Serie A

This article is about the Italian football league. For other uses, see Serie A (disambiguation).

Serie A
Organising bodyLega Serie A
Founded1898; 126 years ago (1898)
1929; 95 years ago (1929) (as round-robin)
CountryItaly
ConfederationUEFA
Number of teams20 (since 2004–05)
Level on pyramid1
Relegation toSerie B
Domestic cup(s)
International cup(s)
Current championsInter Milan (20th title)
(2023–24)
Most championshipsJuventus (36 titles)
Most appearances
Top goalscorerSilvio Piola (274)
TV partnersList of broadcasters
Websitelegaseriea.it
Current: 2024–25 Serie A

The Serie A (Italian pronunciation: [ˈsɛːrje ˈa]),[1] officially known as Serie A Enilive[2] in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system. The winners are awarded the Coppa Campioni d'Italia trophy and the scudetto, a decoration that they wear on the jersey the season after the victory. It has been operating as a round-robin tournament for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been organized by the Direttorio Divisioni Superiori until 1943, the Lega Calcio until 2010, and the Lega Serie A ever since. Serie A is regarded as one of the best football leagues in the world and it is often depicted as the most tactical and defensively sound national league.[3] Serie A was ranked the world's best national league in 2023 by IFFHS,[4] and is ranked second among European leagues according to UEFA's league coefficient – behind the Premier League, and ahead of La Liga, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 – which is based on the performance of Italian clubs in the Champions League and the Europa League during the previous five years. Serie A led the UEFA ranking from 1986 to 1988 and from 1990 to 1999.[5]

In its current format, the Italian Football Championship was revised from having regional and interregional rounds, to a single-tier league from the 1929–30 season onwards. The championship titles won before 1929 are officially recognised by FIGC with the same weighting as titles that were subsequently awarded. Similarly, the 1945–46 season, when the round-robin was suspended and the league was played over two geographical groups due to the ravages of World War II, is not statistically considered, even if its title is fully official.[6]

The league hosts three of the world's most famous clubs as Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan, all founding members of the G-14, a group which represented the largest and most prestigious European football clubs from 2000 to 2008,[7] with the first two also being founding members of its successive organisation, European Club Association (ECA). More players have won the Ballon d'Or award while playing at a Serie A club than any league in the world other than Spain's La Liga.[8] Juventus, Italy's most successful club of the 20th century[9] and the most winning Italian team,[10] is tied for sixth in Europe and twelfth in the world with the most official international titles with eleven.[11] Prior the first Europa Conference League final in 2022, it was also the only one in the world to have won all the historical five official confederation competitions, an achievement reached after its triumph in the 1985 Intercontinental Cup and revalidated after winning a sixth tournament, the UEFA Intertoto Cup, fourteen years later.[12] Milan is joint third club overall for official international titles won with nineteen.[13] Inter, following their achievements in the 2009–10 season, became the first Italian team to have achieved a seasonal treble. It is also the team to have competed uninterruptedly for the most time in the top flight of Italian football, having seen its debut in 1909.[14][15] All these clubs, along with Lazio, Fiorentina, Roma and Napoli, are known as the "seven sisters" (sette sorelle) of Italian football.[16][17][18][19][20][note 1]

Serie A is one of the most storied football leagues in the world. Of the 100 greatest footballers in history chosen by FourFourTwo in 2017, 42 players have played in Serie A, more than any other league in the world.[21] Juventus is the team that has produced the most World Cup champions (27), with Inter (20), Roma (16) and Milan (10), being respectively third, fourth and ninth in that ranking.[22]

  1. ^ Luciano Canepari. "serie". DiPI Online (in Italian). Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  2. ^ "Enilive è il Title sponsor della Serie A, accordo di sponsorizzazione fino al 2027". www.eni.com (in Italian). Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  3. ^ "The Big Five Leagues". Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  4. ^ "IFFHS World's Best National League in the World 2024". IFFHS. 20 January 2021. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  5. ^ "Member associations – Italy – Honours –". UEFA.
  6. ^ "Page 21: official statistical records recognized by FIGC" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2010.
  7. ^ "G-14's members". g14.com. Archived from the original on 2 September 2006. Retrieved 12 September 2006.
  8. ^ "European Footballer of the Year ("Ballon d'Or")". RSSSF. Retrieved 17 December 2007.
  9. ^ "Europe's club of the Century". International Federation of Football History & Statistics. Retrieved 10 September 2009.
  10. ^ "Juventus building bridges in Serie B". fifa.com. Archived from the original on 11 May 2008. Retrieved 20 November 2006.
  11. ^ Sixth most successful European club for confederation and FIFA competitions won with eleven titles. Sixth most successful club in Europe for confederation club competition titles won (11), cf. "Confermato: I più titolati al mondo!" (in Italian). A.C. Milan S.p.A. official website. 30 May 2013. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  12. ^ "Legend: UEFA club competitions". Union des Associations Européennes de Football. 21 August 2006. Archived from the original on 31 January 2010. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
    "1985: Juventus end European drought". Union des Associations Européennes de Football. 8 December 1985. Archived from the original on 8 December 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
    "FIFA Club World Championship TOYOTA Cup: Solidarity – the name of the game" (PDF). FIFA Activity Report 2005. Zürich: Fédération Internationale de Football Association: 62. April 2004 – May 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
  13. ^ "Milan top of the world!". Channel4.com. Archived from the original on 18 December 2007. Retrieved 17 December 2007.
  14. ^ "Le squadre mai retrocesse in Europa". UEFA.com (in Italian). 18 May 2018. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  15. ^ "Inter join exclusive treble club". UEFA.com. 22 May 2010. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
  16. ^ "Le "7 sorelle" dell'Italcalcio tornano a spendere all'estero – IlGiornale.it". 3 August 2013.
  17. ^ "Calcio al via, uno scudetto per sette sorelle – Avvenire.it". Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  18. ^ Serie A al via: le sette sorelle sono tornate Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  19. ^ "IL PUNTO DI CM.IT – Dalla 'paziente' Juventus al Napoli 'esaurito': come perdono le nostre big". Archived from the original on 8 December 2015.
  20. ^ "Calciomercato Serie A, le nuove formazioni delle 'sette sorelle'". Archived from the original on 8 December 2015.
  21. ^ "100 Greatest footballers ever – fourfourtwo.com". 24 July 2017.
  22. ^ "Quali club hanno avuto più campioni del mondo nella storia? - European Qualifiers". UEFA.com. Archived from the original on 27 December 2018. Retrieved 1 November 2018.


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