Seventy-one years ago, Italian football lost one of the greatest teams of all time. On 4 May 1949 the plane that was taking Torino home after a friendly against Benfica in Lisbon crashed on Superga hill. All thirty-one people on the aircraft (27 passengers and four crew members) lost their lives in the accident and the whole of Italy mourned the loss of that great Granata team, who won five consecutive championships and whose players made up the backbone of the Azzurri side.

“The ‘Grande Torino’ team,” the FIGC’s President Gabriele Gravina recalled, “will forever be an extraordinary symbol of national unity. The Superga tragedy immortalised those who, through football, helped to pacify and relaunch a divided and war-torn Italy.”