Provincia capitale. Per una storia delle piccole grandi del calcio italiano = The Rise of the Provinces: Towards a History of Italian Football’s Small Giants

This article outlines the reasons why the provinces serve as a crucial vantage point for understanding the history of Italian football and its relationship with society. Specifically, by proposing a periodization that highlights the 1960s and 1970s as the «golden age» of provincial football, the author identifies the fundamental characteristics of the phenomenon and the factors underlying its prominence. Cagliari’s 1970 Scudetto victory represents the most resounding emergence of the provinces, carrying significant political, economic, and cultural implications. Only Verona, in 1985, would manage to replicate such an exploit. However, by that time, national and European football had already entered a new phase, dominated by shifting interests and power dynamics. The era of the «provincial capital» would no longer find the conditions to repeat itself.