1914–15 Prima Categoria

Prima Categoria
Season	1914–15
Champions	Genoa; 7th title
	← 1913–14 1919–20 →

The 1914–15 Prima Categoria season was won by Genoa.

This championship was suspended due to Italy entering World War I.

Despite the season not concluding, Genoa was declared champion by the Federation after the end of the War, because it was on top of the table with one game remaining in Northern Italy Final Round.^[1]^[2]

Regulation

Struggles between minor and major clubs continued. As a compromise, the championship was divided in a preliminary regional phase of ten matchdays, while the following national phase was split into a semifinal round and a final round of six matchdays each. More, the championship would be split in two categories, A and B, for 1915–16 season. However, finally the championship was expanded to 36 clubs.

The main tournament was split in six groups of six clubs. First and second clubs, together with the four best third teams, advanced to the national championship. Fourth place and worse clubs would be relegated to the new "Category B".

National championship was split in four groups of four clubs. Group winners advanced to the final group of four clubs. The whole tournament consequently had twenty-two matchdays.

The experimental Southern groups had their own special regulations.

Teams

Veloces Biella for Piedmont, Cremonese for Lombardy, Padova for Veneto and Audax Modena for Emilia had been promoted. Two relegated clubs were re-elected. More, minor clubs voted to expand the championship so Acqui, Valenzana, Savoia Milan and Swiss side FC Chiasso were invited to join.

Main tournament

Qualifications

The first two teams of every group and the best four teams that finished third, advanced to the semifinals.

Group A and B were organized by the Turin committee, group C and D and E by the Milan committee, and group F by the Venice committee.

Group A

Classification

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Genoa	10	9	0	1	61	5	+56	18	Qualified for Semi-Finals
2	Alessandria	10	6	2	2	36	7	+29	14
3	Andrea Doria	10	6	1	3	20	18	+2	13
4	Savona (T)	10	4	2	4	17	23	−6	10	1915 –16 Cat.B never played
5	Acqui (R)	10	1	1	8	5	62	−57	3	Relegated
6	AC Ligure (H)	10	0	2	8	8	32	−24	2	Acquired by Sampierdarena^[3]

Source: Panini
(H) Hosts; (R) Relegated; (T) Qualified, but not yet for the particular phase indicated

Results table

Home \ Away	LIG	ACQ	ALE	ADO	GEN	SVN
AC Ligure		2–2	0–3	1–3	1–4	2–2
Acqui	3–1		0–9	0–3	0–16	0–5
Alessandria	5–0	6–0		2–2	3–0	5–0
Andrea Doria	4–1	4–0	2–1		0–8	1–0
Genoa	3–0	12–0	2–1	3–0		7–0
Savona	3–0	4–0	1–1	2–1	0–6

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005 (in Italian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Group B

Classification

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Torino	10	9	1	0	37	8	+29	19	Qualified for Semi-Finals
2	Juventus	10	7	1	2	46	14	+32	15
3	Vigor Torino	10	7	0	3	27	20	+7	14
4	Valenzana (T)	10	2	2	6	10	30	−20	6	1915 –16 Cat.B never played
5	Piemonte (E)	10	2	1	7	12	33	−21	5	Disbanded
6	Veloces (T)	10	0	1	9	8	35	−27	1	1915 –16 Cat.B never played

Source: Panini
(E) Eliminated; (T) Qualified, but not yet for the particular phase indicated

Results table

Home \ Away	JUV	PIE	TOR	VAL	VEL	VTO
Juventus		8–1	2–7	6–0	5–0	2–3
Piemonte	2–6		0–2	2–2	2–0	2–6
Torino	1–1	4–0		4–0	4–1	5–2
Valenzana	0–9	2–0	0–3		4–1	0–2
Veloces	0–4	2–3	1–2	1–1		1–3
Vigor Torino	0–3	1–0	1–5	2–1	7–1

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005 (in Italian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Group C

Savoia Milano forfeited before the start of the Championship.

Classification

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Pro Vercelli	8	6	1	1	20	6	+14	13	Qualified for Semi-Finals
2	Casale	8	5	2	1	14	3	+11	12
3	Novara	8	4	0	4	12	8	+4	8
4	Nazionale Lombardia (T)	8	3	1	4	10	22	−12	7	1915 –16 Categoria B never played
5	Racing Libertas Milan (T)	8	0	0	8	4	21	−17	0	1915 –16 Categoria B never played
6	Savoia Milan (E)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Disbanded

Source: Panini
(E) Eliminated; (T) Qualified, but not yet for the particular phase indicated

Results table

Home \ Away	CSL	NLO	NOV	PVE	RAC
Casale		6–0	1–0	2–0	1–0
Nazionale Lombardia	1–1		1–2	1–3	4–1
Novara	1–0	0–1		1–2	5–0
Pro Vercelli	1–1	9–0	1–0		2–1
Racing Libertas Milano	0–2	0–2	2–3	0–2

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005 (in Italian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Group D

Classification

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Milan	10	9	1	0	52	3	+49	19	Qualified for Semi-Finals
2	Juventus Italia	10	4	5	1	27	16	+11	13	Qualified for Semi-Finals
3	Bologna	10	2	5	3	15	24	−9	9
4	AC Milanese (E)	10	3	2	5	26	19	+7	8	Disbanded
5	Chiasso (T)	10	2	3	5	24	37	−13	7	1915 –16 Cat.B never played
6	Audax Modena (E)	10	2	0	8	14	59	−45	4	Disbanded

Source: Panini
(E) Eliminated; (T) Qualified, but not yet for the particular phase indicated

Results table

Home \ Away	USM	AMO	BOL	CHI	JIT	MIL
AC Milanese		9–0	1–2	10–1	0–0	0–3
Audax Modena	2–4		4–1	2–0	2–4	0–2
Bologna	1–1	4–2		3–3	0–0	0–1
Chiasso	3–1	9–1	2–2		4–4	1–7
Juventus Italia	2–0	13–1	1–1	2–1		0–6
Milan	5–0	13–0	9–1	5–0	1–1

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005 (in Italian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Group E

Classification

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Internazionale	10	9	0	1	60	8	+52	18	Qualified for Semi-Finals
2	Como	10	5	2	3	22	20	+2	12	Qualified for Semi-Finals
3	US Milanese	10	3	4	3	21	32	−11	10
4	Brescia (T)	10	3	2	5	10	18	−8	8	1915 –16 Categoria B never played
4	Cremonese (T)	10	4	0	6	15	25	−10	8
6	Modena (T)	10	1	2	7	13	38	−25	4

Source: Panini
(T) Qualified, but not yet for the particular phase indicated

Results table

Home \ Away	BRE	COM	CRE	INT	MOD	USM
Brescia		2–0	2–0	0–2	3–1	1–1
Como	2–0		1–0	3–2	7–0	2–2
Cremonese	2–1	1–2		1–5	4–2	5–4
Internazionale	8–0	6–0	6–0		8–0	12–1
Modena	1–1	4–2	0–1	1–7		3–3
US Milanese	1–0	3–3	2–1	2–4	2–1

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005 (in Italian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Group F

Classification

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Vicenza	10	8	0	2	43	13	+30	16	Qualified for Semi-Finals
2	Hellas Verona	10	7	1	2	28	15	+13	15
3	Venezia	10	4	4	2	23	18	+5	12
4	Padova (T)	10	3	1	6	23	37	−14	7	1915 –16 Categoria B never played
5	Udinese (T)	10	2	2	6	15	24	−9	6
6	Petrarca Padova (T)	10	2	0	8	11	36	−25	4

Source: Panini
(T) Qualified, but not yet for the particular phase indicated

Results table

Home \ Away	HEL	PAD	PET	UDI	VEN	VIC
Hellas Verona		7–2	4–3	2–0	1–1	1–0
Padova	2–5		2–0	4–1	3–5	1–3
Petrarca Padova	1–5	3–2		2–1	0–2	2–7
Udinese	0–4	2–0	3–2		1–0	0–1
Venezia	3–0	2–4	2–0	2–2		0–2
Vicenza	3–2	10–2	6–0	5–1	6–1

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005 (in Italian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Semifinals

Group A

Classification

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Genoa	6	5	1	25	5	+20	10	Qualified for Final Group
2	Casale	6	4	2	9	9	0	8
3	Juventus	6	3	3	13	15	−2	6
4	Venezia	6	0	6	4	22	−18	0

Source: Panini

Results

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Genoa	4 - 0	Juventus
Casale	2 - 1	Venezia
Juventus	4 - 2	Casale
Venezia	0 - 3	Genoa
Genoa	3 - 0	Casale
Juventus	2 - 0 (F)	Venezia

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Juventus	2 - 5	Genoa
Venezia	0 - 1	Casale
Casale	2 - 0 (F)	Juventus
Genoa	9 - 1	Venezia
Casale	2 - 1	Genoa
Venezia	2 - 5	Juventus

Group B

Classification

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Milan	6	4	1	1	9	6	+3	9	Qualified for Final Group
2	Alessandria	6	3	1	2	7	5	+2	7
3	Vigor Torino	6	2	0	4	9	10	−1	4
3	Novara	6	2	0	4	9	13	−4	4

Source: Panini

Results

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Alessandria	2 - 0	Vigor Torino
Novara	1 - 2	Milan
Milan	2 - 1	Alessandria
Vigor Torino	4 - 1	Novara
Alessandria	2 - 0 (F)	Novara
Milan	2 - 0 (F)	Vigor Torino

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Milan	2 - 1	Novara
Vigor Torino	0 - 1	Alessandria
Alessandria	0 - 0	Milan
Novara	3 - 2	Vigor Torino
Novara	3 - 1	Alessandria
Vigor Torino	3 - 1	Milan

Group C

Classification

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Torino	6	6	0	18	3	+15	12	Qualified for Final Group
2	Pro Vercelli	6	4	2	12	6	+6	8
3	Hellas Verona	6	1	5	10	16	−6	2
3	Como	6	1	5	4	19	−15	2

Source: Panini

Results

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Pro Vercelli	5 - 0	Como
Torino	3 - 1	Hellas Verona
Como	1 - 5	Torino
Hellas Verona	2 - 3	Pro Vercelli
Como	3 - 0	Hellas Verona
Torino	3 - 0	Pro Vercelli

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Como	0 - 1	Pro Vercelli
Hellas Verona	1 - 4	Torino
Pro Vercelli	3 - 0	Hellas Verona
Torino	2 - 0 (F)	Como
Pro Vercelli	0 - 1	Torino
Hellas Verona	6 - 0	Como

Group D

Classification

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Internazionale	6	4	1	1	27	2	+25	9	Qualified for Final Round
2	Andrea Doria	6	3	1	2	11	10	+1	7
3	Vicenza	6	2	1	3	8	23	−15	5
3	Juventus Italia	6	1	1	4	6	17	−11	3

Source: Panini

Results

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Internazionale	16 - 0	Vicenza
Juventus Italia	1 - 1	Andrea Doria
Andrea Doria	1 - 0	Internazionale
Juventus Italia	2 - 0 (F)	Vicenza
Juventus Italia	1 - 4	Internazionale
Vicenza	4 - 0	Andrea Doria

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Andrea Doria	4 - 2	Juventus Italia
Vicenza	0 - 0	Internazionale
Internazionale	3 - 0	Andrea Doria
Vicenza	4 - 0	Juventus Italia
Andrea Doria	4 - 0	Vicenza
Internazionale	2 - 0	Juventus Italia

Final round

Classification

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Genoa (C)	5	3	1	1	13	11	+2	7	Champions (officially after WWI)
2	Torino	5	1	3	1	11	7	+4	5
2	Internazionale	5	2	1	2	11	12	−1	5
4	Milan	5	0	3	2	4	9	−5	3

Source: Panini
(C) Champions

Results table

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Milan	1 - 1	Genoa
Torino	2 - 2	Internazionale
Genoa	5 - 3	Internazionale
Milan	1 - 1	Torino
Internazionale	3 - 1	Milan
Torino	6 - 1	Genoa

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Genoa	3 - 0	Milan
Internazionale	2 - 1	Torino
Internazionale	1 - 3	Genoa
Torino	1 - 1	Milan
Genoa	-	Torino
Milan	-	Internazionale

Southern Italy tournament

Central and Southern Italy Final Round not played because Italy entered World War I on May 24, 1915. Consequently, even the National Finals could not be played.

Footnotes

^ "War, weather and working weeks: the previous times football has been halted in England". BBC Sport. 26 March 2020. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
^ In 1920, Torino and Inter appealed against Genoa’s victory, but FIGC finally rejected the request in 1922: [Carlo F. Chiesa, 1915-1920, in "La grande storia del calcio italiano", nº 8 (C), Guerin Sportivo, August 2012]. After a hundred years, in 2015, a group of Lazio supporters asked the Italian Football Federation to assign the title to both Genoa and Lazio, because Lazio was the winner of the Central Italy Semifinal Round even if Southern Italy Round was not completed: Francesco Saverio Intorcia (21 July 2016). "Lazio, scudetto 1915, ecco la relazione". Retrieved 22 February 2019.
^ Following bankruptcy, AC Ligure players were acquired by a Sampierdarena new management which consequently became AC Sampierdarenese. However, FIGC did not ratified the merger so the club had to play a test match in 1919 to confirm its championship spot.

References and sources

Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005

[1] "War, weather and working weeks: the previous times football has been halted in England". BBC Sport. 26 March 2020. Retrieved 27 March 2020.

[2] In 1920, Torino and Inter appealed against Genoa’s victory, but FIGC finally rejected the request in 1922: [Carlo F. Chiesa, 1915-1920, in "La grande storia del calcio italiano", nº 8 (C), Guerin Sportivo, August 2012]. After a hundred years, in 2015, a group of Lazio supporters asked the Italian Football Federation to assign the title to both Genoa and Lazio, because Lazio was the winner of the Central Italy Semifinal Round even if Southern Italy Round was not completed: Francesco Saverio Intorcia (21 July 2016). "Lazio, scudetto 1915, ecco la relazione". Retrieved 22 February 2019.

[3] Following bankruptcy, AC Ligure players were acquired by a Sampierdarena new management which consequently became AC Sampierdarenese. However, FIGC did not ratified the merger so the club had to play a test match in 1919 to confirm its championship spot.

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