THE SARTORIAL ELEGANCE OF SERIE A: UDINESE CALCIO, 1987-90 [ABM]

 

Anyone with more than a passing interest in Italian football will probably know that the country's first football club was Genoa, established in 1893. But how many of us can name the second? Answer: Udinese, established in 1896. Just as Genoa began life as Genoa Cricket & Athletic Club, Udinese operated under the patronage of the Società Udinese di Ginnastica e Scherma (Udinese Gymnastics and Fencing Society). Such multifaceted sporting arrangements were not uncommon back then, and many an Italian team can testify to such origins. There normally came a point, however, when the football-oriented wing of these organizations would seek to establish its own identify.

For Udinese that point came in 1911, with the formation of the Associazione del Calcio Udine. Exchanging their all-black jerseys for black and white halved ones, the club registered with the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC), and were duly allocated a regional place in the 1912-13 Promozione. Pitted against Unione Sportiva Petrarca and Calcio Padova, Udinese came second in their group, which was enough to gain entry into the Veneto-Emilian section of next season's Prima Categoria, where they remained up World War 1.

Conflict over, Udinese became part of Associazione Sportiva Udinese, and the team's colours were again tinkered with: black-trimmed white shirts paired with white shorts and black socks. It was in this kit that Udinese made it to the first ever final of the Coppa Italia, losing to FC Vado by one goal, in 1922. [It should be noted that most of the so-called 'bigger' clubs in Italy were at the time registered with the Confederazione Calcistica Italiana and not eligible to compete in the Italian Cup, which was the initiative of the FIGC.] The same year the club was promoted into the newly created Prima Divisione, only to be relegated the following season.

Meanwhile, Udinese's mounting debts precipitated a separation from the Associazione Sportiva and would have ended in dissolution had the club's president, Alessandro del Torso, not raised enough money to keep them afloat. A reconfigured Associazione Calcio Udinese were promoted back into the Prima Divisione in 1825, but were relegated the year after into Group B of what was also called the Prima Divisione, given that the highest league had been rebranded as the Divisione Nazionale.

           
In 1930 Udinese advanced into a newly conceptualized Serie B as champions of the Prima Divisione, after coming top of Group C (Northern Division) and then defeating Palermo 3-1 in a played-off final. By now Udinese were wearing black and white striped shirts, a combination they would wear consistently over the course of the next five decades. Their form would remain consistent too, in a sense. The 1930s would be played out in Serie C, the 1940s saw Udinese competing in Serie B, the 1950s in Serie A, and the latter half of the '60s and most of the '70s spent back in Serie C.

It was towards the end of the 1970s that club began to revive itself. Having moved into a newly built stadium in 1976 – the Stadio Friuli, with its distinctive elliptical arch – Udinese completed a treble of sorts, finishing top of Group A of Serie C and winning both the Coppa Italia Lega Pro and the Anglo-Italian Cup. The following year, after abbreviating their name to Udinese Calcio, they were promoted into Serie A as champions of Serie B. Finally, in 1980, Udinese defeated Čelik Zenica in the final of the Coppa Mitropa.

 

After decades of sartorial stability, Udinese decided it was time for another change. Discarding the traditional black and white stripes, the club opted for a shirt con palo – literally, 'with pole'. In other words, white with a wide, black vertical stripe straight down the middle. Made by Pouchain it also featured a new crest, designed by the great Piero Gratton, depicting a zebra's head inscribed within a green circle. The badge didn't last long and was replaced in 1981 with a white shield displaying an inverted black V with a red Z beneath it – which stood for the home appliance manufacturer 'Zanussi', who had recently taken the club over – and the words 'udinese calcio' (lower case) printed above it. (For 1981-82, the jersey itself, produced by the Italian fashion brand Americanino, was adorned with the Z on its own, which I don't suppose went down very well.)

In 1984 Diadora succeeded Americanino as technical sponsor and made further alterations. The new shirt was essentially black but with a thick white band running diagonally from the left arm down across the torso, and also bore the name of a commercial sponsor, Agfacolor. Then in 1986 ABM took over from Diadora but left the jersey well alone.

 

Things came to a head in 1987. The Brazilian Zico had come and gone and Udinese's results hadn't been going their way. The club's involvement in the 1986 Italian football betting scandal saw them hit with a nine-point penalty deduction, resulting inevitably in relegation. As if taking stock, ABM reverted to the evenly gauged black and white stripes of Udinese's past. And a new sponsor: Rex, a high-end subsidiary of Zanussi. Writ in amber against a black background, and with a deliberately misaligned E, it brought welcome relief to an otherwise achromatic template – as did ABM's red, angular insignia. A neat, trimmed collar completed the look.

Udinese rounded off 1987-88 season in a mediocre tenth place, although the appointment of Nedo Sonetti as head coach in December had brought with it an improvement in form during the second half of the season. So it proved. In 1989, with the collar now removed, Udinese finished third, which got them back into Serie A. Foreign players were then purchased in an effort to stay there – the Argentines Abel Balbo and Nestor Sensini, Spanish veteran Ricardo Gallego – and a new coach too – Bruno Mazzia. ABM reinstated the missing collars, but everything else about the strip remained the same.

It didn't work out. Udinese were condemned to Serie B on the last day of the season, despite beating Inter 4-3. The club subsequently became embroiled in another match-fixing scandal that deferred their return to Serie A for a couple of years. Adidas replaced ABM before Lotto came along and ruined everything. Now firmly entrenched within Serie A, Udinese's gear is currently provided by Macron, who have seen fit to experiment with the various formats of their predecessors.

THE SARTORIAL ELEGANCE OF SERIE A: S.S.C. NAPOLI, 1988-90 [NR/ENNERRE]

Napoli’s colours are tenuously informed by those of their ancestors: Naples Foot-Ball Club and Unione Sportiva Internazionale Napoli. The former wore sky and navy blue striped shirts with black shorts and socks; the latter, darker blue shirts and socks with white shorts.

US Internazionale Napoli were in fact the result of a schism within Naples FBC itself. In 1911, wishing to engage teams from the north and perhaps feeling that the existing organisation wasn’t ambitious enough, the foreign (mostly English) members of Naples Foot-Ball Club decided to go it alone. The split imposed a financial burden on both parties and so in 1922 they re-amalgamated, taking on the name Foot-Ball Club Internazionale-Naples. As a sort of compromise, they would wear white-trimmed sky blue jerseys and socks paired with white shorts, the same that would become the colours of Associazione Calcio Napoli.

Yet the arrangement seemed to be skewed in the expatriates' favour. The appointed president, Emilio Reale, had also been president of Internazionale, and their chosen ground in Agnano was the one they used to play on. Even the sports’ press appeared to be in on it, habitually referring to the team as 'Internazionale' in their match reports.

The years that followed were relatively uneventful until the signing of the Charter of Viareggio in 1926, which granted the team entry into the newly formed Divisione Nazionale. The charter was essentially a Fascist initiative, and so under duress the company’s shareholders elected to take on the name Associazione Calcio Napoli, which had a more nationalist ring to it (one of the provisions of the charter was a ban on foreign players). It is this incarnation of the club that is officially recognised as being the first.

Napoli struggled and would have been relegated (twice) if the FIGC hadn’t intervened, on the basis that for the National Division to succeed it needed teams in it from the south. Just as well, because 1928-29 would effectively be a qualifying tournament for the leagues that were to proceed it: Series A and B

Again, Napoli got lucky. The original idea was to create two groups of 16 with the best eight in each being rewarded with a place in Serie A, while the remaining 16 teams would be allocated places in Serie B. Napoli finished eighth in their group, tied on points with Società Sportiva Lazio. A play-off ensued, which ended in a draw. A replay was on the cards until the club’s chairman, Giorgio Ascarelli, was able to convince the head of the FICG to expand Serie A to accommodate 18 teams, allowing both Napoli and Lazio to qualify. (Triestina were the beneficiary in the other group.)

Giorgio Ascarelli may have realised that this was a defining moment in the club’s history, for he prepared accordingly. William Garbutt, the English coach who had revolutionised Italian football during his 15 year stint with Genoa, was poached from southern rivals AS Roma. Attacking midfielders Antonio Vojak and Marcello Mihalich were signed from Juventus and Fiumana respectively, providing striker Attila Sallustro with support (although he’d done all right without them, scoring 22 goals the previous season). Finally, work began on a new purpose-built ground: Stadio Partenopeo – also known as Stadio Vesuvio, and soon to become Stadio Giorgio Ascarelli when the man who financed it died suddenly in February 1930, just a couple of weeks after its inauguration. The club finished the season in fifth place.

Napoli breezed through the 1930s but were then relegated in 1942. In 1944 they moved to a stadium in Vomero on a hill on the northwestern edge of the city, before events caught up with them and they were forced to suspend all activities.

In the aftermath of the Second World War Napoli were obliged to take part in the Serie A/B Centro-Sud Championship, a temporary solution designed to overcome the impracticality of travelling long distances in a country ravaged by conflict. Because most Serie A teams were from the north, they constituted one division, while the central and southern Serie A and B teams were put together in another. Given that Napoli were effectively a Serie B outfit they weren’t fancied, but won their group regardless. Not only did this put them through to the final, national round, but it ensured promotion to Serie A for the subsequent year.

Following a brief spell in Serie B from 1948-50 Napoli then managed eleven consecutive seasons in Italy’s top flight, whilst also constructing and moving into the Stadio San Paolo. On being relegated in 1961 they made it back into Serie A at the first attempt, winning the Coppa Italia in the process. The next year, after reaching the quarter finals of the Cup Winner’s Cup, where they lost to OFK Beograd on away goals, Napoli were again relegated. Burdened with debt, local businessman Roberto Fiore bought into the club in 1964, making it a joint-stock company. Now known as Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli, they won promotion the following year wearing for the most part their away strip: all white with a sbarra (sash or 'bar') tracing a diagonal line from the right shoulder of the shirt down to the left. (When running in the opposite direction, it is instead referred to as a banda.)

Former president Achille Lauro was still a 40% stakeholder and so invested in the team, bringing in Omar Sívori from Juventus and José Altafini from Milan. It paid dividends. SSC Napoli finished the championship in third place and were also victorious in the Coppa delle Alpi. They achieved this wearing a darker shade of blue, introduced in 1960. For 1966-67, which was also relatively successful, they would revert to the lighter blue more commonly associated with the club.

It would be another ten years before Napoli won another trophy – the Coppa Italia in 1976 – which is not to say they did badly in between. The club regularly finished in the higher echelons of Serie A and made the semi-finals of the Italian Cup on three occasions, wearing sky blue white-trimmed jerseys. The next significant change, both in the team’s fortunes and its livery, occurred in the mid-1980s.

1988-89

When Diego Armando Maradona signed for Napoli in 1984 their kit supplier was a manufacturer called Linea Time, more commonly associated with cycling. Despite doing a decent job, Ennerre/NR took over in 1985. Their acrylic jersey, sponsored by Buitoni, did away with the white trim and added a collar. [Ennerre also supplied a trimmed polyester version with faint pinstripes, possibly intended for warmer conditions.] The same strip was used for a consecutive season whereupon Napoli won their first Scudetto and third Coppa Italia.

In 1987, as testament to their recent achievements, Napoli’s shirt was adorned with both the scudetto and the coccarda – a shield and a roundel respectively, incorporating the colours of the Italian flag. To make room for the scudetto, the club's badge was moved to the left shoulder. The coccarda, meanwhile, was positioned directly beneath Ennerre's logo, just above the 'B' in Buitoni. It looked a mess. The club did, however, purchase the Brazilian striker Careca.

After winning nothing in 1987-88 the shirt could have potentially reverted to its previous configuration. Instead, the confectioners Mars took over sponsorship from food producer Buitoni. 'Mars' was initially printed in white, but was switched to black about halfway through the season, presumably to enhance its definition. Moreover, NR issued the shirt in two different materials: polyester and Lanetta, which is basically acrylic. New signings included the Brazilian Alemão from Atlético Madrid, Luca Fusi from Sampdoria, and Massimo Crippa from Torino. Napoli finished runners-up to Inter in the championship, lost to Sampdoria in the final of the Coppa Italia, but beat Stuggart over two legs to win the UEFA Cup. This unadorned jersey remained unchanged for following season, as Maradona led Napoli to victory in Serie A. They won more games, scored more goals, amassed more points than during their previous title-winning campaign, but the winning margin was less: two points more than AC Milan, compared to three ahead of Juventus. Maradona was top scorer with 16 league goals, Careca second with 10.

Maradona’s final season with Napoli would also be Ennerre’s (before Umbro stepped into the fold, ruining everything). NR didn’t see fit to change what wasn’t broken, although there were a few twists. Again, two shirts were made, both in polyester: a plain, almost silky iteration as before, and a matt version micro-patterned with the NR insignia. (AS Roma were presented with the same dilemma.) If that wasn’t enough, an alternative ‘Cup Shirt’ was produced. Blue with an undulating white band across the front, it was worn in the 5-1 drubbing of Juventus in the 1990 Supercoppa Italiana, against Cosenza in the Coppa Italia, Spartak Moscow in the second round of the European Cup (whereupon Napoli were beaten on penalties), and in a number of league games early on in the season. The template was also used for a red, third shirt, while the away kit was white with pale blue rhomboids running horizontally across the chest. Napoli ended the season in a disappointing eighth place.

Cup Shirt, 1990-91

Considering how few changes Ennerre actually made, it is amazing to think how many different jerseys they produced during their six year tenure. The 1986-7 edition seems to be the most popular, in which Napoli won their first scudetto. You might equally fancy the first Mars shirt; it might simply come down to whether you like your fonts with or without serifs. Or maybe you prefer the contrast in colour the scudetto and the coccarda bring, even if the overall effect is a bit busy. Whichever version you favour, they’re all representative of a specific moment in time: Maradona in his pomp, and the fairy tale he bestowed upon the city of Naples and its people.

THE SARTORIAL ELEGANCE OF SERIE A: ATALANTA, 1989-91 [NR/ENNERRE]

Atalanta began life as the Bergamo Society of Gymnastics and Athletic Sports Atalanta in 1907, named in honour of the mythological Greek of the same name: huntress, slayer of centaurs, injurer of boars, the object of the Argonaut Meleager’s affections, and runner. The club was set up by a group of students who attended the prestigious Liceo Classico Paolo Sarpi, and who had in turn been members of the ‘The Young Orobia’ – Orobia being the name of the territory that formerly constituted north-eastern Lombardy.

At that time, Bergamo already had a football team, called Foot-Ball Club Bergamo. Established in 1904 by a Swiss textile-industrialist named Matteo Legler, they played in Italy’s Seconda Categoria, but it doesn’t seem they took it too seriously, forfeiting a game against Unione Sportiva Milanese so they could play in friendly against Chiasso in Switzerland. In the 1911, the club folded.

Meanwhile, the Bergamo Society of Gymnastics and Fencing – or Bergamasca for short – were looking to expand their interests. Sensing an opportunity, they offered Matteo Legler the job of setting up a football club, which he duly did, bringing with him financial clout and any of his mates who were still interested in kicking a ball about. Before long, football was the association’s main concern.

Atalanta’s fortunes were also on the up. After playing nothing more than friendlies on improvised terrain, the club gained access to a field large enough to meet the regulations laid out by the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC) and received official recognition from the governing body in 1914. The Great War intervened, and then in 1919 a problem arose. The FIGC would only permit one team from Bergamo to compete in what was then known as the Prima Categoria. The Italian championship was oversubscribed, meaning that teams had to win regional pre-season qualifiers to gain admittance into the group stage of the championship, with the aim of qualifying for the national semi-finals, which were also group-based. There was nothing for it but to play-off against each other. Bergmasca were favourites but Atalanta prevailed, two goals to nil.

Atalanta finished third in Lombardy Group B, which wasn't enough to get them into the semi-finals. In February 1920 it was decided that the best course of action would be to join forces to create Atalanta e Bergamasca di Ginnastica e Scherma, abbreviated soon after to Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio.

Whereas Atalanta had worn black and white vertical striped shirts, Bergmasca wore blue and white, which suggested a combination of the two. Initially, the newly formed club opted for blue and black halved jerseys with black shorts and socks, before settling for the blue and black vertically striped format worn to this day. The club crest incorporated horizontal black and white stripes occupying one of half of a shield with a field of solid blue in the other as a nod to both teams' history.

The Italian Championship was by now approaching its critical mass. Rather than reduce the number of competing teams, the competition was enlarged to accommodate more of them. It made no difference. Atalanta finished bottom of their Lombardian qualifying group – one of the six required to whittle down the numbers – and faced relegation. Following the schism that resulted in the formation of the rival Confederazione Calcistica Italiana (CCI), however, Atalanta kept their place in the Prima Categoria. Following the Columbo Compromise of 1922, they were then demoted to a newly formed Seconda Divisione.

In 1925, the Seconda Divisione became the Prima Divisione to allow for the creation of the Divisione Nazionale, into which Atalanta were promoted in 1928 – the same year they moved into their current stadium (known then as Stadio Mario Brumana). 1928-29 was to be last edition of the Divisione Nazionale before the move to a single-group format. As such, the top eight teams in each of the two groups that constituted the National Division would be granted entry into Serie A, the teams placed ninth to fourteenth place relegated to Serie B, and the bottom two teams demoted to the old First Division. Atalanta finished Group A in fourteenth place.

The club continued to play in Serie B up until they were promoted to Serie A in 1937, making it to the third round of the Coppa Italia in the process. In 1938, Atalanta were relegated, although they did make it as far as the quarter finals of the Italian Cup. In 1940 they were back in Serie A, where they would remain until 1958 (excepting the brief alteration to the format that came about after the Second World War). In 1959, Atalanta won Serie B for a second time, and in 1963 they were victorious in the Coppa Italia for the first.

Perhaps to celebrate, they decided now would be a good time to redesign their badge, reconfiguring the shield to include an image of their Greek namesake on the right, blue and black vertical stripes to the left, and the club's name above. Atalanta's fortunes thereafter were mixed, although never disastrous, flitting between Series A and B with mild regularity, a pattern that would persist for the rest of the decade and well into the next

The 1980s can be seen as something as a turning point, not just on the pitch but off it. In 1984, Atalanta came top of Serie B for the third time in their history and decided to give their badge a modernist revamp. Atalanta’s head was depicted in profile, her hair blowing behind her, suggesting movement, set against a blue background circled within a thin band of yellow – no text. Moreover, it appeared be made of leather. If you didn’t know better you’d think graphic designer Piero Gratton had a hand in it. The kit itself, which was nothing to write home about, was sponsored by Sit-In, manufactured by Ennerre.

Then in 1989, after having been relegated in 1987, the same year they reached the final of the Coppa Italia, Atalanta were back in Serie A with the same badge but a new sponsor, the energy provider TAMOIL. The bold, italic, uppercase font was hardly spectacular, but it was set in red against a white, rectangular background. The material was a silky polyester, and it had a collar. Then there was Ennerre’s delightfully minimal insignia, the letters ‘n’ and ‘r’ embroidered in green thread. Driven on by goals of Claudio Caniggia and Armando Madonna, Atalanta finished seventh, which was good enough to gain entry into the UEFA Cup. (They had actually qualified for the same competition the previous year, only to be then eliminated by Spartak Moscow in the first round.)

For the next season, TAMOIL was printed in white, doing away with the white backdrop, but apart from that the strip remained the same. Atalanta fared better in the UEFA Cup this time around, knocking out Dinamo Zagreb, Fenerbahçe and Cologne, before losing to eventual winners Internazionale in the quarter finals. They finished Serie A in tenth place with Evair and Caniggia as joint-top scorers, contributing 10 apiece.

1990-91

In 1991 Atalanta joined up with Lotto, and anybody who reads my stuff will know that I don't care much for shirts made by Lotto. In 1993 they tinkered with the badge, superimposing an oval to make room for the club’s name and the date of 1907. The distinctive profile of Atalanta was unaltered, and remains as it is to this very day. Thank God for small mercies.

THE SARTORIAL ELEGANCE OF SERIE A: BOLOGNA FC, 1988-91 [UHLSPORT]

Bologna Football Club was founded in 1909 and from the start played in red and blue. The reason for this is fortuitous and involves an Austro-Hungarian by the name of Emilio Arnstein and Italian called Arrigo Gradi. Arnstein was born in Votice, in what is now the Czech Republic, and studied in Prague and Vienna before moving to Trieste, where he formed Black Star Football Club along with his brother and a handful of English ex-pats. In 1908 he moved to Bologna and immediately set about finding the local football club. Legend has that a taxi took him straight to Prati di Caprara, a military training facility hired out to any local teams that needed it. There Arnstein met Gradi, wearing the red and blue halved shirt of the college he had previously attended in Switzerland.

Gradi, along with his brothers, a Swiss dentist by the name of Louis Rauch, and a number of students from the local Spanish College (including Antonio Bernabéu, brother of Santiago, who would later play for and preside over Real Madrid) had set up a team of sorts by the name of Felsineo. It was Armstein who provided the impetus to establish a proper club, and in 1909 a patron was found willing to support the venture in the shape of Carlo Sandoni, president of the Circolo Turistico Bolognese. Louis Rauch was subsequently appointed as president, Emilio Arnstein was named as a director and Arrigo Gradi club captain.

By 1910 Bologna Football Club was no longer under Sandoni’s patronage and Arnstein was president. The jersey they'd initially come up with was modelled on the one Gradi had been wearing on that fateful day in 1908. Perhaps in an attempt to define their own image – or to differentiate themselves from the Genoa Cricket & Football Club –  the shirts were now modified to form vertical stripes of the same colour, which is the template the club uses to this day.

There has been an exception: in 1925, the year Bologna won their first scudetto, they played in green at the behest of their then manager Enrico Sabattini, in tribute to the Austrian club Rapid Vienna. You could imagine a precedent such as that sticking, but Bologna soon reverted to their traditional colours and over the course of the next 16 years added another five championships to their palmarès. In fact, for a while Bologna – alongside Juventus – were considered the preeminent force in Italian football, and with seven championships to their name are historically the sixth most successful team to play in Serie A.

Bologna were last crowned champions in 1964, were runners up in ’66 and finished third in ’67. In the early 1970s came two Coppa Italia victories. In 1982 Bologna were relegated for the first time in the club's history, and within a year found themselves playing in Serie C1. Bologna won promotion straight back into Serie B, but struggled. Luigi Corioni assumed the club’s presidency in 1985 and in ‘87 brought in a young manager called Luigi Maifredi, who he’d worked with previously while at Ospitaletto. The appointment paid immediate dividends with Bologna finishing the season in first place.
 

1970-71 [Courtesy Bologna FC 1909.]

From 1982 though to 1988, Bologna’s kit was made by Ennerre/NR. For their return to Serie A, Uhlsport became the club's technical supplier. Whereas Ennere had utilised four broad-gauge stripes, Uhlsport opted for five with a dark blue one down the middle. (Bologna may be known as the Rossoblù, but the blue is more often than not navy blue.) The shirt was V-necked, fitted with a collar, and was sponsored by Italian coffee roaster Segafredo Zanetti. Shorts and socks were also blue. Whereas Ennerre’s shirts had been made from their trademark heavyweight fabric Lanetta, Uhlsport’s were polyester. Bologna ended their first season back in Serie A in 14th place.

The next year, against the backdrop of a stadium that was being renovated ahead of the 1990 World Cup, Bologna fared better. Having added the Brazilian midfielder Geovani Silva, German striker Herbert Waas, Hungarian defender Nikolaj Iliev and ex-Juventus and San Marino midfielder Massimo Bonini to their ranks, Bologna finished the season in a very respectable 8th place – high enough to gain entry into next year's UEFA Cup. The shirts in which they achieved this feat were identical to those they'd worn the season before, save for the sponsor's name printed upon them: Mercatone Uno in place Segafredo Zanetti. Away from home, the previous all-white strip was embellished to include a blue and red horizontal stripe flicking diagonally upward towards the left shoulder, which made it more interesting.

Bologna’s success came at a price, attracting the attention of Juventus who promptly installed Luigi Maifredi as Dino Zoff’s successor. In 1991 Bologna were relegated, wearing the same shirt, although not before making it to the quarter finals of both the Coppa Italia and the UEFA Cup, losing out to Napoli and Sporting Lisbon respectively.

Uhlsport stood by Bologna but Mercatone Uno didn’t. The electronics manufacturer Sinudyne  took over as the club’s sponsor, whose typeface wasn’t nearly as eye-catching as Segafredo’s or Mercatone’s. Perhaps for this reason Uhlsport employed micropatterning, and also came up with their best away shirt yet: white as before, but with alternating dark blue and red inverted triangles running down the side of sleeves, and ascending from right to left under the sponsor’s name.
 

1989-91

Things didn’t work out. Luigi Maifredi was re-instated as coach after his unsuccessful stint at Juventus, but could only secure 13th place. He then left again ten games into the next season to join Genoa, Bologna were relegated to Serie C, and bankruptcy followed. The club quickly re-registered as Bologna Football Club 1909 and clawed their way back to Serie A, where they’ve been playing since 2015.

THE SARTORIAL ELEGANCE OF SERIE A: U.C. SAMPDORIA, 1988-90 [KAPPA]

Unione Calcio Sampdoria’s iconic shirt was not contrived but fortuitously arrived at when Sampierdarenese merged with Andrea Doria in 1946. Sampierdarenese had worn white shirts with a red and black band around the middle, paired with black shorts and socks. Andre Doria’s strip consisted of a blue and white halved jersey, blue shorts and blue socks. A number of configurations were possible but the shirt’s creator opted for blue shirts with a white-red-black-white horizontal set of stripes around the middle and the stemma San Giorgio – ‘cross of St George’ – at its centre. This cross was also present on the shirts of Andre Doria. Whether Sampierdarenese’s fans felt aggrieved by this is not known. The symbol is a homage to the patron saint of Genoa, so maybe not.

In any case, in 1980 Sampdoria decided to introduce a proper club crest and came up with one of the most weird and wonderful emblems of its kind. For the uninitiated, the Baciccia, as it is known, depicts the silhouetted profile of a bearded sailor smoking a pipe, with blue, red and black stripes bending sinister behind him. So not only do Sampdoria possess one of the finest looking shirts in football but it might also be said they have the best badge.

For much of the 1980s sportswear manufacturer Ennerre was Italian football’s prevalent brand, supplying strips for Roma, Napoli, Fiorentina, Atalanta, Bologna, Sampdoria, among others. As the decade neared its end so too did Ennerre’s dominance. In 1988 Fiorentina turned to ABM for their gear, Bologna to Uhlsport, and Sampdoria to Kappa. (Napoli, Roma and Atalanta would remain affiliated with Ennerre until 1991.)

1987-88 had been a good year for Vujadin Boškov’s team, finishing fourth in the league and defeating Torino in the final of the Coppa Italia. Kappa’s first outing as Sampdoria’s kit supplier would therefore feature the coccarda – with red outer ring and green centre – sewn upon the left breast. Ordinarily this would have necessitated relocating the club’s badge to the shirt’s sleeve, except it was already there – had been since Ennerre moved it in 1981 for reasons unbeknown to anyone but them. Other distinguishing features included: the Kappa logo embroidered in white upon the right side of the chest; the slanted, uppercase font of new sponsor ERG sublimated above the jersey’s distinctive hoops; the shirt's number in black set against a white square; a thinly trimmed neckline and flared collar. (Unlike the shirts they were now providing for Juventus and A.C. Milan, Kappa saw no need to incorporate micropatterned textures.)

The partnership got off to a good start. Sampdoria retained the Coppa Italia, beating Maradona’s Napoli 4-1 over two legs, and made it to the final of the 1989 European Cup Winners’ Cup, losing to Barcelona in Bern. They finished Serie A in fifth place, one place down on the previous season, although 18 teams had competed for the title as opposed to the mere 16 the year before. Gianluca Vialli netted 14 goals, his highest return of his career thus far, Roberto Mancini scored 9, while Gianluca Pagliuca established himself as the club’s first-choice goalkeeper.

For 1989-90, the shirt remained the same in every respect bar two: numbers were now white instead of the black, rendering the white backdrop obsolete, and the coccarda's colours were inverted - i.e. green outer ring, red centre. The campaign would pan out very much like the last, with another fifth placed finish and a consecutive appearance in the final of the European Cup Winners’ Cup. This time around Sampdoria were victorious, beating Anderlecht in Gothenburg courtesy of two extra-time goals from Gianluca Vialli, who was also the competition’s top goal scorer. Conversely, Sampdoria’s Coppa Italia challenge ended prematurely when Juventus knocked them out in the group stage.

Who could have predicted what was to happen next to the Genovese side? A quick word regarding personnel. In 1989 Vujadin Boškov had made two significant signings: the Italian winger Attilio Lombardo from Cremonese, and the Yugoslav defender Srečko Katanec from VfB Stuttgart. In 1990 the Ukrainian Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko replaced Victor Munoz in a midfield that also featured the play-making talents of Toninho Cerezo and Giuseppe Dossena. Pietro Vierchowod and Luca Pellegrini were solid in defence; Gianluca Vialli and striking partner Roberto Mancini were indomitable up front.

Meanwhile, Japanese sportswear manufacturer ASICS replaced Kappa as Sampdoria’s kit supplier. Or did they? Aside from the now absent coccarda, the shirt was ostensibly the same. I suspect that it was the same jersey and that Kappa had been subcontracted by ASICS to make shirts under their brand. Whatever sort of arrangement may or may not have been in place, ASICS was the main beneficiary for Sampdoria were about to win their first (and so far only) Coppa Campioni d'Italia, finishing ahead of both A.C. Milan and Inter by a comfortable five points. (Gianluca Vialli scored 19 goals – his highest tally in any one season – and Mancini added another 12.)

Apart for the scudetto that now adorned Sampdoria’s shirts, their kit remained little altered for the following season. Unfortunately, the club’s form did not. Sampdoria finished a disappointing sixth in the league and were knocked out of the Coppa Italia in the semi-final by eventual winners Parma. However, in what would be Boškov’s final year as manager, Sampdoria did make it to the final of the European Cup only to lose to Barcelona (again) after Ronald Koeman drilled home a free kick in extra-time from some 25 yards out. Interestingly, Sampdoria used this opportunity – or had the opportunity pressed upon them – to wear next seasons’ shirt. Gone was the slim-line V-neck and in it’s place was a snap-fastened collar. Hardly a radical change, but the damage was done.

 1988-89

From 1988 through to 1992 Sampdoria’s shirts were much the same. If the club hadn’t been winning trophies that brought with them symbolic, physical motifs – the coccarda and the scudetto – then anyone would be hard pressed to tell them apart. Fortunate, then, that this tenure coincided with what can be seen retrospectively as the high watermark in football apparel.

And yet Kappa/ASICS never showed quite the respect Sampdoria’s colours deserved. We can be grateful that the shirt was never micropatterned, which would have distracted from its extraordinary design. But at the very least they could have sewn the bloody badge on, as pretty much every other sportswear manufacture was doing at the time. Instead the Baciccia was subjected to dye-sublimation, which looked cheap.

THE SARTORIAL ELEGANCE OF SERIE A: A.C. MILAN, 1987-90 [KAPPA]

What makes for a good football strip? A number of things, but distilled to its essence there are four primary concerns: colour, array, trim, fit. Colour can be problematic as it can't really be tinkered with (unless your team’s majority shareholder has other ideas). The array – or pattern, if you prefer – tends to be more mutable, although radical alterations may invoke the ire of any football club’s loyal fan base. Embellishments, such as those to the collar and neckline, will vary from season to season, normally without so much as a raised eyebrow. Finally, the way a kit is cut will only ever come under close scrutiny if it’s noticeably out of keeping with prevailing trends – for example, the shirt Kappa presented to the Italian national team for the 2000 UEFA European Championship, which had the players so spooked they insisted on sizing up.

But wait, there’s something else to consider, something that football purists would rather wasn’t there, but is so we must: the football team’s sponsor writ large across the chest. It might seem odd that something as ostensibly functional as text should amount to anything more than a mere distraction, until one remembers that such monograms were in the first instance designed to hold the eye. This is one of the reasons why the football shirts A.C. Milan wore from 1987 through to 1992 are superior to those that came immediately before and after.

The A.C. Milan of the early 1980s was in bad shape. Saddled with debt, they’d not won a major trophy since their Serie A triumph of 1978-79 and had been relegated to Serie B twice (once as punishment for their involvement in the Totonero match-fixing scandal of 1980) which for a club of Milan’s standing represented failure, not to say ignominy. That being said, the thinly striped jerseys they played in during this period looked pretty good, especially the Oscar Mondadori sponsored edition that the English paring of Ray Wilkins and Mark Hateley had the pleasure of wearing in 1984-85. Whether this acrylic sark was particularly comfortable is another matter.

Then in 1986 the media tycoon, politician, and former crooner, Silvio Berlusconi decided to buy the club, paid off its debts and set about the business of reviving its fortunes. Within a year he’d offloaded Wilkins and Hateley and added the Dutch internationals Ruud Gullit and Marco Van Basten to a squad that already contained the likes of Franco Baresi, Roberto Donadoni, Pietro Virdis, Mauro Tassotti and a youthful Paulo Maldini. Only then did Silvio Berlusconi consider who he wanted as coach, sacking the incumbent Nils Liedholm in April and appointing Primavera manager Fabio Capello as caretaker while he made up his mind. More than likely, Berlusconi had Arrigo Sacchi’s card marked from the moment his team dumped Milan out of the Coppa Italia in the second round. By summer the former Parma manager was in charge and proceeded to bring in Carlo Ancelotti from Roma and Angelo Colombo from Udinese.

A.C. Milan won the league in 1987-88 by a three point margin over reigning champions Napoli. They did this wearing a jersey provided by Kappa that was quite different to the one the firm was supplying to Juventus over in Turin. Made from polyester, rather than cotton, the Milan version had a shorter collar and a shallower neckline. Moreover, whereas the sponsor’s name on Juve’s kit was flocked, on Milan’s it was printed by way of a process known as dye-sublimation. (It should be noted that Italian sportswear manufacturers were behind the curve in this respect, and I wonder whether Berlusconi might have recognised this and persuaded Kappa to utilise more up-to-date methods.) Then there was the sponsor itself – financial servicing firm Mediolanum – with its name written in a sans-serif, uppercase font and the company logo hovering above, all in white. This simple text, resting neatly beneath the Kappa logo sewn to the right, and a gold star (denoting 10 titles won) on the left, is almost as recognisable as the colourway of the strip itself; one cannot conceive of the shirt without it.

In 1988 the Italian football authorities allowed for an extra foreign player, and Frank Rijkaard was invited to join his fellow Dutchmen in Milan. All three of them had been instrumental in The Netherlands' victory in the 1988 UEFA European Championship in Germany that summer. With the scudetto now adorning their chests they must have felt like a million dollars.

The 1988-89 season didn’t go entirely to plan. City rivals Inter won the title, and comfortably so, while A.C. finished third behind Napoli. But Serie A was no longer Berlusconi’s priority, the European Cup was, and in that regard the season was a huge success. Despite wobbling against Red Star Belgrade in the second round, the rossoneri went on to beat Steaua București 4-0 in the final. Perhaps even more revealing was the 5-0 demolition job they did on Real Madrid in the second leg of the semi-final.

Ostensibly, Milan’s strip remained the same for the following year’s campaign, but there were a few subtle changes. As with Juventus, Kappa still didn’t feel the need to append anything like a club crest (although they afforded Sampdoria the privilege) but they did see fit to attach an embroidered, celebratory image of the European Cup in place of the previous season’s scudetto. Then there was the material itself, which now incorporated a micropatterned matrix made up of hollow, inverted squares. (Juventus’s shirt received the same treatment, but not Sampdoria’s.) AC Milan finished 1989-90 second in the league, again behind Napoli, and retained the European Cup, beating Benfica 1-0 in Vienna.

In 1990 Milan ended their association with Kappa and signed a contract with Adidas. Under normal circumstances I’d finish this article here, but the shirt Adidas came up with was so similar to Kappa’s that I feel I must to go on. Adidas didn’t have much of a presence in Italy at the time so maybe they wanted to avoid making a statement. They didn’t even bother adding their name beneath their – admittedly, instantly identifiable – trefoil logo. The micropatterning was removed and the neckline trimmed, but in every other respect the jersey was very much the same: same colour, same collar, same width of stripe, same patron, same embroidered European Cup motif.

The move to Adidas did not immediately pay dividends. A.C. Milan were Serie A runners-up for a consecutive season – this time trailing Sampdoria – and were knocked out of the European Cup by Marseille in the quarter-finals. (Arrigo Sacchi subsequently accepted an offer to manage the Italian national team, and Fabio Capello was appointed in his place.) This meant that for 1991-92 Milan’s shirt would for the first time in three years be reduced to displaying a solitary star.

Or it would have had they not decided to fill the void with a depiction of the Intercontinental Cup that they’d won the year prior, positioned beside the star rather than under. When Red Star Belgrade beat Chilean side Colo-Colo in December to claim the same trophy, A.C. were obliged to get rid of it. Instead, they saw out the season with club crest attached to the jersey. By May, the rossoneri had been crowned champions again, unbeaten and eight points clear of second placed Juventus.

1990-91

Italian confectioner Motta succeeded Mediolanum as club sponsor, and the year after Italian sportswear manufacturer Lotto wrestled control from a reticent Adidas. ‘Motta’ lacked the graphic subtlety of ‘Mediolanum’, whereas Lotto relied too heavily on dye-sublimation, refusing to sew key details into the fabric the way their predecessors did – be it the Kappa or Adidas logos, the scudetto, the European Cup, that solitary star – which made their shirts look cheap.

But five years in pretty much the same shirt was good going, even back then. If you had to narrow it down then the Kappa version probably edges it over Adidas’s effort – the 1988-89 iteration in particular, with the scudetto contrasting nicely against the red and black stripes of A.C. Milan. In any case, Arrigo Sacchi’s team more than lived up to the standard this iconic top conferred upon them.

THE SARTORIAL ELEGANCE OF SERIE A: FIORENTINA, 1988-90 [ABM]

Upon its formation in 1926, ACF Fiorentina wore red and white halved shirts, representative of the city of Florence (or more specifically its flag and coat of arms) as well as the two teams from which the new club was formed: Club Sportivo Firenze, who had worn white shirts, and Palestra Ginnastica Fiorentina Libertas, who had worn red. The iconic purple jerseys, used to this day, were introduced in 1929, but nobody can say exactly why. The myth that often prevails is that it was result of a laundering incident. In fact, the switch in livery was a decision made by Luigi Ridolfi, the club's then president, inspired by the kit worn by Újpest, a Hungarian football team against whom Fiorentina played a friendly match in 1928.

It was in this configuration that Fiorentina won their first scudetto in 1956: purple collared shirts, white shorts and purple socks, with a red fleur-de-lis (a stylised lily, or ‘giglio’) set against a white rhombus acting as the club's badge. The presence of a badge of any sort was quite unusual for the time, but it seems to be something Fiorentina adopted from the moment they started wearing purple shirts.

Fiorentina were champions again in 1968-69, now wearing black shorts. It is unclear what motivated this change, or when it came into effect, although the club's two Coppa Italia triumphs in 1961 and 1966 were achieved in white shorts. In any case, the next season Fiorentina were back to wearing white shorts, the fleur-de-lis appended to the corner of the scudetto that adorned the jersey.

The 1970s saw little in the way of sartorial change. Then, in 1980, construction magnate Flavio Pontello assumed control of Fiorentina and appointed his son, Ranieri, as president. Within a year they’d changed the club’s badge and struck a deal with the clothing company JD Farrow’s to sponsor the kit, which was not the done thing back then. The new circular emblem comprised of half a fleur-de-lis appended to the letter F, taking on the appearance of a halberd, and was displayed in the middle of a red-trimmed shirt, occupying a fair proportion of it, with the club’s sponsor transcribed above. On top of all that, the team now wore purple shorts.

Fiorentina’s new look was not popular, but when Pontello & Son started investing in actual players opinions softened. In 1981-82, the club finished Serie A in second place and would probably have won the championship had a goal not been controversially disallowed against Caligari in the last game of the season. Thereafter Fiorentina’s form was inconsistent: in 1983 they placed fifth, in ‘84 third, and in ‘85 ninth. Meanwhile, Ennerre had taken over as kit supplier and set about reducing the size of the club’s inflated crest, while also accommodating car manufacturer Opel as the team sponsor.

1985-86’s strip could itself be considered iconic. The red trim was discarded, white shorts were reintroduced, and the badge moved to the more usual position over the left breast. This made room for Ennerre’s wonderfully minimal green insignia on the right, while the sponsor was set against a white band wrapped around the trunk of the shirt. Fiorentina managed a respectable fourth place that term, although it’s worth pointing out that they drew 13 of their 30 matches, which wouldn’t now place them quite so high (at the time, two points were awarded for a win, inflating the value of a drawn game). Moreover, their top scorer was the defender Daniel Passarella, prompting Inter to divest Fiorentina of the player’s services.

For what would be club captain Giancarlo Antognoni’s final year at the club, Ennerre handed over shirt making responsibilities to the their subsidiary brand, N2 (or 'Ennedue'), to be sponsored by the non-alcoholic aperitif Crodino. N2 reverted to issuing purple shorts, and Fiorentina finished a disappointing ninth, although new signing Ramon Diaz impressed with 10 goals and Nicola Berti was looking like good value after his transfer from Parma in 1985. In 1987 Sven-Goran Eriksson was drafted in as technical director, to be assisted by Sergio Santarini in the role of coach. The managerial partnership coincided with the emergence of Roberto Baggio as a force to be reckoned with after struggling with a serious knee injury the previous season. Fiorentina ended the campaign in eighth place, Diaz scoring seven leagues goals, Baggio six.

The situation for 1988-89 looked precarious. Nicola Berti and Ramon Diaz had both signed for Trapattoni‘s Inter, while doubts still remained regarding Baggio's fitness. Incoming players included defensive-midfielder Dunga, signed from Pisa, and striker Stefano Borgonovo, taken on loan from AC Milan. At the same time sportswear firm ABM succeeded Ennerre/N2, introducing a micro-patterned shirt utilising subtle shifts in the fabric’s texture [65% polyester, 35% cotton] to make a pattern out of the manufacturer’s logo.

Fiorentina did all right, finishing in seventh place and reaching the quarter finals of the Coppa Italia. Fortuitously, AC Milan went on to win the European Cup and Sampdoria the Coppa Italia, effectively freeing up an extra place in the UEFA Cup, which went to Fiorentina after they defeated Roma in a play-off. Even more auspicious was the fact that Baggio and Borgonovo had formed a very effective partnership – as well as a close friendship – scoring 15 and 14 goals respectively. Or it would have been if AC Milan didn’t then recall their man to provide cover for Marco Van Basten.

For 1989-90, Fiorentina were furnished with white shorts and purple socks. It is this iteration of the ABM strip that is by far the best. Local rag La Nazione took over as sponsor, their uppercase, serif-font emblazoned in yellow (yellow being the complimentary colour of purple). The red parallelogram that constituted ABM’s logo complemented the simplicity of the giglio, as well as making its presence felt against the whiteness of the shorts.

Fiorentina replaced Borgonovo with Argentine striker Oscar Dertycia, as well as bringing in Czech midfielder Luboš Kubík, winger Renato Buso, and defender Giuseppe Volpecina, among others. The results were mixed. On the one hand Fiorentina only just avoided relegation after beating Atalanta in their final game. On the other they reached the UEFA Cup final, controversially losing to Juventus 3-1 over two legs; Fiorentina were forced to play their home leg in Avellino, despite having played the rest of their European campaign in Perugia, which was far closer to home (Stadio Artemio Franchi was undergoing refurbishment prior to the 1990 World Cup and judged unfit for European competition). Nonetheless, the images of Roberto Baggio and the rest of the team, resplendent in purple and white, are some of Fiorentina’s finest.

ABM hung around for another year but reverted to issuing purple shorts, as well as adding white trim to the neck-line. In 1991, Lotto took over, and all was lost. Not only did the white shorts go for good but so did Pontello’s giglio. In an era where clubs re-design their insignias with mild regularity, one can only hope it might one day make a return.