Serie A has been the top-flight tournament in Italian soccer for 86 years, and it has grown to be among the top leagues in the world. It boasts a tradition of great players and tough, defensive-minded play, but it has not been foreign to controversy and scandal. The 20 best team from “the boot” will fight for this year’s Scudetto, the country's top club honor. Here's your complete Serie A guide.
Your Serie A Guide: League History
The current iteration of Serie A began with the 1929-1930 season. Previously, Italian top-flight soccer was divided into regional leagues until the creation of a unified national tournament under the direction of the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (Italian Football Federation). The winner of the league is awarded the Scudetto, a badge with the Italian flag colors to be worn on the champions’ jersey the following season. Starting in the 2004-2005, the winning team was also awarded a championship trophy on the pitch after the last match day of the season.
The league began play with 18 clubs, a number that fluctuated between 16 and 21 teams in the following decades. Most recently, the league switched from 18 to 20 clubs before the 2004-2005 season. Historically, Serie A is tied with Spain’s La Liga with the most number of players to have won the Ballon D’Or.
Serie A has predominantly featured seven teams – the Sette Sorelle ("Seven Sisters") – atop its table over the course of the last three decades: Juventus, Roma, Milan, Inter, Fiorentina, Lazio, and Parma, who has been replaced by Napoli since the dissolution of Parma due to bankruptcy. (At the end, things got quite bad for the former UEFA champs.)
The dominance of the Seven Sisters was interrupted briefly in 2006 in light of Calciopoli, the biggest scandal in Italian football history. The scandal, uncovered by Italian police in May of 2006, involved defending league champions Juventus, as well as Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio, and other teams in the Italian football system. The scandal left Juventus stripped of the title and relegated with a 30-point deficit, along with Lazio and Fiorentina, and Milan out of European competition.
Juventus were relegated to Serie B in 2006 after being involved in a match-fixing scandal. (Photo: @mtagnani | Twitter)
Traditionally, the most important derby is the Derby D’Italia (Italy Derby), featuring the most successful teams in Serie A history, Juventus and Inter. Amongst the important regional derbies are the Derby della Madonnina, between Milano teams AC Milan and Inter, the Derby della Capitale, between Rome teams AS Roma and Lazio, and the Derby della Mole, between Turin teams Juventus and Torino.
Your Serie A Guide: The 2015-2016 Season
Juventus enter the 2015-2016 season looking to win a fifth consecutive league title. (Photo: @cmdotcom | Twitter)
The 2015-2016 season is the 114th season of top-tier Italian football. The first match day took place on August 22nd, and it will end with the 38th match day on May 15, 2016.
Two teams, Carpi and Frosinone, play their first-ever season in Serie A, joining Bologna as the three teams promoted from Serie B. Juventus enter as the four-time defending league champions, as well as Suppercoppa champions after defeating Coppa Italia champions Lazio. Only two teams, Juventus and Roma, represent Italy in the 2015-2016 UEFA Champions League, and another two survive in the UEFA Europa League. This season is also the first to have goal-line technology available for referees.
Your Serie A Guide: The League
20 teams compete in the 2015-2016 Serie A season. The top two teams in the final standing will qualify directly to the group stage of the 2016-2017 UEFA Champions League, while the third-place team will play in the play-off round. Fifth place qualifies for the 2016-2017 UEFA Europa League group stage, and sixth place will start in the third qualifying round. The bottom three teams are directly relegated to Serie B. The winner of the Scudetto will face the winner of the Coppa Italia for the 2016 Suppercoppa next summer.
2015-2016 Serie A Clubs
The 2015-2016 Serie A teams are:
Inter (84th season, 18 titles)
Juventus (83th season, 31 titles)
Roma (83rd season, 3 titles)
Milan (82nd season, 18 titles)
Fiorentina (78th season, 2 titles)
Lazio (73rd season, 2 titles)
Torino (72nd season, 7 titles)
Napoli (70th season, 2 titles)
Bologna (69th season, 7 titles)
Sampdoria (59th season, one title)
Atalanta (55th season)
Genoa (36th season, 9 titles)
Udinese (43rd season)
Palermo (28th season)
Hellas Verona (27th season, one title)
Chievo Verona (14th season)
Empoli (11th season)
Sassuolo (3rd season)
Carpi (1st season)
Frosinone (1st season).
Serie A Players: Past And Current
Paul Pogba is among the names to watch in Serie A this season. (Photo: @Squawka | Twitter)
While the number of star players in Serie A is lower compared to other major European leagues, Serie A nevertheless features some world-renowned players. Most of these Serie A stars play for the Sister Seven teams, such as: Juventus’s Giogio Chiellini, Mario Mandzukic, Gianluigi Buffon, Sami Khedira, and Paul Pogba; Roma’s Francesco Totti, Juan Cuadrado, Daniele De Rossi, Miralem Pjanic, and Edin Dzeko; Milan’s Carlos Bacca, Mario Balotelli, and Luiz Adriano; Inter’s Joao Miranda, Stevan Jovetic, and Mauro Icardi; and Napoli’s Gonzalo Higuain and Marek Hamsik.
The all-time leading scorer in Serie A history is Silvio Piola (Pro Vercelli, Lazio, Juventus, Novara) with 274 goals. The player with the most appearances is Paolo Maldini with 647 games.
Among the great players in Serie A history are Ballon D’Or winners Diego Maradona (Napoli), Lothar Matthaus (Inter), Marco Van Basten (Milan), Roberto Baggio (Juventus, Brescia, Fiorentina, Bologna), George Weah (Milan), Ronaldo (Inter), Zinedine Zidane (Juventus), Fabio Cannavaro (Juventus), Luis Figo (Inter), Ronaldinho (Milan), and Kaka (Milan). Other players notable include Dennis Bergkamp (Inter), Javier Zanetti (Inter), Jean-Pierre Papin (Milan), David Beckham (Milan), Hristo Stoichkov (Parma), Jurgen Klinsmann (Inter), Andriy Shevchenko (Milan), Michel Platini (Juventus), Franco Baresi (Milan), Ruud Gullit (Milan), Frank Rijkaard (Milan), Gianni Rivera (Milan), and Guiseppe Meazza (Milan, Juventus, Inter), Cafu (Roma, Milan), Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus), and Andrea Pirlo (Brescia, Milan, Juventus, Reggina, Inter).
Your Serie A Guide: How To Watch
Serie A is primarily broadcast in Italy by SKY Italia. In the United Kingdom it can be seen on BT Sport, and on BeIN Sports in the United States.
