Club Bolívar

Bologna FC, founded in 1909 and based at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara in Bologna with a capacity of 38,279, qualified for the Champions League in 2024-25 after finishing fifth in Serie A under Thiago Motta, their first Champions League appearance in 60 years.

The 60-year gap is itself a fact that requires context. Bologna were one of the dominant clubs in Italian football before the northern giants consolidated their power: seven Serie A titles, the last in 1964. The city of Bologna is the capital of Emilia-Romagna, home to the University of Bologna (the oldest university in continuous operation in the world), and a food culture so central to Italian identity that other Italian cities joke they are too well-fed to run. Football was always present but rarely primary. Thiago Motta changed that calculation.

Motta’s coaching approach centred on positional play and pressing intensity and produced football that was considered the most aesthetically interesting in Serie A in 2023-24. The Champions League qualification was not a fortunate result but the product of a coherent system. When Juventus appointed Motta in the summer of 2024, the departure represented both a validation of his work and a significant challenge for the club to maintain what he built.

Vincenzo Italiano arrived from Fiorentina to continue the project. Joshua Zirkzee, whose goals had been the most visible output of the Motta system, had already left for Manchester United. The squad Italiano inherited was talented enough but required repositioning around different individuals.

When does Bologna play? Serie A matches at the Dall’Ara are typically 15:00, 18:00, or 20:45 CET (UTC+1). Bologna is in northern Italy, equidistant between Milan and Florence. A 20:45 CET Saturday kickoff reaches London at 19:45 GMT and New York at 14:45 ET. Check Bologna time for exact conversions. See the Serie A schedule.