Dino Viola in His Own Words: 15 quotes that sum up the president

Dino Viola was born in Aulla, in the province of Massa Carrara, on 22 April 1915.

He wasn’t 'just' the Roma president who led the club to its second Scudetto title – he’s also the most successful president the club has ever had.

Viola was Serie A’s counterweight against the northern powerhouses, most notably Juventus.

Viola was a fascinating character, something that shone through when he talked. His interviews would often contain hidden message that only their recipient would be able to decipher. So distinctive was his style that somebody even coined the term “Violese” to describe the way he spoke.

On what would have been his 116th birthday, let’s take a look back at some of the comments that perhaps sum Viola up...

1. What is Roma?

“It’s the day that, following a crowd of happy people, I found myself in Testaccio.”

2. The weak and the strong

“Roma has never cried and never will cry. Because it’s the weak that cry. The strong never do.”

3. The Roma shirt

“No player should ever be glorified, whoever they are. It’s the shirt that soaks up the sweat.”

4. Dino Viola, the man

“I’m eccentric because I’d like to do away with all formality, I’m anarchic because I detest repressive laws and I’m independent of everyone and everything, at the expense of the humblest of professions. I have deep faith and I’m very possessive of what I do, for better and for worse. I’m a free man, but not always a liberal one.”

5. Success and failure

“Success and failure are great imposters. It’s a mistake to give them too much importance. Thankfully, I’ve never celebrated a victory alone and I’ve never suffered a defeat alone either.”

6. His motto

“Never give orders, but ask for something to be done.”

7. What makes a good president

“At the top of the list for me is a spirit of sacrifice. Then selflessness. And, finally, disinterest. Not just in terms of gaining wealth, but also in terms of reaching certain positions or gaining a certain level of popularity.”

8. His relationship with Nils Liedholm

“Getting along with Liedholm can be both easy and impossible. I think I have a good relationship with him. We have a shared trait which allows us to get on perfectly: we never raise our voices.”

9. A Roma remembered

“If we go down in history as Liedholm’s Roma or Falcao’s Roma, that’s fine by me. What matters is that we do go down in history.”

10. Celebrating a Scudetto

“What would I swap for the Scudetto? I don’t know. All I know is that when we do win it, in six or seven years, I won’t be there at the celebrations. I’ll be far away, with my wife, in a place that only we know.”

11. The stadium

“Everybody knows that this is my biggest defeat, but I never had that idea, because if I had really had it the stadium would already have been built. So I’m to blame for the stadium not having been built yet.”

12. Dealing with Giampiero Boniperti

"Boniperti [the Juventus president at the time] said that somebody like me could never win the Scudetto? Well, perhaps that’s a great compliment.”

13. The Curva Sud

After Roma 1-2 Bayern Munich in the second leg of the 1984-85 Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-finals: “The Curva Sud taught us a lesson. You can lose, and you can suffer disappointing defeats, but the banners they displayed showed us that it’s during the tough times that you need to find more energy. The Sud gives us faith – we must show them character.”

14. The golden ruler

Dino Viola always behaved with a certain elegance, but there’s one episode which epitomises his character more than any other. When Roma lost 2-1 to Juventus at home in March 1983, with [Sergio] Brio’s goal for the visitors a controversial one due to a marginal offside call, Viola said it was a “matter of centimetres”.

In response, Juventus president Giampiero Bonipero sent him a plastic ruler along with this message: “I am sending you this tool to help you measure.”

Viola’s riposte was one for the ages. The Roma president also sent Boniperti a ruler, but this time it was made of gold. The letter accompanying it bore this message: “I’m an engineer. You’re the one that needs one of these, as a surveyor.”

15. The Roma colours

“The Roma shirt is red and yellow because it represents the city of Rome.”