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Serie A

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 81.208.36.86 (talk) at 14:04, 12 December 2007 (SerieA.tv is the exclusive provider (i.e they actually own the internet rights) for all Live and On-Demand Serie A games, with the exception of Napoli home games). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the Italian football league. For other uses, see Serie A (disambiguation).
Serie A
Serie A 2007-08
File:Lega Calcio.png
Founded
1898
Nation
 Italy
Relegation To
Serie B
Number of Teams
20
European Qualification
Champions League
UEFA Cup
Intertoto Cup
Cups
Coppa Italia
Super Coppa Italiana
Current Champions
F.C. Internazionale Milano
Website
Official

Serie A (officially known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top echelon of the Italian football league system. It is widely regarded as one of the elite leagues of the footballing world. Historically, Serie A has produced the highest number of European Cup finalists. In total Italian clubs have reached the final of the competition on a record of twenty-five different occasions, winning the title eleven times.[1] In its current format, the Italian Football Championship was revised from having regional and interregional rounds, to just one solid league for the 1929–30 season onwards; the Serie A system carries on today. The championship titles won before 1929 are officially recognised by FIGC as a championship in the same way the ones since then are.

Format

For most of Serie A's history there have been 16 or 18 clubs competing at the top level; however since 2004–05 there have been 20 clubs all-together. Below is a complete record of how many teams have played in each season throughout the league's history;

 
  • 1929–1934 = 18
  • 1934–1943 = 16
  • 1945–1946 = 25[2]
  
  • 1946–1947 = 19
  • 1947–1948 = 21
  • 1948–1952 = 20
  
  • 1952–1967 = 18
  • 1967–1988 = 16
  • 1988–2004 = 18
  
  • 2004–present = 20
Scudetto patch.

During the course of a season, from August to May, each club plays each others twice; once at home and once away, totalling 38 games for each team by the end of the season. In Italian football, a true round-robin format is used. In the first half of the season, called andata in its homeland, each team plays one time against each league opponent, a total of 19 games. In the second half of the season, called ritorno, the teams play in exactly the same order that they did in the first half of the season, the only difference being that home and away situations are switched around.

Since 1994 teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Previously there were playoffs (spareggio) used to separate teams if they finished the season with the same number of points, this was abolished in 2005–06. Currently if two teams end the season with the same number of points, they are separated by head-to-head records (classifica avulsa) in which the two teams' records against each other for that season are the deciding factor. In case two or more teams have same total points and same classifica avulsa, goal difference is used to separate them.

The top four teams in the Serie A qualify for the UEFA Champions League, with the top two teams directly entering the group phase. The third and fourth placed teams enter the competition at the third qualifying round and must win a two-legged knockout tie in order to enter the group phase. Teams finishing 5th and 6th qualify for the UEFA Cup Tournament. A third UEFA Cup spot is reserved for the winner of the Coppa Italia; however, if both the Coppa Italia finalists have already qualified for UEFA Champions League, the 7th classified team in Serie A gets the UEFA Cup spot. The three lowest placed teams are relegated into the Serie B.

History

Serie A, as it is structured today, began in 1929. From 1898 to 1922 the competition was organised into regional groups. Because of ever growing teams attending regional championships, FIGC splitted in CCI (Italian Football Confederation) in 1921. When CCI team rejoined obliged FIGC creating two interregional divisions renaming Categories in Divisions and splitting FIGC organization into two North-South leagues. In 1926 due to internal crises FIGC changed internal settings adding southern teams to the national new divisions which lead to 1929-30 final settlement. No title was awarded in 1927 after Torino were stripped of the championship by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC). Torino were declared champions in the 1948-49 season following a plane crash near the end of the season in which the entire team was killed.

The Serie A Championship title is often referred to as the scudetto (small shield) because the winning team will bear a small coat of arms with the Italian tricolour on their strip in the following season. The most successful league club is Juventus F.C. with 27 championships, followed by A.C. Milan (17), Internazionale Milano (15) and Genoa C&FC (9). For every ten titles won, clubs are allowed to wear a golden star above their club badge; so Juventus has two stars, while Milan and Internazionale have one star each. From 2004-05 onwards an actual trophy was instated and awarded to clubs, prior to this there was none.

Television rights

As of 2007 individual clubs competing in the league have the rights to sell their broadcast rights to specific channels in Italy, unlike in most other European countries. The three broadcasters in Italy are the satellite channel, Sky Italia, along with terrestrial broadcasters Mediaset and La7 (owned by Telecom Italia).

In countries outside of Italy, the league is broadcast on Five as Football Italiano and some on Setanta (United Kingdom), RAI International (numerous countries in several continents), Telelatino (Canada), FSC (United States), TV Esporte Interativo, Rede Bandeirantes, ESPN Brasil (Brazil) and ESPN Latin America (Latin America).

Champions

Main article: Italian football champions
Club Winners Runners-up Winning seasons
Juventus
27
19
1905, 1925–26, 1930–31, 1931–32, 1932–33, 1933–34, 1934–35, 1949–50, 1951–52, 1957–58, 1959–60, 1960–61, 1966–67, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1974–75, 1976–77, 1977–78, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1983–84, 1985–86, 1994–95, 1996–97, 1997–98, 2001–02, 2002–03
AC Milan
17
14
1901, 1906, 1907, 1950–51, 1954–55, 1956–57, 1958–59, 1961–62, 1967–68, 1978–79, 1987–88, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1995–96, 1998–99, 2003–04
Internazionale
15
13
1909–10, 1919–20, 1929–30, 1937–38, 1939–40, 1952–53, 1953–54, 1962–63, 1964–65, 1965–66, 1970–71, 1979–80, 1988–89, 2005–06, 2006–07
Genoa
9
4
1898, 1899, 1900, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1914–15, 1922–23, 1923–24
Torino
7
7
1927–28, 1942–43, 1945–46, 1946–47, 1947–48, 1948–49, 1975–76
Bologna
7
4
1924–25, 1928–29, 1935–36, 1936–37, 1938–39, 1940–41, 1963–64
Pro Vercelli
7
1
1908, 1909, 1910–11, 1911–12, 1912–13, 1920–21, 1921–22 (CCI)
Roma
3
10
1941–42, 1982–83, 2000–01
Lazio
2
6
1973–74, 1999–00
Fiorentina
2
5
1955–56, 1968–69
Napoli
2
4
1986–87, 1989–90
Cagliari
1
1
1969–70
Casale
1
-
1913–14
Novese
1
-
1921–22 (FIGC)
Sampdoria
1
-
1990–91
Hellas Verona
1
-
1984–85
Spezia
1
-
1944

Serie A clubs

For more details see; List of Italian Football Championship clubs

Prior to 1929, many clubs competed in the top level of Italian football (61 in total) as the earlier rounds were competed up to 1922 on a regional basis then interregional up to 1929. Below is a list of Serie A clubs who have competed in the competition when it has been a league format;

Seasons in Serie A

The bolded teams compete in Serie A currently. Inter is now the only team to have played Serie A football in every season, following Juventus' FIGC-imposed relegation to Serie B after the 2005–06 season.

Serie A members for 2007–08

The following twenty clubs will be competing in Serie A during the 2007–08 season.

Club
 Finishing position
in 2006–07 		First season in
top division 		First season of
current spell in
top division
Atalanta 8th 1928–29 2006–07
Cagliari 16th 1963–64 2004–05
Catania 13th 1954–55 2006–07
Empoli 7th 1986–87 2005–06
Fiorentina 6th 1931–32 2004–05
Genoa 3rd in Serie B 1898 2007–08
Internazionale 1st 1909 1909
Juventus 1st in Serie B 1900 2007–08
Lazio 3rd 1913–14 1988–89
Livorno 11th 1919–20 2004–05
AC Milan 4th 1901 1983–84
Napoli 2nd in Serie B 1912–13 2007–08
Palermo 5th 1921–22 2004–05
Parma 12th 1990–91 1990–91
Reggina 14th 1999–00 2002–03
Roma 2nd 1927–28 1952–53
Sampdoria 9th 1946–47 2003–04
Siena 15th 2003–04 2003–04
Torino 14th 1907 2006–07
Udinese 10th 1913–14 1995–96

Records

Main article: Football records in Italy

References and notes

  1. ^ Kevin Ashby (2007-05-24). "Serie A reiterates star quality". UEFA.com. Retrieved 2007-08-13.
  2. ^ Two groups, North and South, then a final group

See also

History
  • Serie A — All results since 1929.

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