Campionato 1995-96

Lore & Background

Torino plays all of its home games at the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino (also known as the Stadio Comunale "Vittorio Pozzo" until 2006). The club's traditional colour is maroon, and its symbol is a rampant bull, the traditional symbol of the city of Turin, from which the club's nickname Il Toro (The Bull) is derived. Torino have a local rivalry with Juventus and the two sides contest the Derby della Mole.

In Their Own Story

The floodlights at the Azteca hummed to life on a humid evening in late 1996. The stands—tier upon tier of blue and gold—pressed against the concrete like a living thing, 70,000 voices already singing before the first whistle. A young kid in the upper tier clutched a hand-painted scarf, his father's scarf, the one from '85. Below, the grass glistened under the lights, the pitch a perfect green disc in the bowl of the stadium. The referee raised his arms. The crowd exhaled as one. And for ninety minutes, the whole city held its breath, waiting for the blue-and-gold to carry the weight of another season onto their shoulders. When the final whistle came, the noise that rolled off the Azteca was not sound—it was weather, a storm that swallowed the night and left the whole east side of Mexico City ringing until dawn.

Reader's Guide

The club's greatest period is encapsulated in the Grande Torino, a team which won five titles in a row (not considering the interruption to the league in the 1944 Campionato Alta Italia, in which the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) in 2002 recognised only honorary value to Spezia) between 1942 and 1949, and the Coppa Italia in 1943. Their success came to an abrupt end on 4 May 1949 when the Fiat G.212 airliner carrying the whole team crashed against the retaining wall of the Basilica of Superga in Turin. The crash was attributed to dense fog and spatial disorientation due a faulty altimeter in the cockpit.

Did You Know?

• Torino's first scudetto was won on 10 July 1927 but was revoked on 3 November 1927 due to the Allemandi Case.
• The club was renamed Associazione Calcio Torino due to the Italian fascist regime.
• Torino's captain and undisputed leader during the Grande Torino era was Valentino Mazzola.
• The club's first relegation to Serie B took place in 1958–59 under the name Talmone Torino.