Lazio are hoping they will soon be crowned Italian champions for a third time – by winning the title for the 1914/15 season, which was interrupted by World War One.

After more than 30,000 Lazio supporters signed a petition, the Italian football federation (FIGC) has set up a commission to look at whether Lazio should share the title with Genoa.

Genoa and Lazio were due to meet in an-end-of-season final after each qualifying through their respective regions but Italy entered World War One before the game could be played.

The decisive match never took place and the matter was only addressed by the FIGC in 1919 when they decided to award the title to Genoa.

Reports said that the decision was based on the reasoning that Genoa were generally regarded as the better of the two teams.

“It is a legitimate Scudetto,” Lazio president Claudio Lotito told the media yesterday.

“It was taken away from us by the war.”

The FIGC is expected to announce its decision on August 4 and, if it rules in Lazio’s favour, they would pull level with neighbours and arch-rivals Roma on three Italian titles.

In its early years, from 1898 until 1926, the Italian championship consisted of regionalised qualifying groups, with a one-off end-of-season final to decide the winners, and excluded teams from the south of the country.

From 1926 to 1929, a national championship was played, although with teams still divided into two groups.

Serie A, a single national league, was started in 1929.

Juventus are Italy’s most successful domestic club with 32 titles, followed by Inter and Milan and 18 each.

They are followed by Genoa, who won the last of their nine titles in 1924.