Serie A

Italy's top professional football league since 1929.

Serie A is the top professional football league in Italy, established in the 1929–30 season as a national round-robin competition. It ranks second in the UEFA coefficient standings as of 2024–25 and has historically attracted top global talent, producing numerous Ballon d'Or winners. The league is home to renowned clubs such as Juventus, Inter Milan, and AC Milan.

Quick Facts

Organiser: Lega Serie A
Country: Italy
Founded: 1898 (as Campionato Italiano di Football); 1929 (as Serie A)
Teams: 20 (since 2004–05)
Relegation: Serie B
Levels: 1
Most successful club: Juventus (36 titles)
Most appearances: Gianluigi Buffon (657)

Facts from the source article.

Did You Know?

Serie A's logo featured sponsor Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) from 2010, with minor changes in 2016 and new logos in 2018 and 2019.
Since the 2010–11 season, Serie A clubs negotiate television rights collectively rather than individually.
The FIGC awarded Spezia a special decoration for winning the 1944 wartime championship, but clarified it is not an official scudetto.

History

The Federazione Italiana del Football (FIF) began organising football in Italy in 1898, with the first championship held on 8 May 1898 at the Velodrome Humbert I in Turin. Genoa CFC won that inaugural title, defeating three Turin-based teams. Genoa won five of the first six championships, interrupted by AC Milan in 1901. From 1904, the tournament was named Prima Categoria and structured into regional groups.

The FIF joined FIFA and was renamed the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC) in 1909, usurping the rival Federazione Ginnastica Nazionale Italiana (FGNI) as football administrator. A dispute in 1921 over the number of teams led to a split, with the Confederazione Calcistica Italiana (CCI) organising a rival Prima Divisione tournament featuring Northern Italy's wealthiest clubs. The FIGC later accepted the Prima Divisione as the new format from 1922 to 1923.

Prima Divisione, played from 1921 to 1926, was divided into Lega Nord and Lega Sud, with winners of each league meeting in the Finalissima for the national title. In 1926, the Fascist regime placed the FIGC under politician Leandro Arpinati, and Prima Divisione was replaced with Divisione Nazionale, which initially comprised the previous Lega Nord plus two Roman teams and SSC Napoli. Divisione Nazionale featured two non-regional groups of ten clubs each, with the top three from each group playing a round-robin final to decide the champion.

Format

For most of its history, Serie A had 16 or 18 clubs; since 2004–05, there have been 20. One season (1947–48) used 21 teams for political reasons. The season runs from August to May, with each club playing every other twice (home and away), totalling 38 games per team. The first half is called the andata, the second half the ritorno; home and away matches are reversed in the second half.

Until the 2021–22 season, the fixture order was identical in both halves; an asymmetrical calendar was then introduced. Since 1994–95, a win earns three points, a draw one point, and a loss none; previously, a win was worth two points. The three lowest-placed teams are relegated to Serie B, replaced by three promoted teams. In 2023–24, Serie A ranked as the best league by UEFA coefficient, with all seven Serie A teams reaching knockout stages in European competitions.

Atalanta won the Europa League final that season, and Fiorentina were runners-up in the UEFA Europa Conference League. As a result, the top five Serie A clubs qualified for the Champions League in 2024.

Clubs

Since the league format began in 1929–30, 68 teams have competed in Serie A through the 2026–27 season. Inter Milan is the only club to have played in every season. As of the 2025–26 season, 20 clubs compete. The most seasons played belong to Inter Milan (95), followed by Juventus and Roma (94 each), AC Milan (93), Fiorentina (89), Lazio (84), Torino (83), Napoli (81), Bologna (80), Sampdoria and Atalanta (66 each), Genoa (59), Udinese (54), Cagliari (46), Hellas Verona (35), and others with fewer appearances. Several clubs have only one season in Serie A, including Pistoiese (1981), Treviso (2006), and Carpi (2016).

Players

Serie A has undergone many rule changes regarding non-EU player quotas. In the 1980s and 1990s, clubs signed many foreign players, including Liam Brady, Paul Gascoigne, Michel Platini, Lothar Matthäus, Ruud Gullit, and Diego Maradona. In the 2000–01 season, the old quota system limiting each team to five non-EU players and three per match was abolished. Concurrently, the FIGC investigated players using fake passports, resulting in bans for several players in July 2001, though most were later reduced.

From the 2003–04 season, a quota limited the number of non-EU, non-EFTA, and non-Swiss players signed from abroad each season, following provisional measures in 2002–03. The rule underwent minor changes in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007. The number of non-EU players dropped from 265 in 2002–03 to 166 in 2006–07, partly due to EU enlargement making players like Adrian Mutu and Valeri Bojinov EU citizens.