The ''scudetto'' (; Italian for 'little shield') is a decoration having the colors of the flag of Italy which is sewn onto the jersey of the Italian sports clubs that won the highest level championship of their respective sport in the previous season. The ''scudetto'' was created in the 1920s to honour the winner of the national association football league (in 1929 rebranded as

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 the first team to wear it was

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

in 1924. Later, it was adopted by the teams of other sports. The word ''scudetto'' is also used to indicate the Serie A trophy; "winning the ''scudetto''" is a synonym of "winning Serie A".

Origin

Sources generally agree that Italian poet and playwright Gabriele D'Annunzio was the inventor of the ''scudetto''. In his youth, D'Annunzio was an avid football enthusiast. In 1887, he bought a leather football in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

from the same manufacturer that supplied the

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, and he would play often with his friends on the beaches of his hometown,

Pescara Pescara (; ; ) is the capital city of the province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo Regions of Italy, region of Italy. It is the most populated city in Abruzzo, with 118,657 (January 1, 2023) residents (and approximately 350,000 including the surround ...

. In 1920, the former Austro-Hungarian city of

Fiume Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and in 2021 had a po ...

(now the

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Rijeka Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...

) was annexed to Italy. Following this event, D'Annunzio proposed that the local football team acknowledge supporting the Italian sovereignty over the city with a tricolored shield of

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and red on their jerseys. In 1924, 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 ...

approved the decision to honour the defending champions allowing them to wear the ''scudetto'' on their jerseys. The Italian rugby union championship which started in 1928 became the second league to adopt the ''scudetto'' on a team's jersey to indicate a title-holding team. Since then, the ''scudetto'' has become the symbol of the defending champions of every sports league in Italy. Other countries including

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

and

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

also have their reigning champions wear a national symbol on their chests.

References

{{National symbols of Italy National championships in Italy Sport in Italy Sports symbols Sports terminology Gabriele D'Annunzio National symbols of Italy

Origin

See also

References