My wife asked me this the other night while watching the Olimpics. Normaly countries take a color from there flag.
It's from the old royal colors of Italy. Did you know? Italy play in blue shirts rather than the colours of their national flag in a custom dating back to the country's pre-republican days. Blue was the official colour of the Royal House of Savoy and the Azzurri tribute to the Italian monarchy survives today. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/worldcup2002/specials/html/linekers_verdict/italy.stm
actually this article might be inacurate since the colours of the house of savoy were red and white (thier flag was a red square with a white + going through it) the blue in the flag has very little to do with the house of savoy it was only put there to distinguish the house of savoys flag which was imposed on top of the white in the middle of the tricolour. They chose blue (for the border on the pre republican flag) becuase it was the colour which sybolized royalty or any dynasty the reason i think italy competes in blue is becuase the presidents flag is blue with the coat of arms inside of a wite diamond inside a red square
I have always been told that the Azzurri colors were from the House of Savoy -- never heard of the President's flag story.
Me neither. I think the red flag with white cross is the flag of the Piemonte region, where the royal family was from. Or at least that's the flag of Piemonte today.
thats what i originally thought but then i found out the colours of the house of savoy were red and gold and that the blue was only their to distinuish the coat of arms from the tricolour, and then i saw the presidents flag and sort of put 2 and 2 together but i might wrong
i was wrong actually there are 2 stories, one is from the house of savoy and the other more simply is becuase blue is the national colour of italy and that is why they chose to wear blue
It all started with the Italian soccer team wearing blue in the early 1900's as blue represented Savoia royalty, who's coat of arms was on the Italian flag until they became unified after WWII. So since Italy started playing sports in the early 1900's, it was out of respect to adopt the colors of the royalty that ruled the country [blue]. Then all other Italian sports teams followed suit [Like skiers wearing blue in the olympics, the basketball team, and such]. FYI, Italy played in Black kits a couple of times under Mussolini's Fascist rule... From the Guardian: 2000 Why do Italy play in blue when their flag is red, white and green? asks Jon Davis The Italian national team wear blue because it is the colour of Savoia, the ruling house of Italy from 1861 to 1946. Until the end of the second world war, the Italian flag always had the Savoy coat of arms in the centre, and it was only after the family were overthrown, and the Italian Republic established in 1946, that the plain tricolor was adopted as the national flag. 2004 "Their flag is green, white and red. So why do Italy play in blue?" ponders Karl Magee. We've answered this before, but here it is again in all it's simple glory: blue is the colour of Savoia, which as you probably know, was the ruling house of Italy from 1861 until 1946. Until then, the country's flag always had the Savoy coat of arms on it. It is only since the Italian Republic was established post-war that the tricolor has been the national flag. So now you know.
I listed this in another thread but figured it merited space on every Azzurri thread so I listed it here also! The Juve trio of Combi,Rosetta and Caligaris were the first ones who made the Azzurri famous. Combi started as GK in the 1934 WC becuase starting GK Carlo Ceresoli was hurt under CT's Vittorio Pozzo's eyes. Virginio Rosetta a fulback made his 52nd and final debut with the azzurri against the USA in a 7-1 win. Umberto Caligaris begged Pozzo to play in his 60th cap but Pozzo wouldn't let him becuase he had to think about the good of the team. Caligaris finished his career with 59 caps. Either becuase 70 years have gone by, or becuase everyone from that era is dead, however everyone seems to forget the 1934 World Cup winning Italian team that won it all in Italy. From time to time, I watch an old video film that was broadcast on RAI/ USA in 1990 & 1992 called il colore della vittoria. I've taped it and watch it every chance I get. Its been traditionally shown on Italian TV before the start of every World and Euro Cups. It's a very interesting story that reveals the history or of what took place with CT Vittorio Pozzo the master tactician and the 1934 Italian National team that won it all in its home country. Pozzo picked many different personalities and ingnored Mussolini's facist regimes orders on whom he should or shouldn't pick. It starts out with Pozzo in a bar in Rome trying to scout Roma skipper Attilio Ferraris IV. Ferraris had been given a bar by the AS Roma bosses however, fell out of favor with the club because of his behavior off the field and was subsequently cut from the squad. Pozzo had him in mind when he wanted to select his team. Tilo as he was called said he gained weight and smoked 40 cigs a day and Pozzo told him I'll give you a month to recuperate and get back in shape. He then got back in shape and was a main protagonist on the team along with Peppino Meazza. He also picked Gigi Allemandi who was suspended for accepting a bribe for match fixing. I guess the story went on that Gigi didn't want to play but was later encouraged to do so. Pozzo also picked Luisito Monti who had won the first WC with Argentina. He was one of the "Oriundi" on the club along with Raimondo Orsi and Enrico Guaiata. Monti had broken forward Angelo Schiavio's leg in a Seria A match between Bologna and Juventus and Pozzo in his infinite wisdom grouped the two players together as roommates throughout the cup. Schiavio accepted this although he said,"allies yes friends never"! The story line seemed somewhat dramatized but its a very interesting film none the less. I hope some of you get a chance to see it! Below are the list of players on that team. Portieri / Goalkeepers: Giuseppe Cavanna (Napoli), Giampiero Combi (Juventus), Guido Masetti (Roma) Difensori / Defenders: Luigi Allemandi (Inter-Ambrosiana),Umberto Caligaris (Juventus), Luisito Monti (Juventus), Eraldo Monzeglio (Roma), Virginio Rosetta (Juventus), Attilio Ferraris (Roma) Centrocampisti / Midfielders: Luigi Bertolini (Juventus), Armando Castellazzi (Inter-Ambrosiana), Giovanni Ferrari (Juventus), Giuseppe Meazza (Inter-Ambrosiana), Mario Pizzolo (Fiorentina), Mario Varglien (Juventus) Attaccanti / Forwards: Felice Borel (Juventus), Attilio Demaria (Inter-Ambrosiana), Enrico Guaita (Roma), Anfilogino Guarisi (Lazio), Pietro Arcari (Milan), Raimondo Orsi (Juventus), Angelo Schiavio (Bologna)
Believe me, I tried and it's so hard. I remember seeing one and I forget where. It was black shirt, shorts, and socks with the old Savoia coat of arms on the chest.
This was the logo from the 1934 WC played in Italy. In the movie the showed Vittorio Pozzo looking at a display in a store window of a soccer player wearing the blue warm ups with a fascist black hat.
Another reason I mentioned the 1934 WC team was becuase they were really the first team who had the players that really made the Azzurri colors famous. They also had the Juventus trio of Combi-Rosetta -Caligaris who won 5 consecutive scudetti for Juve and made bot club and country famous. Another note was Fulvio Bernardini was left off the team by Pozzo becuase he didn't like his style of play. Filvio later became a famous coach with Fiorentina and then actually was elected CT in 1974-77.
Yes, that's it, good find. Rep to you. But during the World Cup, they replaced the white shorts with black shorts.
Like it or not,the men in blue were actually born with fascism & Vittorio Pozzo ignored the fascist rule and/or orders but if he didn't win, he was as good as dead. The Duce virtually ordered the 1938 WC team to win it all in France or else. In a way Fascism & Mussolini actually did some good for Italian soccer. He used the Italian National soccer team to make his party well known throughout the world. WW2 & the Superga crash of Grande Torino team that fielded 9 national team players put a dent in Italian soccer. Had Italy not gone into war however,there is no telling what the Azzurri would have become.
Fascism as such is not a bad thing, it was just ill represented by the likes of Hitler and Mussolini who made it into a blame game and eventually the racist regime it became, but the principles of Fascism are not that bad really. It is just a political system like Democracy and Communism...
And the colors were indeed from the house of Savoia and were already worn by its soldiers in the late 1800's The flag itself was not blue, but they always used a banner of blue as their military colors, as in this picture on the post.
No they did not, only the goalkeeper wore the all black outfit. 1934 WC winners 1938 Piola shoots at Goal (notice the white pants) The winning team of the 1938 WC