Serie A

It is the top Italian football competition. It is currently known as Serie A TIM with regard to sponsorship, which refers to the main sponsor, Telecom Italia Mobile. It has existed in its current form since 1929. Serie A is actually the result of the unification of previous national-level competitions and their obscure structure, which have been played in Italy since 1898.

The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) was also founded in 1898. Four clubs from the north of Italy were at the birth, namely Genoa CFC, FBC Torinese, Internazionale Torino and Reale Società Ginnastica Torino. Football was brought to southern Europe, and therefore to Italy, by immigrants from the UK and, as elsewhere, quickly took hold.

In 2006, Serie A was hit by a corruption scandal involving match-fixing and subsequent illegal betting on match results, and a number of footballers, referees and officials were investigated. The scandal was dubbed by the media as Calciopoli (loosely translated as "Bribery"). The big clubs involved were Juventus, Lazio, Fiorentina and AC Milan. They were relegated to Serie B or stripped of points or, in the case of Juventus, two titles.

Clubs in Serie A

There are 20 teams in Italy's top football competition. Historically, the most successful club by a wide margin is Juventus, who have a total of 35 titles. It has completely dominated Serie A even after its comeback following a corruption scandal. It is followed by Inter Milan and AC Milan, both with 18 titles. When counting titles for all teams, we list all titles from the top competitions, including titles from before Serie A.

Competition format

The best team in the competition wins the title, the Scudetto. The teams in the top two positions also qualify directly for the UEFA Champions League and the third team for its 4th preliminary round. The teams finishing fourth and fifth in the league still qualify for the 4th and 3rd preliminary rounds of the UEFA Europa League respectively. On the other hand, the 3 worst teams in Serie A will be relegated to Serie B, the second highest competition. The three Serie B teams, on the other hand, will be promoted to the top flight, with the top two automatically and the third coming out of the play-offs.

In Italy, of course, there are also cups. The first is the Coppa Italia (Italian Cup), with the winner earning another place in the 4th round of the Europa League. Winning it will also qualify them for next season's Supercoppa italiana (Italian Super Cup), which is another cup competition. Here they will play the winner of Serie A.