1944 Campionato Alta Italia

This championship was disputed during the second World War and wasn't recognized by the FIGC until 2002, though Spezia's Scudetto is considered a "decoration".

As said above, the winner was Spezia, that at the time was called 42° Corpo dei Vigili del Fuoco della Spezia (VV.F. Spezia - Spezia Firefighters): since most of Spezia's players were drafted, the society's president had to ask the local firefighters to play for the team.

The new Commissioner of the Italian National Olympic Committee Ettore Rossi, appointed by the Italian Social Republic, organized the League of 1943-44 Alta Italia (Upper Italy), holding it until March 1944. In the south the situation was rather different: the matches were played in regional tournaments: the part about the Apulian sector was won by Conversano, while Lazio was imposed in the area of Rome.

The Campionato Alta Italia (Northern Italy Championship) was the only championship that was organized on a more than regional basis: in Central and Southern Italy many regional championship were held. The intention was to organize a national final, but the Gothic Line prevented this.

Campionato Alta Italia 1944 Winners
VV.F. Spezia Decorative Title (Awarded to Spezia Calcio 1906 in 2002)

Qualifications

Piedmont and Liguria

Classification

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1.	Torino FIAT	18	16	2	0	78	19	+59	34	Qualified
2.	Juventus Cisitalia	18	12	3	3	44	25	+19	27
3.	Biellese	18	12	0	6	44	32	+12	24
4.	Liguria	18	10	3	5	40	25	+15	23
5.	Genova 1893	18	9	2	7	34	31	+3	20
6.	Novara	18	8	1	9	28	33	-5	17
7.	Asti	18	5	3	10	21	36	-15	13
8.	Casale	18	4	2	12	20	37	-17	10
8.	Alessandria	18	4	2	12	13	46	-33	10
10.	Cuneo	18	1	0	17	8	46	-38	2

Results

Home ╲ Away	ALE	AST	BIE	CSL	CUN	GEN	JUV	LIG	NOV	TOR
Alessandria		1–3	0–4	1–0	2–0	0–2	2–2	0–0	1–0	0–4
Asti	0–1		2–3	0–1	3–2	1–3	0–2	0–0	4–2	0–4
Biellese	5–1	3–0		4–3	2–0	3–1	1–2	5–4	3–2	1–2
Casale	2–0	0–2	0–2		2–0	0–2	0–2	2–4	2–2	1–4
Cuneo	3–2	0–2	0–2	0–2		0–3	0–2	0–2	0–2	0–3
Genova 1893	3–0	1–1	1–2	2–0	3–2		2–0	1–3	2–1	4–4
Juventus Cisitalia	4–0	2–2	3–2	5–1	6–1	3–1		4–3	2–0	0–0
Liguria	4–1	4–0	2–0	0–0	2–0	2–1	4–3		1–0	1–2
Novara	3–1	1–0	2–1	2–0	2–0	2–1	1–2	3–2		1–3
Torino FIAT	7–0	6–1	7–1	5–4	4–0	7–1	5–0	3–2	8–2

Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005 (Italian)
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

Lombardy

Classification

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1.	Ambrosiana-Inter	14	10	1	3	30	13	+17	21	Qualified
2.	Varese	14	6	4	4	26	20	+6	16	Tie-breaker
2.	Brescia	14	7	2	5	24	20	+4	16
4.	Fanfulla	14	5	5	4	17	17	0	15
5.	Milano	14	5	3	6	18	16	+2	13
5.	Pro Patria	14	4	5	5	12	14	-2	13
7.	Cremonese	14	3	4	7	13	24	-11	10
8.	Atalanta	14	3	2	9	12	28	-16	8

Results

Home ╲ Away	AMB	ATA	BRE	CRE	FAN	MIL	PPA	VAR
Ambrosiana-Inter		2–1	8–2	3–1	3–1	0–2	2–0	3–0
Atalanta	1–2		3–2	2–0	0–0	0–2	1–0	1–4
Brescia	0–1	1–0		0–0	4–1	1–0	1–1	4–1
Cremonese	1–2	2–1	0–4		1–1	0–0	3–0	1–1
Fanfulla	2–1	3–1	0–1	1–0		3–1	1–0	1–1
Milano	1–3	6–0	3–2	0–2	1–0		1–1	0–0
Pro Patria	0–0	1–1	2–1	2–0	0–0	2–0		3–1
Varese	1–0	3–0	0–1	7–2	3–3	2–1	2–0

Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005 (Italian)
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

Tie-breaker

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Brescia	0-1(aet)	Varese

Varese advanced to the semifinals

Veneto

Group A

Classification

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1.	Venezia	12	10	0	2	43	12	+31	20	Qualified
2.	Treviso	12	8	1	3	36	11	+25	16
2.	Padova	12	8	0	4	27	18	+9	16
4.	Bassano	12	6	0	6	22	31	-9	12
5.	Mestre	12	1	5	6	10	21	-11	7
6.	Legnago	12	2	2	8	19	35	-16	6
6.	Rovigo	12	2	2	8	9	38	-29	6

Results

Home ╲ Away	BAS	LGN	MST	PAD	ROV	TRV	VEN
Bassano		4–1	1–0	0–3	5–2	0–7	0–1
Legnago	1–4		1–1	3–1	6–0	1–4	0–3
Mestre	0–2	2–2		0–2	0–0	1–1	1–2
Padova	7–2	7–1	2–1		1–0	1–3	2–0
Rovigo	0–1	3–2	1–1	0–1		2–0	1–3
Treviso	2–1	2–0	5–0	3–0	7–0		1–3
Venezia	7–2	4–1	2–3	5–0	11–0	2–1

Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005 (Italian)
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

Group B

Classification

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1.	Vicenza	10	8	1	1	32	7	+25	17	Qualified
2.	Verona	10	5	3	2	18	15	+3	13
3.	Lanerossi Schio	10	5	2	3	16	16	0	12
4.	DAM Valdagno	10	5	1	4	15	15	0	10[1][2]
5.	Monti Padova	10	1	1	8	12	31	-19	3
6.	Sambonifacese	10	1	2	7	16	25	-9	2[2][3]
7.	Audace San Michele	(2)	-	-	(2)	(1)	(7)	-	0	Retired[4]
7.	Pellizzari Arzignano	(2)	-	-	(2)	(1)	(8)	-	0

Results

Home ╲ Away	ASM	DAM	LAN	MON	PEL	SMB	HEL	VIC
Audace San Michele
DAM Valdagno			2–0	1–0		3	0–0	1–2
Lanerossi Schio		3–1		1–0		2–0^2	4–0	1–1
Monti Padova		2–3	1–1			4–1	1–2	1–5
Pellizzari Arzignano
Sambonifacese		1–3	2–3	10–1			0–0	0–2^2
Hellas Verona	2-0^4	2–0^2	5–0	4–2	6-0^4	2–2		3–1
Vicenza	5-1^4	5–0	4–1	3–0	2-1^4	4–0	2–0^2

Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005 (Italian)
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
²Forfeit.
³The match DAM Valdagno-Sambonifacese wasn't disputed. FIGC decided that both the teams had lost the match and had 1 and 2 points deducted rispectively.
⁴Audace San Michele and Pellizzari Arzignano retired during the championship. All their matches were invalidated.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

Final round

Treviso and Vicenza retired before the start of the round

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Venezia	7-3	Verona	5-1	2-2

Both Venezia and Verona were admitted to the semifinals.

Friuli-Venezia Giulia

Classification

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1.	Ampelea Isola d'Istria	14	10	2	2	35	17	+18	22	Qualified
2.	Triestina	14	8	3	3	28	11	+17	19
3.	Pro Gorizia	14	6	4	4	21	21	0	16
4.	Monfalcone	14	6	2	6	19	22	-3	14
5.	San Giusto	14	4	5	5	14	14	0	13
5.	Udinese	14	5	3	6	17	25	-8	13
7.	Cormonese	14	4	0	10	16	28	-12	8
8.	Ponziana	14	3	1	10	13	25	-12	7

Results

Home ╲ Away	AMP	COR	MFA	PON	PGO	SGI	TRI	UDI
Ampelea Isola d'Istria		4–2	3–0	5–2	4–1	1–1	2–0	6–2
Cormonese	1–4		2–1	1–0	0–1	3–1	0–4	0–2
Monfalcone	1–2	1–0		2–1	1–1	4–1	2–1	1–0
Ponziana	0–1	0–4	1–0		1–3	2–0	1–1	1–0
Pro Gorizia	3–1	2–1	1–1	3–2		1–1	0–3	3–1
San Giusto	0–1	2–0	1–2	1–0	2–0		0–0	4–0
Triestina	3–0	3–1	4–0	3–2	2–1	0–0		3–0
Udinese	1–1	3–1	4–3	1–0	1–1	0–0	2–1

Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005 (Italian)
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

Emilia-Romagna

Group A

Classification

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1.	Bologna	6	5	0	1	22	8	+14	10	Qualified
2.	Cesena	6	4	0	2	12	5	+7	8
3.	Panigale	6	3	0	3	9	12	-3	6
4.	San Pietro in Casale	6	0	0	6	3	21	-18	-2[3]

Results

Home ╲ Away	BOL	CES	PAN	SPC
Bologna		2–0	4–0	2–1
Cesena	5–0		2–0	2–0
Panigale	1–3	3–2		3–1
San Pietro in Casale	1–11	0–1	0–2

Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005 (Italian)
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

Group B

Classification

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1.	Faenza	8	4	3	1	18	7	+11	11	Qualified
1.	Forlimpopoli	8	5	1	2	17	11	+8	11
3.	Ravenna	8	4	1	3	17	7	+10	9
4.	Imola	8	4	0	4	14	17	-3	8
5.	Forlì	8	0	1	7	3	27	-24	1

Results

Home ╲ Away	FAE	FOR	FRL	IML	RAV
Faenza		1–1	4–1	5–0	1–1
Forlì	1–2		1–5	0–1	0–3
Forlimpopoli	2–2	3–0		3–2	2–1
Imola	0–3	7–0	1–0		2–1
Ravenna	1–0	5–0	0–1	5–1

Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005 (Italian)
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

Group C

Classification

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1.	Modena	8	6	2	0	17	6	+11	14	Qualified[5]
2.	Carpi	8	4	3	1	19	6	+13	11
2.	Reggiana	8	5	1	2	13	9	+4	11
4.	Mantova	8	1	1	6	11	28	-17	3
5.	Centese	8	0	1	7	11	22	-11	1

Results

Home ╲ Away	CRP	CEN	MAN	MOD	REA
Carpi		2–1	6–1	0–0	1–1
Centese	1–5		2–2	1–2	0–1
Mantova	0–4	3–1		1–3	1–2
Modena	1–1	4–3	5–0		1–0
Reggiana	1–0	3–2	5–3	0–1

Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005 (Italian)
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

Group D

Classification

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1.	VV.F. Spezia	8	5	3	0	14	6	+8	13	Qualified
2.	Corradini Suzzara	8	5	1	2	15	8	+7	11
3.	Fidentina	8	2	4	2	20	20	0	8
4.	Parma	8	2	3	3	8	12	-4	7
5.	Orlandi Busseto	8	0	1	7	7	18	-11	0[1]

Results

Home ╲ Away	COR	FID	ORL	PAR	VFS
Corradini Suzzara		6–0	2–0	2–1	0–2
Fidentina	2–3		2–1	7–1	1–1
Orlandi Busseto	1–2	3–3		0–1	1–2
Parma	0–0	1–1	4–1		0–0
VV.F. Spezia	2–0	4–4	2–0	1–0

Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005 (Italian)
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

Semifinals

Group A (Piedmont and Lombardy)

Classification

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1.	Torino FIAT	6	3	2	1	21	12	+9	8	Qualified
2.	Juventus Cisitalia	6	3	1	2	15	9	+6	7
3.	Ambrosiana-Inter	6	2	2	2	12	13	-1	6
4.	Varese	6	1	1	4	6	20	-14	3

Results

Home ╲ Away	AMB	JUV	TOR	VAR
Ambrosiana-Inter		2–1	3–3	3–0
Juventus Cisitalia	1–0		3–1	6–1
Torino FIAT	6–2	3–3		2–1
Varese	2–2	2–1	0–6

Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005 (Italian)
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

Group B (Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia)

Verona retired before the start of the semifinals.

Classification

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1.	Venezia	4	2	2	0	3	0	+3	6	Qualified
2.	Ampelea Isola d'Istria	3[6]	1	0	2	2	4	-2	2
2.	Triestina	3[6]	0	2	1	1	2	-1	2

Results

Home ╲ Away	AMP	TRI	VEN
Ampelea Isola d'Istria		^2	0–1
Triestina	1–2		0–0
Venezia	2–0^3	0–0

Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005 (Italian)
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
²Ampelea Isola d'Istria and Triestina renounced to play the last match: Venezia was already qualified and there were public security problems due to the war and the rivalry between the two teams' fans.
³Decided by the FIGC.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

Group C (Emilia-Romagna)

Round 1

Group A

Classification

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1.	Bologna	6	4	1	1	11	5	+6	9	Qualified
2.	Cesena	6	4	0	2	13	6	+7	8
3.	Forlimpopoli	6	2	2	2	10	11	-1	6
4.	Faenza	6	0	1	5	5	17	-12	1

Results

Home ╲ Away	BOL	CES	FAE	FRL
Bologna		2–0	3–1	3–1
Cesena	2–0		5–1	2–0
Faenza	0–2	0–2		0–2
Forlimpopoli	1–1	3–2	3–3

Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005 (Italian)
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

Group B

Classification

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1.	VV.F. Spezia	6	5	0	1	14	4	+10	10	Qualified
2.	Corradini Suzzara	6	2	1	3	7	10	-3	4[1]
2.	Carpi	6	2	1	3	5	7	-2	4[1]
4.	Modena	6	2	0	4	3	8	-5	3[1]

Results

Home ╲ Away	CRP	COR	MOD	VFS
Carpi		1–1	0–1	2–1
Corradini Suzzara	2–0^2		2–0	2–5
Modena	0–2	2–0^2		0–2
VV.F. Spezia	2–0	2–0	2–0^2

Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005 (Italian)
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
²Decided by the FIGC.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

Round 2

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Bologna	0-4	VV.F. Spezia	0-2[7]	0-2[8]

Final round

Classification

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1.	VV.F. Spezia	2	1	1	0	3	2	+1	3	Champions
2.	Torino FIAT	2	1	0	1	6	4	+2	2
3.	Venezia	2	0	1	1	3	6	-3	1

Results

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Venezia	1-1	VV.F. Spezia
VV.F. Spezia	2-1	Torino FIAT
Torino FIAT	5-2	Venezia

References and sources

• Fabrizio Calzia and Paolo Rabajoli, Lo Scudetto per sempre – I Vigili del fuoco della Spezia Campioni d’Italia 1944, Sagep e Il Secolo XIX

External links

• it:Campionato Alta Italia 1944 - Italian version with pictures and info.
• - All results on RSSSF Website.

Footnotes

1. 1 point deducted.
2. The match DAM Valdagno-Sambonifacese wasn't disputed. FIGC decided that both the teams had lost the match and had 1 and 2 points deducted rispectively.
3. 2 points deducted.
4. Audace San Michele and Pellizzari Arzignano retired during the championship. All their matches were invalidated.
5. Carpi qualified on goal difference.
6. Ampelea Isola d'Istria and Triestina renounced to play the last match: Venezia was already qualified and there were public security problems due to the war and the rivalry between the two teams' fans.
7. Decided by the FIGC.
8. Forfeit.