Scudetto

The Scudetto (Italian for: little shield) is a decoration worn by Italian sports clubs that win the annual championship of their respective sport in the previous season. It was created in the 1920s to honour the winner of the national association football league (which eventually become Serie A in 1929) and the first ever team to wear it was Genoa C.F.C. in 1924. Later it was adopted by the teams of other sports.

Sources generally agree that the inventor of the Scudetto was the Italian poet and playwright Gabriele D'Annunzio. In his youth D'Annunzio was a keen follower of football and in 1887 he bought in London a leather ball from the same manufacturer that used to supply the Football League and used to play football with his friends on the beach of Pescara, his native place.

Later, in 1920, once the former Austro-Hungarian city of Fiume (now the Croatian Rijeka) was annexed to Italy, D'Annunzio proposed that the local football team wear on its jerseys a small shield with the tricolore (green, white and red) to symbolize the Italian sovereignty over the city.

In 1924 the Italian Football Federation approved the decision to honour the incumbent champion allowing them to wear the Scudetto on their jerseys. Since then the Scudetto has become the symbol of the incumbent champions of every sports league in Italy.

The Italian rugby union championship which started in 1928 adopted the Scudetto on the champion team's jerseys, too, and so the other team sports in Italy.

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