Founded in 1909, Bologna were founding members of Serie A, and won many of their league championships during the late 1930s. The club ceded any league dominance by 1964, when they won their last league title to date. They won two Coppa Italia titles in the 1970s, before battling relegation throughout the latter part of the 20th century. Bologna changed ownership multiple times during the early 2000s and 2010s, due to financial mismanagement, and later stabilized under the guise of a Canadian consortium led byJoey Saputo.
Bologna have participated in 79 Serie A seasons, which is the ninth-most in Italian football history. The club have played in theStadio Renato Dall'Ara since 1927, which is the tenth-largest stadium by capacity in Serie A.
Bologna Football Club's formation was orchestrated by Emilio Arnstein, an Austrian who became interested infootball at university inVienna andPrague. He and his brother had previously founded another football club, Black Star, in Austria.
The club was founded on 3 October 1909, in the Northern Italian city ofBologna. Upon its formation, Carlo Sandoni was the club's sponsor and general manager, Swiss Louis Rauch became president,nobleman Guido Della Valle was the vice-president, Enrico Penaglia secretary, Sergio Lampronticashier, while Emilio Arnstein and Leone Vincenzi were appointed councilmen.
Bologna squad from the 1912 season.
On 20 March 1910, Bologna played their first ever game, againstVirtus, who wore white shirts. Bologna outclassed their opponents, winning 9–1. The first football squad featured; Koch, Chiara, Pessarelli, Bragaglia, Guido Della Valle, Nanni, Donati, Rauch, Bernabeu, Mezzano, and Gradi.
Their formative season was spent in the regional league under Arrigo Gradi as captain, Bologna won their league gaining promotion to a league namedGroup Veneto-Emiliano. They spent four seasons in this league, never finishing lower than fifth. Bologna were entered into the Northern League before all football leagues were postponed for World War I.
After thefirst 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 toPro Vercelli. They would equal this again in 1923–24, coming runner up to eventual national championsGenoa.
Bologna became Northern and National League champions for the first time during 1924–25, beatingGenoa 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.
Bologna won theScudetto three more times before World War II, in 1935–36,1936–37 and1938–39, and once during the war (1940–41).
AfterWorld 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 in1963–64. To date this remains their lastSerie A championship, bringing the club's total to seven. This qualified Bologna to the1964–65 European Cup (today UEFA Champions League), but they were eliminated in the preliminary round againstAnderlecht.
The last Bologna side to win thescudetto, in the 1963–64 season.
It was not all doom and gloom for the club, however; in the 1970s, they won theItalian Cup twice, the second final of which was againstPalermo. The game was tense and finished 1–1 before going to apenalty 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 withCagliari andGenoa. They were relegated twice in succession and slid intoSerie 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 inSerie 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 theUEFA Intertoto Cup and playing in theUEFA Cup. The club remained in Serie A until the2004–05 campaign, losing toParma in the playoffs.
Despite losing some key players, Bologna expected to be challenging strongly for promotion fromSerie B in the2005–06 campaign. Despite its ambition, however, Bologna had a poor start to the season, causing the sacking of experienced coachRenzo Ulivieri, replaced by formerInternazionale defenderAndrea 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 the2006–07 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 coachLuca Cecconi. For the2007–08 season, Bologna was led byDaniele Arrigoni, who helped therossoblù 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 atSan Siro againstMilan thanks to a winning goal scored byFrancesco Valiani. The next weeks saw Bologna struggling in the league, however, with eight losses in nine matches. A disappointing 5–1 loss toCagliari ultimately led the club management to sack Daniele Arrigoni on 3 November 2008 and appointSiniša Mihajlović as newrossoblù boss.[5]
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 the2009–10 season, Bologna played in Serie A for the 65th time, and escaped relegation again despite financial issues under new head coachFranco Colomba.
In June 2010, a club takeover was completed, with the club being sold by the Menarini family toSardinian entrepreneur Sergio Porcedda. Franco Colomba was sacked right before the2010–11 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."[6]
On 23 December 2010, the consortiumBologna 2010 led by bankerGiovanni Consorte and coffee businessmanMassimo 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 toLeonardo Corsi in theAndrea Raggi's transfer.[7] Zanetti also became the new club chairman, with popular Italian musician and long-time Bologna supporterGianni Morandi appointed as honorary president.[8][9]
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,[10] 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 playerAlessandro Diamanti to Chinese clubGuangzhou Evergrande. A new head coach was then found in former Cagliari bossDiego 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 byJoe Tacopina andJoey Saputo (owner ofCF Montréal, also the team of former Bologna heroMarco Di Vaio) then stated its interest in acquiring the club; this was followed by another offer coming from former chairmanMassimo 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 of which BFC 1909 Lux Spv S.A.[11] of Luxemburg is an intermediate holding company, Bologna was 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 inSerie A, Bologna finished 14th avoiding relegation. In the following two seasons, Bologna finished in 15th place on the table. In the2018–19 Serie A season, Bologna finished in a creditable 10th position on the table.[12] Over the next three seasons, Bologna continued to finish mid table in Serie A coming 12th two campaigns in a row followed by a 13th-placed finish in the 2021–22 season.[13]
On 12 September 2022,Thiago Motta was named as head coach of Bologna.[14] Subsequently, the club concluded in 9th place in the 2022–23 season, accruing 54 points, setting a new record for the team.[15] Under Motta's full-season leadership in the following 2023–24 season, the club secured aUEFA Champions League berth for the first time since1964–65, ensuring a top-five finish in Serie A,[16] and eventually establishing a new record of 68 points.[17]
Motta was succeeded byVincenzo Italiano ahead of the 2024–25 season. Bologna had one win, three draws and four losses in their Champions League campaign, ultimately finishing 28th out of 36 in theleague phase.[18] On 14 May 2025, Bologna won their thirdCoppa Italia—their first since 1974—after defeatingMilan 1–0 in thefinal.[19]
The official stadium of Bologna is theStadio Renato Dall'Ara. Dall'Ara is the biggest sports building of Bologna and its name is taken from an ex-chairman of the club,Renato Dall'Ara, who died three days before the final for Serie A'sScudetto. Itscapacity is 38,500. Thecurva Bulgarelli (in English, Bulgarelli stand), the stand of Bologna's ultras, is dedicated to playerGiacomo Bulgarelli, who died on 21 February 2009. The other stand, part of which is reserved for the away fans, is dedicated toÁrpád Weisz, coach of Bologna's winning pre-war team, and killed by the Nazis in a concentration camp during WWII.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Bologna have had numerous chairmen over the course of their history, some of which have been the owners of the club, others have been honorary chairmen. Here is a complete list of Bologna chairmen from 1909 until the present day.[21]
Bologna have had many managers and trainers, some seasons they have had co-managers running the team. Here is a chronological list of them from 1920 onwards.[23]
^A partial refoundation took place in 1993; 32 years ago (1993). While a new corporation was created following the bankruptcy of the original one, the team was saveguarded by the agreement between the insolvency court and the FIGC.
