First title victory and decline

After a slump in league form and the departure of high key players, Roma eventually rebuilt their squad adding goalscorers such as the Argentine Enrique Guaita. Under the management of Luigi Barbesino, the Roman club came close to their first title in 1935–36; finishing just one point behind champions Bologna.
Serie A winners in 1941–42.

Roma returned to form after being inconsistent for much of the late 1930s; Roma recorded an unexpected title triumph in the 1941–42 season by winning their first ever scudetto title. The eighteen goals scored by local player Amedeo Amadei were essential to the Alfréd Schaffer coached Roma side winning the title. At the time Italy was involved in World War II and Roma were playing at the Stadio del Partito Nazionale Fascista.

In the years just after the war, Roma were unable to recapture their league stature from the early 1940s. Roma finished in the lower half of Serie A for five seasons in a row, before eventually succumbing to their only ever relegation to Serie B at the end of the 1950–51 season; around a decade after their championship victory. Under future national team manager Giuseppe Viani, promotion straight back up was achieved.

After returning to the Serie A, Roma managed to stabilise themselves as a top half club again with players such as Egisto Pandolfini, Dino Da Costa and Dane Helge Bronée. Their best finish of this period was under the management of Englishman Jesse Carver, when in 1954–55 they finished as runners-up, after Udinese who originally finished second were relegated for corruption. Although Roma were unable to break into the top four during the following decade, they did achieve some measure of cup success. Their first honour outside of Italy was recorded in 1960–61 when Roma won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup by beating Birmingham City 4–2 in the finals. A few years later Roma won their first Coppa Italia trophy in 1963–64, by beating Torino 1–0.

Their lowest point came during the 1964–65 season when manager Juan Carlos Lorenzo announced that the club could not pay its players and was unlikely to be able to afford to travel to Vicenza to fulfil its next fixture. Supporters kept the club going with a fundraiser at the Sistine Theatre and bankruptcy was avoided with the election of a new club president Franco Evangelisti.

Their second Coppa Italia trophy was won in 1968–69 when it was competed in a small league like system. Giacomo Losi set a Roma appearance record during 1969 with 450 appearances in all competitions, the record he set would last for 38 years.

History

A.S. Roma was founded in the summer of 1927 by Italo Foschi, who initiated the merger of three older Italian Football Championship clubs from the city of Rome; Roman FC, SS Alba-Audace and Fortitudo-Pro Roma SGS. The purpose of the merger was to give the Eternal City a strong club to rival that of the more dominant Northern Italian clubs of the time. The only major Roman club to resist the merger was S.S. Lazio because of the intervention of the Fascist Militia General Vaccaro, member of the club and executive of Italian Football Federation. The club played its earliest seasons at the Motovelodromo Appio stadium, before settling in the working-class streets of Testaccio, where it built an all-wooden ground Campo Testaccio; this was opened in November 1929. An early season in which Roma made a large mark was the 1930–31 championship, the club finished as runners-up behind Juventus. Captain Attilio Ferraris along with Guido Masetti, Fulvio Bernardini and Rodolfo Volk were highly important players during this period.

A.S. Roma

Associazione Sportiva Roma, (BIT: ASR, LSE: 0DMN) commonly referred to as simply Roma, is a professional Italian football club based in Rome. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma have participated in the top-tier of Italian football for all of their existence but one season in the early 50s (1951–52). For their 59th season in a row (78th overall), Roma are competing in Serie A for 2010–11.

Roma have won Serie A three times, first in 1941–42 then in 1982–83 and again in 2000–01, as well as winning nine Coppa Italia titles and two Supercoppa Italiana titles. On the European stage Roma won an Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1960–61, coming close to European Cup glory in 1983–84 (lost the one-legged final played at home against Liverpool after a penalty shootout), and finishing as runners-up in the UEFA Cup for 1990–91 (two-legged aggregate defeat against Internazionale).

Home games are currently played at the Stadio Olimpico, a venue they share with city rivals Lazio. With a capacity of over 72,000, it is the second largest of its kind in Italy, with only San Siro able to seat more. In September 2009 the club unveiled plans to build a new 55,000-capacity stadium in the western suburbs of Rome. Its design will be modeled after English football stadiums with the objective being to give fans a closer view of the pitch