Italia Azzurra

Italian Football Federation

UEFA
Founded	1898
FIFA affiliation	1905
UEFA affiliation	1954
President	Giancarlo Abete

The Italian Football Federation (Italian: Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio, FIGC), also known as Federcalcio, is the governing body of football in Italy. It organises the Italian football league, Coppa Italia, Italian national football team, and the Italian women's national football team. It is based in Rome. It was a founding member of both FIFA and UEFA.

The Federation was founded in 1898 as the sport of football was picking up in the country and needed a formal structure to take things to the next level. The first presidency was decided in the Piedmontese capital of Turin where Mario Vicary was elected along with Luigi D'Ovidio.

In the few short years before and after the introduction of the FIGC, clubs all over the country from Genoa, Turin, Milan, Naples, Rome, Palermo and others were forming.

Between 1964 and 1980 foreign players were banned from the Italian league, primarily to revive the national team.

The FIGC was placed in administration in May 2006 as a result of the Serie A scandal of 2006 and was put under the management of Guido Rossi. In May 2006, Rossi was chosen and accepted the role of President of Telecom Italia. This appointment caused angry reactions from club presidents in Italy. On September 19, Rossi resigned his position as Commissioner of FIGC.^[1][2] On September 21, Luca Pancalli, head of the Italian Paralympic Committee was chosen to replace Rossi.^[3] On April 2, 2007, a president was finally elected, with former vice-president Giancarlo Abete being voted by 264 grand electors out of 271.

On the 2nd of December 2008 The Italian Football board announced the top ten all time greatest Italian football players, they were (in order):

1 - Giuseppe Meazza

2 - Luigi Riva

3 - Roberto Baggio

4 - Paolo Maldini

5 - Giacinto Facchetti

6 - Sandro Mazzola

7 - Giuseppe Bergomi

8 - Valentino Mazzola

9 - Marco Tardelli

10 - Paolo Rossi

• World Cup: 4 times (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006)
• European Football Championship: once (1968)
• Olympics: once (1936)
• International Cup: twice (1927 - 1930, 1933 - 1935)