of the regional tournament, from then on known as '' Campionato romano di guerra 1943-1944'', was taken over by the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy (, ) was a unitary state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy wa ...

Semifinals

Group A (Piedmont and Lombardy)

Standings

Results

Group B (Veneto and Venezia Giulia)

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

withdrew before the start of the semifinals.

Standings

Results

Group C (Emilia)

Round 1

=Group A

= ;Standings ;Results

=Group B

= ;Standings ;Results

Round 2

VV.FF. Spezia didn't play the semifinals, due to the retirement of Lucchese (the semifinalist of Tuscany), and they were directly admitted to the final.

Final round

Standings

Results

References and sources

*Fabrizio Calzia and Paolo Rabajoli, ''Lo Scudetto per sempre – I Vigili del fuoco della Spezia Campioni d’Italia 1944'', Sagep e Il Secolo XIX

Footnotes

External links

- All results on Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation, RSSSF Website. {{Portal bar, Association football, Italy Italian Football Championship seasons

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

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