The 1940s: World War II and Mediocrity
This particular decade was dominated by Il Grande Torino, and Lazio could achieve no better than mid-table finishes. The championship was suspended in 1943 due to the effects of World War II, and the club, now without the national hero Piola, participated in the local Campionato Romano until 1945-46 when the national championship returned, albeit in a regionalised and unofficial format. The following year, the Serie A returned to its usual format and Lazio duly finished 10th, a mediocre season, albeit ahead of Roma, who narrowly avoided relegation.
The 1948-49 season was a difficult one for the biancocelesti as players were reduced to the minimum wage and several went on strike. They finished 13th, however recovered the following season to record an impressive 4th-placed finish, made even sweeter by the difficulties of the previous year and the miserable campaign of Roma, who once again narrowly avoided the drop to Serie B.
Read more about this topic: History Of S.S. Lazio
Famous quotes containing the words world, war and/or mediocrity:
“Most of the rules and precepts of the world take this course of pushing us out of ourselves and driving us into the market place, for the benefit of public society.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“I realized how for all of us who came of age in the late sixties and early seventies the war was a defining experience. You went or you didn’t, but the fact of it and the decisions it forced us to make marked us for the rest of our lives, just as the depression and World War II had marked my parents.”
—Linda Grant (b. 1949)
“It was the supreme expression of the mediocrity of the apparatus that Stalin himself rose to his position.”
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)