Juventus FC

History

Juventus were founded as Sport Club Juventus in late 1897 by pupils from the Massimo D'Azeglio Lyceum school in Turin,[30] but were renamed as Foot-Ball Club Juventus two years later. The club joined the Italian Football Championship during 1900. During this period the team wore a pink and black kit. Juventus first won the league championship in 1905 while playing at their Velodromo Umberto I ground. By this time the club colours had changed to black and white stripes, inspired by English side Notts County.


There was a split at the club in 1906, after some of the staff considered moving Juve out of Turin. President Alfredo Dick was unhappy with this and left with some prominent players to found FBC Torino which in turn spawned the Derby della Mole. Juventus spent much of this period steadily rebuilding after the split, surviving the First World War.

Stadium

After the first two years (1897 and 1898), during which Juventus played in the Parco del Valentino and Parco Cittadella, their matches were held in the Piazza d'Armi Stadium until 1908, except in 1905, the first year of the scudetto, and in 1906, years in which it played at the Corso Re Umberto.

From 1909 to 1922, Juventus played their internal competitions at Corso Sebastopoli Camp, and before moving the following year to Corso Marsiglia Camp where they remained until 1933, winning four league titles. At the end of 1933 they began to play at the new Stadio Mussolini stadium inaugurated for the 1934 World Championships. After the Second World War, the stadium was renamed as Stadio Comunale Vittorio Pozzo. Juventus played home matches at the ground for 57 years, a total of 890 league matches. The team continued to host training sessions at the stadium until July 2003.
Stadio delle Alpi, home ground from 1990 to 2006

From 1990 until the 2005–06 season, the Torinese side contested their home matches at Stadio delle Alpi, built for the 1990 FIFA World Cup, although in very rare circumstances, the club played some home games in other stadia such as Renzo Barbera at Palermo, Dino Manuzzi at Cesena and the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza at Milan.

In August 2006, the bianconeri returned to play in the Stadio Comunale, now known as Stadio Olimpico, after the restructuring of the stadium for the 2006 Winter Olympics onwards.

In November 2008 Juventus announced that they will invest around €120 million to build a new ground, the Juventus Stadium, on the site of Delle Alpi. Unlike the old ground, there will not be a running track; instead the pitch will be only 7.5 meters away from the stands. The planned capacity is 41,000. Work began during spring 2009 and the stadium was opened on 8 September 2011 for the start of the 2011–12 season.

Supporters

Juventus are the best supported football club in Italy, with over 12 million fans or tifosi, which represent approximately 29% of the total Italian football fans according to a research published in September 2010 by Italian research agency Demos & Pi, and one of the most supported football clubs in the world, with 180 million supporters (43 million in Europe alone), particularly in the Mediterranean countries, to which a large number of Italian diaspora have emigrated. The Torinese side has fan clubs branches across the globe.

Demand for Juventus tickets in occasional home games held away from Turin is high; suggesting that Juventus have stronger support in other parts of the country. Juve is widely and especially popular throughout mainland Southern Italy, Sicily and Malta, leading the team to have one of the largest followings in its away matches, more than in Turin itself.

Rivalries

Juventus have significant rivalries with two clubs. Their traditional rivals are fellow Turin club Torino F.C. and matches between the two side are known as the Derby della Mole (Derby of Turin). The rivalry dates back to 1906 as Torino was founded by break-away Juventus players and staff. Their most high-profile rivalry is with Internazionale, another big Serie A club located in Milan, the capital of the neighbouring region of Lombardy. Matches between these two clubs are referred to as the Derby d'Italia (Derby of Italy) and the two regularly challenge each other at the top of the league table, hence the intense rivalry. Up until the Calciopoli scandal which saw Juventus forcibly relegated, the two were the only Italian clubs to have never played below Serie A. Notably the two sides are the first and the second most supported clubs in Italy and the rivalry has intensified since the later part of the 1990s; reaching its highest levels ever post-Calciopoli, with the return of Juventus to Serie A.

They also have rivalries with Milan, Roma and Fiorentina.