Association football league system in Italy

The Italian football league system, also known as the Italian football pyramid, refers to the hierarchically interconnected league system for the association football in Italy, that consists of 594 divisions having 3332 teams (excluding Seconda and Terza Categoria), in which all divisions are bound together by the principle of promotion and relegation, with one team from San Marino also competing. The system has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegation between leagues at different levels, allowing even the smallest club the theoretical possibility of ultimately rising to the very top of the system.

A certain number of the most successful clubs in each league can rise to a higher league, whilst those that finish at the bottom of their league can find themselves relegated. In addition to sporting performance, promotion is usually contingent on meeting criteria set by the higher league, especially concerning appropriate facilities and finances.

League system

A league system is a hierarchy of leagues in a sport, usually with a system of promotion and relegation between consecutive levels of the hierarchy. They are often called pyramids due to their tendency to split into an increasing number of regional divisions the further down the pyramid one descends. League systems are used in a number of sports, especially association football, rugby league and rugby union.

In North America, a similar league system exists, but without promotion or relegation. Most professional sports are divided into major and minor leagues. While baseball and association football (known as soccer in North America) have well-defined pyramid shapes to their minor league hierarchies, ice hockey's professional minor league system is linear, with one league at most of the four levels of the game. Basketball follows a roughly inverted-T-shaped three-level system.

Gridiron football does not operate on a league system, in part because of that sport's reliance on amateur college football for development of future players (other North American sports also recruit players from colleges and universities, but it is far more pervasive in professional football) and in part because the expense and injury risk of the game makes maintaining a minor football league impractical. The indoor American football system can be seen as an informal league system, but there are widespread differences between the indoor and outdoor forms of the game.

Serie A

Serie A (Italian pronunciation: [ˈsɛːrje ˈa]), also called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since the 1929–30 season. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new league, the Lega Serie A, was created for the 2010–11 season. Serie A is regarded as one of the best football leagues in the world and it is often depicted as the most tactical national league. Serie A is the world's second strongest national league according to IFFHS and has produced the highest number of European Cup finalists: Italian clubs have reached the final of the competition on a record twenty-six different occasions, winning the title twelve times. Serie A is ranked 4th among European leagues according to UEFA's league coefficient behind La Liga, Bundesliga and Premier League, which is based on the performance of Italian clubs in the Champions League and the Europa League during the last five years. Serie A led the UEFA ranking from 1986 to 1988 and from 1990 to 1999.

Football in Italy

Football is the most popular sport in Italy. The Italian national football team is considered to be one of the best national teams in the world. They have won the FIFA World Cup four times (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), trailing only Brazil (with 5), runners-up in two finals (1970, 1994) and reaching a third place (1990).The rivalry with Brazil is known as the "World Derby" or as the "Clássico Mundial". They have also won one European championship (1968), also appearing in two finals (2000, 2012), one Olympic football tournament (1936) and two Central European International Cups. Both the rivalry with France and, especially, the rivalry with Germany are considered very relevant in the UEFA zone.

Italy's top domestic league, the Serie A, is one of the most popular professional sports leagues in the world and it is often depicted as the most tactical national football league. Italy's club sides have won 48 major European trophies, making them the second most successful nation in European football. Serie A hosts three of the world's most famous clubs as Juventus, Milan and Inter, all founding members of the G-14, a group which represented the largest and most prestigious European football clubs; Serie A was the only league to produce three founding members. Juventus, Milan and Inter, along with Roma, Fiorentina, Lazio and Napoli are known as the Seven Sisters of Italian football.

Lega Serie A

The Lega Nazionale Professionisti Serie A (Italian for National League of Professionals Serie A), commonly known as Lega Serie A (Serie A League), is the governing body that runs the major professional football competitions in Italy, most prominently the Serie A.

It was founded on 1 July 2010. In the past the television rights of the Serie A clubs were sold separately, and the league "Serie A" had to financially support Serie B through divided part of the Serie A TV revenues to Serie B clubs. On 30 April 2009, Serie A announced a split from Serie B. Nineteen of the twenty clubs voted in favour of the move. Relegation-threatened Lecce voted against.

The governing body took over most of the competitions formerly held by Lega Calcio, namely Serie A, Coppa Italia, Supercoppa Italiana, and youth competitions Campionato Nazionale Primavera, Coppa Italia Primavera, and Supercoppa Primavera. The Serie B, instead, is now organised by the Lega Serie B, also created in 2010.

Competition