# 1909 Italian Football Championship

The 1909 Italian Football Championship season was won by Pro Vercelli.
In this season, as in the previous one, two championships of Prima Categoria were played:
* Federal Championship, the first tournament where foreign players (if they lived in Italy) were also allowed to play; the winners would be proclaimed Campioni Federali (Federal Champions)
* Italian Championship, the second tournament where only Italian players were allowed to play; the winners would be proclaimed Campioni Italiani (Italian Champions)
The winner of Federal Championship was Pro Vercelli. They won as a prize Coppa Oberti.
The winner of Italian Championship was Juventus. They won as a prize Coppa Buni.
However, the "spurious international teams" (the clubs composed mostly of foreign players), adversing the autarchical policy of the FIF, decided to withdraw from Italian Championship in order to make the Federal competition the most relevant tournament and to diminish the Italian one. More, Pro Vercelli's victory of the Federal Championship (where Juventus was soon eliminated) with an all-Italian squad transformed the Italian Championship into a meaningless tournament. The dissenters' strategy worked out: the failure of the Italian Championship won by Juventus forced the Federation to later recognized the Federal Champions of Pro Vercelli as "Campioni d'Italia 1909", disavowing the other tournament.

## Federal Championship
### Qualifications
#### Liguria

    Played on 17 January and 7 February
| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Andrea Doria | 4-4 | Genoa | 1-1 | 3-3 |

##### Tie-break

    Played on 21 February on neutral ground
| Team 1 | Score | Team 2 |
| Andrea Doria | 1-2 | Genoa |

#### Lombardy
##### Classification

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | US Milanese | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | +4 | 4 | Qualified for Semi-Finals |
| 2 | Milan | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 2 | |
| 3 | Internazionale | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | −3 | 0 | |

##### Results

    Played on 10, 17 and 24 January
| Team 1 | Score | Team 2 |
| Milan | 3-2 | Internazionale |
| US Milanese | 3-1 | Milan |
| Internazionale | 0-2 | US Milanese |

#### Piedmont
##### Round 1

    Played on 10 and 17 January
| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Juventus | 3-2 | Torino | 0-1 | 3-1 |
Because both teams won a match (aggregate total was not applied), a tie break was needed.

###### Repetition

    Played on 24 January on Juventus ground
| Team 1 | Score | Team 2 |
| Juventus | 0-1 | Torino |
Torino advanced to Round 2.

##### Round 2

    Played on 7 February and 14 March
| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Pro Vercelli | 3-1 | Torino | 2-1 | 1-0 |

#### Veneto

Venezia was the only registered team.

## Semifinals
### Lombardy-Veneto

    Played on 21 February and 28 March
| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Venezia | 3-18 | US Milanese | 1-7 | 2-11 |

### Piedmont-Liguria

    Played on 21 and 28 March
| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Pro Vercelli | 4-3 | Genoa | 3-2 | 1-1 |

## Final

    Played on 4 and 25 April
| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Pro Vercelli | 4-2 | US Milanese | 2-0 | 2-2 |

## Italian Championship

* 1909 Italian Championship of Football

## References and sources

* ↑ "La gran finale del Campionato Federale". La Stampa. 22 February 1908. p. 5. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
* Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005
* Carlo Chiesa, La grande storia del calcio italiano Chapter 2: Juve, scippati due titoli! Inter, l'atroce beffa (1908-1910), pp. 17–32, Guerin Sportivo #5, May 2012.
* Digitalized online archive of Turin newspaper La Stampa.