Gli Isolani (The Islanders)
Founded: 1920, Stadium: Unipol Domus, Capacity: 16,416
Cagliari Calcio was founded in 1920. As with the flag of its city, Cagliari’s colours are blue and red. They were Italian champions in 1970 led by the great Giga Riva. Due to the fact that Cagliari are the main club from the island of Sardinia, they are nicknamed the “Isolani” (“Islanders”). Cagliari have two main rivalries.The Derby delle Isole (Island derby) takes place against Sicilian outfit Palermo while fellow Sardinian side Torres are also rivals. The official red and blue colours of Cagliari mirror those featured on the stemma of Cagliari. The red parts of the stemma are a reference to the coat of arms of the House of Savoy, a family which was previously the monarchy of Italy and more relevantly to Cagliari in particular, the Kingdom of Sardinia. The blue part of the stemma features the sky and the sea, also a castle; this is because the old historic centre of Cagliari is walled and called the Castella. Due to the use of these colours on their shirt in halves, the club is commonly nicknamed rossoblu. Cagliari have had several different logo designs during their history, all of which feature the flag of Sardina. Usually the badge also features the club colours; if there is a change, the main difference has been the colour of the border or the shape. Since June 2015, the badge features an “Old French”-shaped escutcheon with red and blue halves, with the club’s name written in white just above the flag of Sardinia. The Moors’ heads have, for the first time, been turned to the right as of 2015 so as to match the Sardinian flag after it was updated in 1992.
