Bologna F.C. 1909

After the first war, Bologna began to become more successful. First reaching the semi-finals of the Northern Italian competition in 1919–20, they went one better the following season by reaching the Northern League finals, going out 2–1 to Pro Vercelli. They would equal this again in 1923–24, coming runner up to eventual national champions Genoa.

Bologna became Northern and National League champions for the first time during 1924–25, beating Genoa CFC after five hard-fought final matches to take the championship. The finals against the Ligurian giants were marred by heavy crowd troubles. A few seasons later Bologna became champions of Italy for the second time in 1928–29 giving them a foothold in Italian football, building up a legacy, this was the last time the league was competed in the old system, Serie A was instated the following year.

1936–37 Italian champion Bologna.

The Scudetto was won by Bologna four more times before World War II, these were achieved in; 1935–36, 1936–37, 1938–39 and 1940–41.

After World War II, the club was less successful. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the club generally floated between fourth, fifth and sixth position in the league, until they took the league title back in 1963–64. To date this remains their last Serie A championship, bringing the club's total to seven. This qualified Bologna to the 1964–65 European Cup (today UEFA Champions League), but they were eliminated in the preliminary round against Anderlecht.

The last Bologna side to win the scudetto, in the 1963–64 season.

It was not all doom and gloom for the club, however; in the 1970s, they won the Italian Cup twice, the second of which was disputed against Palermo. The game was tense and finished 1–1 before going to a penalty shootout, where Bologna won 4–3.

Beginning in the 1981–82 season, the club began to slide. First, they were relegated from Serie A after battling it out for survival with Cagliari and Genoa. They were relegated twice in succession and slid into Serie C1. They won their way out of C1 the next year, and returned to Serie A for the 1988–89 season after four years of fighting it out in Serie B.

They did not remain long, however, being relegated in 1991 and returning to Serie C1 in 1993. The club returned to Serie A for 1996. Two years later, Bologna tasted a slice of success on the European stage, winning the UEFA Intertoto Cup and playing in the UEFA Cup. The club remained in Serie A until the 2004–05 campaign, losing to Parma in the playoffs.

Despite losing some key players, Bologna expected to be challenging strongly for promotion from Serie B in the 2005–06 campaign. Despite its ambition, however, Bologna had a poor start to the season, causing the sacking of experienced coach Renzo Ulivieri, replaced by former Internazionale defender Andrea Mandorlini.

During this time, the team was sold by Giuseppe Gazzoni Frascara to Alfredo Cazzola, a local entrepreneur. Mandorlini, however, was not either able to bring Bologna up the Serie B table, and was fired on 5 March 2006; Ulivieri was then appointed back as team coach, after having been sacked a few months before. Bologna ended the 2005–06 Serie B campaign in eighth place. In the 2006–07 season, Bologna ended with the seventh place: there were several clashes between chairman Cazzola and head coach Ulivieri, who was ultimately fired on 14 April 2007 and replaced by caretaker and former assistant coach Luca Cecconi. For the 2007–08 season, Bologna was led by Daniele Arrigoni, who helped the rossoblù achieve automatic promotion back to the top flight after finishing second in Serie B.

During the summer of 2008, a club takeover was agreed between Cazzola and an American-based consortium; this was, however, cancelled in the end, following disagreements between the parties, and the club was successively sold to a local group led by new chairman Francesca Menarini, who thus became the second female chairman in the whole Serie A. Arrigoni was confirmed as head coach by the new group, and the start appeared to be particularly impressive, with a surprising 2–1 win at San Siro against Milan thanks to a winning goal scored by Francesco Valiani. The next weeks saw Bologna struggling in the league, however, with eight losses in nine matches. A disappointing 5–1 loss to Cagliari ultimately led the club management to sack Daniele Arrigoni on 3 November 2008 and appoint Siniša Mihajlović as new rossoblù boss.[1]

On 14 April 2009, Giuseppe Papadopulo was appointed as the new manager, and successfully managed to raise the team spirit avoiding relegation to Serie B only in the last match of the season. In the 2009–10 season, Bologna played in Serie A for the 65th time, and escaped relegation again despite financial issues under new head coach Franco Colomba.

In June 2010, a club takeover was completed, with the club being sold by the Menarini family to Sardinian entrepreneur Sergio Porcedda. Franco Colomba was sacked right before the 2010–11 season opener on 29 August 2010, despite surviving relegation with the team in the 2009–10 season. The president of the club, Sergio Porcedda, said that the decision was made mostly "because he [Colomba] was skeptical of the team."[2]

On 23 December 2010, the consortium Bologna 2010 led by banker Giovanni Consorte and coffee businessman Massimo Zanetti acquired the club from Sergio Porcedda, after the latter failed to pay wages for the club during his short-tenured ownership and put Bologna in threat of bankruptcy. The company also owed agent fee to Leonardo Corsi in the Andrea Raggi's transfer.[3] Zanetti also became the new club chairman, with popular Italian musician and long-time Bologna supporter Gianni Morandi appointed as honorary president.[4][5]

On 21 January 2011, chairman Massimo Zanetti and CEO Luca Baraldi, after only 28 days, resigned because of irreconcilable differences with the other personal and financial partners. Stefano Pedrelli became the new director general. For 76 days, the chairman was Marco Pavignani.

From 7 April 2011, after the resignation of Pavignani and having paid €2.5m of capital increase, the new chairman was Albano Guaraldi,[6] the second largest shareholder of the consortium "Bologna 2010" with the 17% of the quotas, behind the outgoing Zanetti.

The 2013–14 season saw Bologna once again relegated to the Serie B, and also gave light to a number of financial problems involving the club and its ownership of Albino Guaraldi, who was considerably criticized by the team supporters also for a number of controversial decisions, including the sale of star player Alessandro Diamanti to Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande. A new head coach was then found in former Cagliari boss Diego López for the new season, whereas Guaraldi clearly stated his intention to hand over his Bologna stakes to a new owner. A North American group headed by Joe Tacopina and Joey Saputo (owner of CF Montréal, also the team of former Bologna hero Marco Di Vaio) then stated its interest in acquiring the club; this was followed by another offer coming from former chairman Massimo Zanetti. On 15 October 2014, the board of directors ratified the sale of the club to BFC 1909 Lux SPV, and Tacopina became the new club chairman.

Under the new ownership which BFC 1909 Lux Spv S.A.[7] of Luxemburg as an intermediate holding company, Bologna promoted back to Serie A in 2015. Saputo also succeeded Tacopina as the new chairman of the board of directors of Bologna on 17 November 2014.

In their first season back in Serie A, Bologna finished 14th avoiding relegation. In the following 2 seasons, Bologna finished in 15th place on the table.[8] In the 2018-19 Serie A season, Bologna finished in a credible 10th position on the table.[9]

As of 1 February 2021[10][11]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  BRA Angelo Da Costa 3 DF  SCO Aaron Hickey 5 DF  FRA Adama Soumaoro (on loan from Lille) 7 FW  ITA Riccardo Orsolini 8 MF  ARG Nicolás Domínguez 9 FW  PAR Federico Santander 10 FW  ITA Nicola Sansone 11 FW  DEN Andreas Skov Olsen 14 DF  JPN Takehiro Tomiyasu 15 DF  SEN Ibrahima Mbaye 16 MF  ITA Andrea Poli (captain) 17 DF  CHI Gary Medel 18 MF  ISL Andri Baldursson 20 GK  CAN Sebastian Breza

No. Pos. Nation Player 21 MF  ITA Roberto Soriano 23 DF  BRA Danilo (vice-captain) 24 FW  ARG Rodrigo Palacio 26 DF  BUL Valentin Antov (on loan from CSKA Sofia) 28 GK  POL Łukasz Skorupski 29 DF  ITA Lorenzo De Silvestri 30 MF  NED Jerdy Schouten 32 MF  SWE Mattias Svanberg 34 GK  ITA Federico Ravaglia 35 DF  NED Mitchell Dijks 43 DF  ITA Paolo Faragò (on loan from Cagliari) 55 MF  ITA Emanuel Vignato 80 FW  GAM Musa Juwara 99 FW  GAM Musa Barrow (on loan from Atalanta)

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 13 DF  ITA Alex Arnofoli 19 FW  ITA Simone Rabbi 44 FW  ITA Mattia Pagliuca

No. Pos. Nation Player 63 FW  ITA Edoardo Vergani (on loan from Inter Milan) 68 DF  MAR Omar Khailoti 70 FW  ITA Dion Ruffo Luci — FW  ITA Alex Cossalter

As of 1 February 2021

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  ITA Antonio Santurro (at Catania until 30 June 2021) — GK  SEN Mouhamadou Sarr (at Ascoli until 30 June 2021) — DF  ARG Nehuén Paz (at Kayserispor until 30 June 2021) — DF  ENG Luis Binks (at CF Montréal until 31 December 2021) — DF  ITA Fabrizio Brignani (at Vis Pesaro until 30 June 2021) — DF  NED Stefano Denswil (at Club Brugge until 30 June 2021) — DF  ITA Gabriele Corbo (at Ascoli until 30 June 2021) — DF  MAR Hamza El Kaouakibi (at Südtirol until 30 June 2021) — DF  ITA Elia Visconti (at Piacenza until 30 June 2021) — DF  ITA Arturo Calabresi (at Cagliari until 30 June 2021) — MF  GHA Godfred Donsah (at Çaykur Rizespor until 30 June 2021)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  NGA Kingsley Michael (at Reggina until 30 June 2021) — MF  URU César Falletti (at Ternana until 30 June 2022) — MF  ITA Leonardo Mazza (at Mantova until 30 June 2021) — MF  ITA Alessio Militari (at Mantova until 30 June 2021) — MF  COL Juan Manuel Valencia (at Baltika Kaliningrad until 30 June 2021) — FW  ITA Gianmarco Cangiano (at Ascoli until 30 June 2021) — FW  ITA Diego Falcinelli (at Red Star Belgrade until 30 June 2021) — FW  FIN Lassi Lappalainen (at CF Montréal until 31 December 2021) — FW  ITA Gabriel Mattiolo (at Imolese until 30 June 2021) — FW  ITA Leonardo Stanzani (at Pontedera until 30 June 2021) — FW  NGA Orji Okwonkwo (at Reggina until 30 June 2021)

• 1978–1979: Admiral
• 1980–1982: Tepa Sport
• 1982–1988: Ennere
• 1988–1993: Uhlsport
• 1993–1996: Errea
• 1996–2000: Diadora
• 2000–2001: Umbro
• 2001–present: Macron

• 1981–1982: Febal
• 1982–1983: Pasta Bertagni
• 1983–1984: Pasta Corticella
• 1984–1985: Ebano
• 1985–1986: Idrolitina
• 1986–1989: Segafredo
• 1989–1992: Mercatone Uno
• 1992–1993: Sinudyne
• 1993–1994: Buona Natura
• 1994–1997: Carisbo
• 1997–2001: Granarolo
• 2001–2004: Area Banca
• 2004–2005: Amica Chips
• 2005–2006: Europonteggi
• December 2006: Motor Show
• January–March 2007: Woolrich
• March–June 2007: Volvo
• December 2007 – March 2008: Joe Marmellata
• April–June 2008: Carisbo
• September 2008 – June 2009: Unipol
• August–September 2009: Cogei
• October–November 2009: Cerasarda
• November 2009 – June 2010: BIGPoker.it
• October 2010 – Cerasarda
• October 2009 – Ceramica Serenissima
• August 2014 – June 2015: +energia
• August 2011 – June 2015: NGM
• September 2015 – June 2018: FAAC – Illumia
• June 2018–present: Liu·Jo

President Renato Dall'Ara (left) and captain Mirko Pavinato (right) with the trophy of the 1961 Mitropa Cup.

Serie A

• Winners (7): 1924–25, 1928–29, 1935–36, 1936–37, 1938–39, 1940–41, 1963–64
• Runners-up (7): 1920–21, 1923–24, 1925–26, 1926–27, 1931–32, 1939–40, 1965–66

Coppa Italia

• Winners (2): 1969–70, 1973–74

Mitropa Cup

• Winners (3): 1932, 1934, 1961
• Runners-up (2): 1962, 1989

Coupe des Nations:

• Winners (1): 1937[15]

UEFA Intertoto Cup

• Winners (1): 1998 (Joint Winner)

Anglo-Italian League Cup

• Winners (1): 1970

Anglo-Italian Cup

• Runners-up (1): 1971

Cup of the Alps

• Runners-up (1): 1969

Nova Supersports Cup

• Winners (1): 2001