Due grandi provinciali di lusso: Lanerossi Vicenza e Verona

Two «Provincial Elites». Lanerossi Vicenza and Hellas Verona. This contribution examines, from a sociohistorical perspective, the trajectories of Lanerossi Vicenza and Hellas Verona as exemplary cases of «provincial elites» in Italian football. By analysing the interplay between municipal identity, ownership structures, and transformations in the football industry, the study shows how both clubs converted economic, symbolic, and social capital into competitive resources capable of challenging national hierarchies. The Vicenza model, rooted in early industrial-sport integration, anticipated managerial logics preceding the sector’s commercialisation; the Verona model, centred on Osvaldo Bagnoli’s leadership, represents the last moment in which tactical innovation and organisational cohesion could offset structural imbalances. Their comparison highlights how football clubs function as territorybased identityproducing institutions and as actors embedded in processes of modernisation and financialisation, offering insight into centre–periphery tensions and the declining permeability of elite leagues.