Editing Hellas Verona FC (section)

=== 1984–1985 ''Scudetto'' ===
[[File:Osvaldo Bagnoli, Hellas Verona 1985.jpg|thumb|left|[[Osvaldo Bagnoli]], ''Scudetto'' winning coach of Hellas Verona in 1985]]
Although the [[1984–85 Serie A|1984–85 season]] squad was made up of a mix of emerging players and mature stars, at the beginning of the season no one would have regarded the team as having the necessary ingredients to make it to the end. Certainly, the additions of [[Hans-Peter Briegel]] in midfield and of Danish striker [[Preben Elkjær Larsen|Preben Elkjær]] to an attack that already featured the wing play of [[Pietro Fanna]], the creative abilities of [[Antonio Di Gennaro]] and the scoring touch of [[Giuseppe Galderisi]] were to prove crucial.

To mention a few of the memorable milestones on the road to the ''scudetto'': a decisive win against Juventus (2–0), with a goal scored by Elkjær after having lost a boot in a tackle just outside the box, set the stage early in the championship; an away win over [[Udinese Calcio|Udinese]] (5–3) ended any speculation that the team was losing energy at the midway point; three straight wins (including a hard-fought 1–0 victory against a strong Roma side) served notice that the team had kept its polish and focus intact during their rival's final surge; and a 1–1 draw in [[Bergamo]] against [[Atalanta B.C.|Atalanta]] secured the title with a game in hand.

Hellas finished the year with a 15–13–2 record and 43 points, four points ahead of [[Torino F.C.|Torino]] with Internazionale and [[U.C. Sampdoria|Sampdoria]] rounding out the top four spots. This unusual final table of the [[Serie A]] (with the most successful Italian teams of the time, Juventus and Roma, ending up much lower than expected) has led to many speculations. The 1984–85 season was the only season when referees were assigned to matches by way of a random draw. Before then each referee had always been assigned to a specific match by a special commission of referees (''designatori arbitrali''). After the betting scandal of the early 1980 (the [[Totonero 1980|Calcio Scommesse scandal]]), it was decided to clean up the image of Italian football by assigning referees randomly instead of picking them, to clear up all the suspicions and accusations always accompanying Italy's football life. This resulted in a quieter championship and in a completely unexpected final table.

In the following season, won again by Juventus, the choice of the referees went back in the hands of the ''designatori arbitrali''. In 2006, a [[Calciopoli|major scandal in Italian football]] revealed that certain clubs had been illegally influencing the referee selection process in an attempt to ensure that certain referees were assigned to their matches.