Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale or Inter Milan FC, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. They are the current champions of the Italian Serie A, having retained their crown for the fourth successive season on 16 May 2009.
Inter hold the distinction of being the only side in Italian football to have never been relegated to a lower division. They have spent their entire history in Serie A, the top flight of Italian football which began its first season in 1929-30. Playing in black and blue striped shirts with black shorts, they have 17 Serie A titles to their name.
History
The club won its very first Scudetto (championship) in 1910 and its second in 1920. The captain and coach of the first Scudetto was Virgilio Fossati, who was killed in World War I. In 1922 Inter were in Group B of the Serie A and came in last place after picking up only 11 points in the season.
In the 199900 season, Massimo Moratti made some major changes, once again with some high-profile signings. A major coup for Inter was the appointment of former Juventus manager Marcello Lippi. Inter were seen by the majority of the fans and press to have finally put together a winning formula. Other signings included Angelo Peruzzi and French legend Laurent Blanc together with other former Juventus players Christian Vieri and Vladimir Jugovi?. Inter were also seen to have an advantage in this season as they had no European "distraction".
200203 saw Inter take a respectable second place and also managed to make it to the 2003 Champions League semi-finals against Milan. Although they drew on aggregate 11 with Milan, Inter lost on the away goals rule, even though both matches were played in the same stadium. It was another disappointment but they were finally on the right track.
Inter were awarded the 200506 Serie A championship as they were the highest placed side in the season's final league table after points were stripped from Juventus and Milan both sides being involved in the match fixing scandal that year. On 14 July 2006, the Italian Federal Appeal Commission found Serie A clubs Juventus, Lazio, Fiorentina, Reggina, and Milan guilty of match-fixing and punished the five clubs involved. As a result, with the relegation of Juventus to Serie B (for the first ever time in their history) and the 8-point deduction for city rivals Milan, Inter became favorites to retain their Serie A title for the upcoming 200607 Serie A season.
An improvement in results then gave Inter the chance to wrap up their Scudetto race twice, but a defeat to city rivals Milan and a home draw against Siena catapulted Roma to within just one point of Inter going into the final round of the Championship. Inter then managed to win at Parma thanks to two goals by Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovi?, who was still recovering from a knee injury and came off the bench to score for his team.
Other historical information
Internazionale have never been relegated from the Italian top flight in their entire history, which dates back all the way to 1908; a fact Nerazzurri fans hold in high regard. By comparison, Milan have been relegated twice. As of 2006, following Juventus' relegation to Serie B for the 200607 season following the Calciopoli scandal, Inter is the only Italian club that holds this honour, and its century in the top flight is one of the longest unbroken runs of any club in the world.
The current president and owner of Internazionale is Massimo Moratti. His father Angelo was the president of Inter during the club's golden era of the 1960s.
Presidential history
Inter have had numerous presidents over the course of their history, some of which have been the owners of the club, others have been honorary presidents encluding Giovanni Paramithiotti, Ettore Strauss, and Giorgio Hulss.
Supporters and rivalries
Inter is one of the most supported clubs in Italy, according to an August 2007 research by Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Historically, the largest section of Inter fans from the city of Milan have been the middle-class bourgeoisie Milanese, while AC Milan fans are typically working-class and a significant portion are migrants from Southern Italy.
Inter have several rivalries, two of which are highly significant in Italian football; firstly, they participate in the inter-city Derby della Madonnina with AC Milan; the rivalry has existed ever since Inter splintered off from Milan in 1908.The name of the derby refers to the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose statue atop the Milan Cathedral is one of the city's main attractions. The match usually creates a lively atmosphere, with numerous (often humorous or offensive) banners unfolded before the match. Flares are commonly present, but they also led to the abandonment of the second leg of the 2005 Champions League quarter-final matchup between Milan and Inter on 12 April after a flare thrown from the crowd by an Inter supporter struck Milan keeper Dida on the shoulder.
The other most significant rivalry is with Juventus; the two participate in the Derby d'Italia. Up until the 2006 Serie A match-fixing scandal, which saw Juventus relegated, the two were the only Italian clubs to have never played below Serie A. Clubs such as Bologna, Atalanta, and Roma are also considered to be amongst their rivals.
The
Champions League tickets of all matches are now available for sale.
Inter Milan tickets of its matches around the World are for sale at ticket4football.com, you can buy the
Champions League final Tickets also here.
