Renato Dall'Ara

President of Bologna FC for thirty years, leading the club to multiple titles including four league championships and the 1961 Mitropa Cup.

Renato Dall'Ara (10 October 1892 in Reggio Emilia – 3 June 1964 in Milan) was an Italian entrepreneur, sports manager, and chairman of Bologna for thirty years.

Quick Facts

Location: Bologna, Italy
Groundbreaking: 1925
Opened: 1927
Renovated: 2015
Owner: Bologna Football Club 1909; Bologna City Council
Operator: Bologna Football Club 1909
Surface: Grass; 105x68m
Former names: Stadio Littoriale (1927–1945); Stadio Comunale (1945–1983)

Lore & Background

An entrepreneur of modest origins, Dall'Ara went from his native Reggio Emilia to Bologna, starting a thriving knitwear company that made him wealthy. In 1934, he was appointed as president of football club Bologna. During the first years of his presidency, between 1934 and 1941, the team won four league titles and the Tournoi international de l'Exposition Universelle de Paris in 1937. In the postwar years, Dall'Ara was unable for many years to repeat the previous successes, until the beginning of the 1960s, when Bologna won the 1961 Mitropa Cup.

In the 1963–64 Serie A, Bologna and Inter Milan were about to play the Championship tie-breaker on 7 June 1964; however, four days before the match, on 3 June, Dall'Ara died in Milan from a heart attack while he was in the Lega Calcio headquarters for a meeting with Angelo Moratti in preparation for that match. Dall'Ara was buried in the Certosa di Bologna along with his wife. The stadium of Bologna, Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, was named after him. He was added to the Italian Football Hall of Fame in 2017.

Reader's Guide

Renato Dall'Ara served as president of Bologna FC from 1934 until his death in 1964. Under his leadership, the club won four Serie A titles (1935–36, 1936–37, 1938–39, 1940–41), the 1937 Tournoi international de l'Exposition Universelle de Paris, and the 1961 Mitropa Cup.