* yesterday 4/5 was the 60th anniversary of the Superga disaster. initially i posted these in the Serie A thread, but as i read up more and more abt the disaster, i realized that its virtually unknown to much of the poeple out there. i believe that for whoever that is a fan of the beautiful game, should have the chance to get to know more abt 1 of the most tragic events to not just the Italian calcio, but the football world as a whole, as well as the interesting story of the Il Grande Torino.

* all the information that i gonna post next are gathered and collected from various sources (credits to all of them), and edited by myself. feel free to point out and correct me for any mistakes or wrong info that i made.




The Superga Air Disaster



4 May 1949, the plane - a Fiat G.212 - carrying the almost entire Torino A.C. football club team, including staffs and coachs, as well as some journalists, took off from Barcelona. The Torino team had been to Lisbon upon invitation to play in a farewell match against Benfica for the retirement of their captain, Jose Ferreira. The plane made a stop at Barcelona to refuel, and proceed to took off for Turin at 14:50 local time.

It was a cloudy and foggy wednesday, and eye-visibility was low. Upon reaching the Turin airport, the plane lost its course, and by local time 17:04, it crashed into the Basilica of Superga, which situated on the hill of Superga. There were a total of 31 persons on the plane, 27 passengers with 4 crew. There were no survivors.



Out of the 31 victims, 18 of them were the member of the 1st team of 'Il Grande Torino' - 'The Great Torino' - which was the most dominating and conquering club team in Euro at that time. They were leading the league by 16 points with 4 games left to play, having already won the championship 4 times in a row before this. It was destined that they will win it again that season and make it their 5th consercutive title.

After the disaster, Torino was left with virtually no senior members on the roster. They went on to play the remaining 4 matches with the Primavera (youth) team, who as the matter of fact, were now their 1st team. Out of respect, their opponents - Genoa, Palermo, Sampdoria, and Fiorentina - all fields their own respectively Primavera teams too for the games. The young Torino did well, and won all the remaining matches, took the title which was rightfully theirs.



The news shocked the nation, that parliament was immediately suspended. Rumours had it that a woman commit suicide upon hearing the news. 500,000 people turned up for the players' funerals. The Italian football federation even went as far as refused to let the national team to travel by plane to Brazil for the 1950 World Cup.

Torino never ever again able to back on its feet fully and regain the glory of the great 'Il Grande Torino' days again. They were relegated to Serie B by 1959, and although they did rise up and won the title again for 1 last time in 1976. Now in 2009, as I was typing this, they are fighting for survival in Serie A with just 4 games left.






Il Grande Torino



It all began when Ferruccio Novo took over as the club president in 1939, just right when the world were about to be plunged into the chaos of WW2. A free and modern thinker of his time, Novo had eyes like eagle of finding the right man for the right job. He brought in Franco Ossola, Guglielmo Gabbeto, Ezio Loik and some others who went on to become the core the now legendary team. But the most important buy that Novo had made, is no doubt the captain and the greatest of them all, Valentino Mazzola.



until today, Mazzola remains as the symbol of Il Grande Torino, their greatest captain and player, and holding some still standing club records. He is regarded by many as 1 of the greatest players of all time, as well as being dubbed as the "1st ever modern all-round player", some years before Johan Cruyff and his 'Total Footbal'. Played mostly as a trequartista (2nd forward), he can shoot and tackle equally outstandingly, as well as inspirational and motivtional for his team. Mazzola was famously remembered that whenever the team is not playing up to his standard, he would rolled up the sleeves of his shirt over his elbows as a signal of his dissatisfaction, and proceed to lead the charge himself. He was only 30 when he died. His legacy lives on by his son, Alessandro, who is a legend on his own as part of the La Grande Inter team that dominate the 60s.

Il Grande Torino was first taught of the WM formation by Andras Kuttik, the Hungarian manager who lead the team in 1940. The WM formation, pioneered by Herbert Chapman of Arsenal in 1925, was a revolutionary tactic at that time. Torino players adapted to the tactic well, and that became their regular formation throughout the domination period.



Il Grande Torino had set many still-standing record for Serie A. They won the league 4 times in a row from 1942-43 to 1947-48 (1943-44 and 1944-45 were interrupted by war), and the title of 1948-49, when the disaster struck, made it to be 5 consecutive champions. It is still a Serie A record today. During this period, they had never lost a league game at home - 93 matches, 83 wins and 10 draws, and only on 2 occassions they failed to score any goal. Again, this is another record that still stands today. In total of those 5 years, Il Grando Torino scored 471 goals and conceded only 163 goals, including 125 alone in the 1947-48 season. This is a totally undeniable outstanding achievement no matter how you look at it.

the Azzurri at that time was literally the Il Grande Torino team with blue kit, with most of the time consisted of 8 or 9 Torino players. In 1947, 10 Il Grande Torino players started for the Azzurri in a friendly match against the legendary Ferenc Puskas' Hungary. They won the match 3 - 2.

No one will ever know how far Il Grande Torino, or Italian football, can go if the Superga disaster didn't happen. Will Juventus ever be as successful as now if their local rival did not suffer this devastating event ? or maybe the great Real Madrid side on the 50s would find themselves a matching competitor since the introduction of European Cup ? how about the Azzurri with all the talents of Mazzola and co. ? whats left now to us, are just some 'what if' that will never able to be answered. But for now, Il Grande Torino had already achieve immortality in the history book, and they will always be remembered, as 1 of the greatest club team that ever play the beautiful game.





some good read about Superga disaster :

The Immortals - Channel4

Crash that toppled an Italian giant - Times Online

This post has been edited by Chrisky: May 5 2009, 05:20 PM

RIP

After the disaster, Torino was left with virtually no senior members on the roster. They went on to play the remaining 4 matches with the Primavera (youth) team, who as the matter of fact, were now their 1st team. Out of respect, their opponents - Genoa, Palermo, Sampdoria, and Fiorentina - all fields their own respectively Primavera teams too for the games.

good post and thanks for sharing. to be honest i have not heard of this tragedy partly because of my lack of exposure to italian football, and thanks to you i learnt of something new of the past today.

again, good post for creating the awareness of this disaster, we talk about munich disaster and hillsborough tragedy all the time as though football revolves around england only, so by having more posts like this we can learn more about football around the world.

nice info....that is very sad....i think this disaster is more tragic than munich air disaster...

To be honest I've never heard of this tragedy till you mentioned it. Scary really, and the fact that it shares so many similarities with the Munich air disaster makes it feel a lot closer to my heart. RIP to those who perished.

YNWA. Every club has their own tragic stories and its important for everyone to look past the hatred and rivalry. The beautiful game is supposed to bring joy to everyone, not sadness and tragedy.

I share the same sentiments.

RIP. A top post, Chrisky.

Who knows what Torino FC might have become if this didn't happen. RIP.

thanks.. never knew that before..

This post has been edited by yikerk: May 5 2009, 08:47 PM

They might have been a bigger club than Juventus. Best in Turin!

Now THIS is really something. Great sportsmanship.

I've read the interview of Sandro Mazzola, the son of Valentino Mazzola here.

RIP

Nice post Chrisky. Really excellent

RIP to those who died and sincerest condolences to the ones that were affected by the tragedy.

The part i found beautiful is that some of the other teams fielded their equivalent. Really great ... Humanity exists after all, no matter the colour of our skin or the colour of the cloth on our back

If I can give ratings to you, I would definitely +1 to you.

Great info, RIP. Now we all knew there are still some other footballing tragedies like this happened other than the 2 widely talked.

I think the media should pay attention to this and published this onto their papers especially our local theSun free daily.

May God be with them always.

Cheers Chrisky. Lovely read.

Great story, never heard of it before. Unlucky for TOrino for not being able to bounce back for more glory.

RIP

Thanks for the info, didn't know this incident until u post it up
this is more tragic than Munich disaster, none of the senior member survived

agreed....or i can say the worst tragic incident for the football team...(i believe there is many past tragedy that we still didnt know)at least sir bobby charlton survived from munich disaster....RIP for the all victims...

RIP.

Top post by Chrisky.

Great read Chrisky. Never knew about this tragedy. And the description of the playstyle of Valentino Mazzola is eerily similar to that of Alfredo Di Stefano. Who knows how different the European scene would have been if the 2 were allowed to face each other. Condolences to the families of the victims. Hope Torino will be able to return to where they belong.