Beyond the Test World

How cricket made Italian football

Supporters of Genoa, Italy's oldest professional football club, have long been proud of their Anglo roots

Supporters of Genoa, Italy's oldest professional football club, have long been proud of their Anglo roots. Founded, like AC Milan, by a group of Brits in 1893 as Genoa Cricket and Athletic Club (Sir James Spensley started the football in 1896), it's still officially known as Genoa Cricket and Football Club.
Things have been going well on the footballing front of late, with i grifoni (the Griffins) finally winning promotion back into Italy's Serie A after a series of false starts. Now, a group of supporters keen to know more about their distant cricketing past approached the club and are giving cricket a new lease of life.

Martin Williamson is executive editor of ESPNcricinfo and managing editor of ESPN Digital Media in Europe, the Middle East and Africa