Bologna Football Club 1909 was founded on 3 October 1909 in the city of Bologna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. The club traces its origins to Emilio Arnstein, an Austrian with a passion for football, and quickly established itself as one of the founding members of Serie A when the league was created in 1929.
The club's golden era arrived between the 1920s and the early 1940s. Bologna claimed their first national title in 1924–25, beating Genoa after five closely contested finals, and added a second in 1928–29. Once Serie A was launched, they continued their dominance, winning three further Scudetti across 1935–36, 1936–37, and 1938–39, plus one wartime title in 1940–41. That remarkable run of seven top-flight championships in total remains the centrepiece of the club's identity.
After World War II the club faded from the summit, though a final league title arrived in 1963–64, qualifying Bologna for their first European Cup campaign. The 1970s brought two Coppa Italia triumphs, and in 1998 the club added a UEFA Intertoto Cup before competing in the UEFA Cup. The intervening decades were turbulent: repeated relegations, ownership changes, and financial instability tested the club's resilience throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.
Stability returned under a Canadian consortium led by Joey Saputo, who took control in 2014. In the 2023–24 season, under head coach Thiago Motta, Bologna secured a top-five finish in Serie A and qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in sixty years. In May 2025, the club claimed their third Coppa Italia, defeating Milan in the final. Bologna play their home matches at the Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, named after a former chairman, which has been the club's ground since 1927.