Forza Saronno! Forza Owls!

The Vital SWFC forum recently welcomed some visitors from Italy with an interesting story to tell.. the early history of FBC Saronno.

Saronno is a small town in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, population 40000 or so, close to Milan. The football club was established in 1910 by a famous Italian entrepreneur called Gaetano Gianetti. He obviously had incredibly good taste, as he set his team up to play in the famous blue and white stripes of Sheffield Wednesday.

So equipped, the grand-fathers of the present supporters started to play football in Saronno, reaching the Italian first division in their early years, and winning the 'Coppa del Re', the King's Cup.

In March of this year a group of dedicated Saronno supporters visited Hillsborough in order to try and establish a link between their two teams, speaking to communications manager Colin Wood. They took in the 2-2 draw with Wolves, and would be interested in taking the dialogue further, first with fans, then possibly stronger links with the club. They're hoping to come back to the UK for the Sheffield derby match in January.

You can visit the fans website here (photos of their trip to Hillsborough earlier this year), the Fronte Ribelle site here and also the official site here. It's in Italian, but have a look around and use Google to find out more about them.

We're happy to welcome all fans of FBC Saronno into the Vital SWFC community and help them in their quest for recognition.

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.

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