All Lazio fans must be immensely grateful to Giorgio Vaccaro. Without him Lazio would have disappeared.
Giorgio Vaccaro was born on October 12 1892 at San Marzanotto d’Asti, near Asti in Piedmont. At an early age his family moved to Rome. He was a sportsman having played football in the youth sector of Juventus, boxing, fencing and cycling. He was also one of the founders of Lazio Rugby.
After World War I, where he was awarded a silver medal, he adhered to the Fascist Party and in 1922 definitely moved to Rome. Despite the military career, Lieutenant General of the Militia, Giorgio Vaccaro was still in love with sport and was councillor of the Fencing Federation as well as President of the Rugby Federation. In 1926 he was nominated councillor of the Italian Football Federation and President of the Italian Olympic Committee which he remained until 1939.
In 1920 he joined the Lazio board since the Biancocelesti encapsulated his values of sport and the president Olindo Bittetti was a dear friend of his. On May 5, 1933, he became President of the Italian Football Federation and organised the World Cup of 1934 and 1938. In 1939 he became a member of the International Olympic Committee.
The birth of AS Roma
On August 2 1926 in Viareggio a trio of three “wise men” (Paolo Graziani, Italo Foschi and Giovanni Mauro) redesigned Italian football with the Viareggio Charter. In this document professionalism was introduced to Italian soccer together with the transfer market and the total ban on signing foreign players. Furthermore, a first National Division was introduced with 20 teams, 16 from the North of Italy, Internaples and Alba (who had reached the final stage of the Italian championship), Fortitudo (Foschi was coincidently president of the Rome-based team) and finally the winner of a playoff between the 8 clubs that had been relegated the year before (which became Alessandria).
It was important for the fascist party that the Roman teams should be competitive. As a consequence, a series of mergers began to make the teams stronger. Alba, founded in 1907, merged with Audace, founded in 1901, and Fortitudo, 1908, with Pro Roma, 1911. Results however were pretty dismal. Alba arrived second from bottom in their 1926-27 National Division group and Fortitudo last.
A further step was needed, one single team for Rome that could compete with the powers of the north. Foschi ordered that Fortitudo, Alba and Lazio should merge into a new club that would be called Associazione Sportiva Roma and bear the colours of the city, red and yellow. The players would come from the first two teams, Lazio would supply the stadium (Campo della Rondinella).
Olindo Bitetti who was Lazio President with Gerardo Branca (not of the football section but the whole Lazio Sports Club) understood what the real plan was. Lazio would have disappeared. Bitetti asked General Giorgio Vaccaro for a hand.
Vaccaro suggested that Bitetti immediately call for a board meeting and nominated him Vice President and Nicolò Maraini President General of the Sports Group. In this way Foschi would have to deal not with politically weak sport directors, but with much stronger Fascist party members. Mariani had been President of Alba and member of the board of Roman. At the meeting with Foschi Vaccaro told him that “Lazio has been a Moral Body by Royal Decree since 1921 and has a history, it cannot disappear. If we need to create a single club there is no problem, but it has to be called Lazio, the colours have to be white and light blue and the stadium must be that of the Rondinella”.
This was obviously not going to be possible, but General Vaccaro was still able to avoid Lazio being included in the new club. Roman, founded in 1901, took Lazio’s place.
The good thing was that Foschi was only interested in the Stadium. Alba too had no intention of joining the new club but they had the best team, so it was impossible for them to refuse.
In justifying the refusal, General Giorgio Vaccaro made the famous proclamation: “Lazio is different. Lazio does not come from, Lazio is. Lazio was born first and the fans came later. For the others there were already fans and a club was created for them to support”.
It took a long while for Roma to be competitive but since they had the best players in town they were a lot stronger than Lazio and the merging of three groups of fans meant that the Lazio supporters were less. Vincenzo Cerracchio in his book “Controstoria della Lazio” said that it was as if all the teams of London merged into one with the exception of Fulham, London’s oldest professional football club. It is a miracle Lazio still exists.
Failed merger with Fortitudo
Lazio did have a merger plan, to join with Fortitudo. If the plan had worked Alba too would have joined Lazio. In a meeting the Biancoceleste club proposed a merger to cover 50% of Fortitudo’s debts, that is 100,000 lire. Fortitudo’s managers claimed that their debts were around 300,000 and that Lazio should cover all of them. Vaccaro said he would discuss this but they then refused the merger.
Later life
After World War II Vaccaro ended up in jail for his role in the fascist party but he was behind bars for only a few months. Only ever having been involved in Sport issues he was not responsible for any wrongdoings. To demonstrate that his actions were based entirely for the love of sport, he was able to send Egidio Armelloni to the Berlin Olympic Games, despite the fact that he had been sentenced to two years in jail for being a member of the Communist Party.
In 1964 Vaccaro was elected President of the Lazio Football Section on October 29. But the club's serious financial crisis plus the difficulties in renewing the players’ contracts led to him resigning on August 4.
He however did manage to see his beloved Lazio win the scudetto for the first time in 1974.
He died in Rome on September 25 1983 after a lifetime dedicated to sport and Lazio.
Source
Vincenzo Cerracchio: Controstoria della Lazio. Historica, 2016
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