The 1909 Italian Football Championship season was won by

Pro Vercelli Football Club Pro Vercelli 1892, commonly referred to as Pro Vercelli, is an Italian football club based in Vercelli, Piedmont. The club is mostly renowned as one of the most successful teams in the early football era of Italy, with seven natio ...

. 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

. They won as a prize ''Coppa Oberti''. The winner of Italian Championship was

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

. 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 January 17 and February 7'' ;Tie-break :''Played on February 21 on neutral ground''

Lombardy

;Classification ;Results :''Played on January 10, 17 and 24''

Piedmont

=Round 1

= :''Played on January 10 and 17'' Due to the fact that both teams won a match (aggregate total was not applied), a tie break was needed. ;Repetition :''Played on January 24 on

ground'' Torino advanced to Round 2.

=Round 2

= :''Played on February 7 and March 14''

Veneto

Venezia Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

was the only registered team.

Semifinals

Lombardy-Veneto

:''Played on February 21 and March 28''

Piedmont-Liguria

:''Played on March 21 and 28''

Final

:''Played on April 4 and 25''

Italian Championship

* 1909 Italian Championship of Football

References and sources

*''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''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Italian Football Championship 1909

1909 Events January–February * January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escaped death by fleeing across ice floes. * January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama. * Januar ...

1908–09 in European association football leagues