Milan is home to two of the best football teams in the world; AC Milan and Inter Milano. The club AC Milan – originally Milan Football and Cricket Club – is the oldest of the two by 9 years but they were originally the same club that split in two in 1908;

• The founding of AC Milan
• The founding of FC Inter Milano
• San Siro stadium
• FC Inter Milano’s old home
• The history behind the names (and nicknames)
• Derby della Madonnina
• The Milan and Inter shops

The founding of AC Milan

Milan Football and Cricket Club Milan was founded on December 16th 1899 by a group of English and Italian partners and the club’s first president was Alfred Ormond Edwards, one of the founding partners. In January 1900 the club was affiliated with FIF (the Italian Football Federation) and the following year they became Italian champions.

The founding of FC Inter Milano

In 1908 a group of partners who disagreed with the club’s policy against hiring foreign players left AC Milan and founded the Football Club Internazionale di Milano known as Inter Milano, and their first president was Giovanni Paramithiotti. The club won their first championship in 1910 and are the only Italian football team to have never been demoted to the second division, Serie B.

San Siro stadium

The legendary San Siro Stadium officially Giuseppe Meazza, (find on map) was inaugurated in 1926 by Milan and the stadium and the land belonged to the club but was bought by Milan’s municipality in 1935 and in 1947 it became home to Inter Milano as well. It is known also as La Scala del calcio – Football’s Scala theatre. The San Siro store is open daily between 10 am and 6.30 pm

You can visit the San Siro stadium every day on guided tours between 9.30 am-7 pm, for more information about times and booking here

FC Inter Milano’s old home

Before the construction of the San Siro or Meazza stadium, as it was officially renamed in 1980 after Inter player Giuseppe Meazza, Milan’s home was the Arena Civica located in the Sempione park and between 1930 and 1947 the Arena Civica was Inter’s home, before that they played at the Campo di Ripa Ticinese (find on map) between 1908 and 1912 and then in the period 1913-1930 at Campo Goldoni, which no logner exists but was located between 61, Via Goldoni and Piazza Novelli (find on map).

The history behind the names (and nicknames)

When Benito Mussolini and his fascist party took power in Italy the policy of the regime was that of italianising foreign names so Milan became Associazione Calcio Milan and Inter became Ambrosiana after the city’s patron saint Saint Ambrose, however, Ambrosiana reversed to their original name of Football Club Internazionale Milano after the end of World War II.

The colours of the clubs have led to their commonly used nicknames I Rossoneri (red-black) and I Nerazzuri (black-blue), traditionally the following of Milan is mainly working class (casciavìt – screwdrivers) and the one of Inter is bourgois (bauscia – braggarts).

Derby della Madonnina

The Milanese derby is in Italian known as il Derby della Madonnina (the derby of the little madonna) after the symbol of Milan, the golden madonna perched on the top of Milan’s cathedral il Duomo di Milano (find on map).

The Milan and Inter shops

There are of course shops with all kinds of football related merchandise ; t-hirts, shorts, footballs etc. in the relevat club’s colours the AC Milan shop is located in Galleria San Carrlo (find on map) and Inter Milan’s shop is very close by at Galleria Passarella (find on map)