Scudetto

The scudetto (Italian for: "little shield", pronounced [skuˈdetto]) is a decoration having the colors of the flag of Italy which is sewn onto the jersey of the Italian sports clubs that won the highest level championship of their respective sport in the previous season. The scudetto was created in the 1920s to honour the winner of the national association football league (in 1929 rebranded as Serie A) and the first team to wear it was Genoa in 1924. Later, it was adopted by the teams of other sports.

The scudetto

The word scudetto is also used to indicate the Serie A trophy; "winning the scudetto" is a synonym of "winning Serie A".

Origin
Gianluigi Buffon in 2016, wearing the scudetto won with Juventus the season prior. Also present in the image is the Coccarda, worn by the current holders of the Coppa Italia.

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 a leather ball in London from the same manufacturer that supplied the Football League[1] and would play football with his friends on the beach of his native Pescara.[1]

In 1920, the former Austro-Hungarian city of Fiume (now the Croatian Rijeka) was annexed to Italy, and D'Annunzio proposed that the local football team acknowledge supporting the Italian sovereignty over the city with a tricolored shield of green, white and red on their jerseys.[1][2]

In 1924, the Italian Football Federation approved the decision to honour the defending champions allowing them to wear the scudetto on their jerseys. The Italian rugby union championship which started in 1928 became the second league to adopt the scudetto on a team's jersey to indicate a title-holding team. Since then, the scudetto has become the symbol of the defending champions of every sports league in Italy.

Other countries including Portugal and Turkey also have their reigning champions wear a national symbol on their chests.

See also

References
  1. Pierangelo, Paolo (8 April 2013). "150 anni di D'Annunzio, l'ideatore dello scudetto sulle maglie da gioco" [D'Annunzio's 150th Birthday: He Was the Inventor of the scudetto on Sports Jerseys]. la Gazzetta dello Sport (in Italian). Milan. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
  2. Graziosi, Roberto (25 April 2016). "Chi ha inventato lo Scudetto?" [Who Invented the scudetto?]. Focus. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
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