Serie A is a professional club-level football league and is the top tier of Italian football.
It is often considered the most tactically intricate of Europe’s major football leagues. Matches are usually played at a slightly more serene pace than in other countries, making for more relaxing games for spectators to watch. The Serie A title is known as the scudetto, or “little shield”, as teams have the honour of wearing a small tricolour shield on their shirts the season following their title win.
Serie A clubs have been successful in the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Europa Conference League, UEFA Super Cup, and FIFA Club World Cup. The league also has some of the most intense rivalries in football and some of the most iconic venues such as Stadio Olimpico, San Siro, and Allianz Stadium.
There have been 16 clubs crowned as champions of Italy, most frequently world-renowned teams Juventus, AC Milan, and Internazionale. The trio, along with Roma, Napoli, Lazio, and Fiorentina, are known as the Seven Sisters of Italian football.
📜 Serie A History
The league was founded in 1929 in the round-robin format we know today, although its origins stretch back to 1898 when regional groups came together to contest the Italian Football Championship. In the 1929-30 season, the Italian Serie A was restructured due to the growing number of teams participating, and throughout its history, the league has been home to between 16 and 20 clubs.
💯 Serie A Format & Scoring
There are 20 football teams in Serie A and every season they play each other home and away for a total of 38 matches apiece, with 3 points awarded for a win, 1 for a draw, and 0 for a defeat. Teams are ranked on points, then goal difference, and then goals scored.
The top 4 clubs qualify for the UEFA Champions League, while the bottom 3 are relegated to Italian league football’s second tier, the Serie B, and are replaced by 3 promoted teams. The team that finishes 5th qualifies for the UEFA Europa League, as does the team that finishes 6th if the winners of the Coppa Italia also finish in the top 5. In those circumstances, the 7th-placed team is awarded qualification to the UEFA Europa Conference League, otherwise, that goes to 6th place.