Towards the end of World War II, Hitler “convinced” Mussolini to form the Fascist Italian Social Republic, which was a German puppet state covering the central and northern parts of Italy. The south of the country, meanwhile, was occupied by the US Army and the entire nation was in the midst of a civil war, but despite all of this, football tournaments still took place in Italy, albeit in a format comprised of small regional leagues.The only championship that encompassed multiple regions was the Alta Italia Championship and it was in this league that a team by the name of Spezia Calcio, heavily reduced in numbers due to the war, merged with the local fire brigade to become 42 Corpo dei Vigili del Fuoco della Spezia (Firefighters of Spezia). Spezia Calcio’s president had just been arrested and shipped off to a concentration camp in Germany, and many of their players were fighting the war, so their manager got in touch with the fire brigades commander to recruit players to pad the team out and competefor  the Italian war championship. The team participated in and won the Alto Italia Championship in 1944. However, the war-time leagues in that country were not considered as official by the Italian Football Federation. Spezia’s Alta Italia Champoinship was formed by sports commissioner Ettore Rossi, who was installed by the Nazis and declared to be illegitimately in the post when the government of the Kingdom of Italy came to power in October 1944. Moreover, the Spezia Calcio that exists today are not the same club that won the championship in 1944. They did exist back then, but suspended operations in the 1943/44 season due to the war and therefore they didn’t actually contest the championship. 42 Corpo dei Vigili del Fuoco della Spezia were associated with Spezia Calcio and comprised of some of their players, who had agreed to play for the team until the war ended as a means to avoid military service. In the round robin stages of the 1944 Alto Italia competition, Spezia came out on top and proceeded to the semi-finals where they challenged three new teams – Suzzara, Carpi and Modena – to proceed to the semis. Spezia won five of their six matches in this round, losing only to Carpi, thus qualifying for the two-legged play-off against the excellent Bologna. Bologna’s fans were confident of an easy win, and when Spezia went 1-0 up they became infuriated and began to riot, leading to the match being suspended. Bologna’s punishment was Spezia being awarded a 2-0 win. The return leg was originally moved to Carpi as the city of La Spezia had suffered heavy bombing, but after Bologna chairman Renato Dall’Ara complained to the league’s officials, the game was cancelled forthright and Spezia were granted admission to the the final without even completing a semi. They travelled to Milan for the final stage where they took on Venezia and Torino. Another surprising result was in store, with Spezia and Venezia tieing 1-1 in July, 1944. But an even greater result was yet to come. A week later, Spezia faced “Grande Torino”, arguably one of the greatest sides on the planet at the time, with Vittorio Pozzo as manager and the legendary Silvio Piola as their striker. To fair, Torino had arrived in Milan just two hours before kick off and in less than peak physical condition. But it’s still remarkable that, under the constant threat of aerial bombardment, the team of firefighters defeated Torino 2-1.Spezia were confirmed as champions of the Federal War Cup when Torino went on to crush Venezia 5-2. Debate raged for the following few decades on whether the Federal War Cup should be considered an official national competition, given the fact that most central and all southern Italian clubs were absent, the irregular format of the contest and the thought that it was only organised and played for propaganda purposes. As a result, Spezia went unrecognized as Italian champions all the way until 2002 when, finally, the Federation granted Spezia an honorary Scudetto for their only Italian championship win, 58 years after the fact. This was largely thanks to research and petitioning by local journalists and Spezia Calcio club members, and today, the clubs kit permanently sports the honourary Scudetto patch in recognition of this event despite the fact that, technically, the competiton was won not by Spezia Calcio, but by the men of 42 Corpo dei Vigili del Fuoco della Spezia. 

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Achievements:
Italian War Championship – Champions x1