Italian Football

Football as we know it first came to the Italian shores in the late 1900’s but variations of similar games had been played for hundreds of years. Official records have the date of 1898 as the first game in Italian football history.

Both Italy’s national team and domestic football are considered amongst many to be the strongest in the world. Known for tactically astute set ups and strong defences, the Italians are notoriously hard to break down and because of this the national team is only behind Brazil’s 5, with 4 World Cup wins.

Between AC Milan, Internazionale and Juventus, Italian club football has 12 European Cup wins and Italian teams have featured in a total of 27 European cup finals, the most of any nation.

Serie A

Serie A is the top flight of Italian football and is widely regarded as one of the strongest leagues in European football. Starting in 1898 and evolving in the years that have come since, Serie A is enjoyed by football fans all around the world.

Attendances

Attendances in Italy, while not the highest in Europe, are still some of the best in the continent. You would have to go back to the year 2000 for the last time an Italian team had the top average rating in Europe when Internazionale topped the charts with an average attendance of 66,546.

During the 2016/17 season up to April 25^th the average attendance of an Italian Serie A game was 21,884 with the highest being Internazionale with an average 46,863 fans coming to see their home games. The lowest average for the season is held by Crotone with 7,429 seeing the team.

Teams

Internazionale have competed in the most Serie A championships at 85 with Juventus and Roma both playing in 84 and AC Milan playing in 83.

Juventus have won the title the most amount of times with 32 wins in total while both Milan teams are in second place with 18 league titles each.

Players

The Italian league is also famed for getting the most out of players in the twilight of their careers with many going on to make appearances into their late 30s and early 40s. The player to have played the most Serie A games to date is Paolo Maldini who played an incredible 647 games in the division. In second place is the current Juventus and Italy No.1 Gianluigi Buffon who has played 616 games up to and including the 15^th of April 2017. Javier Zanetti and Francesco Totti are equal in 3^rd place with 615 appearances each however Totti is still playing so should be in 3^rd place on his own soon.

The most goals scored in Serie A by any one player is 274 scored by Silvio Piola from 1929 to 1954 for Pro Vercelli, Lazio, Juventus and Novara. Francesco Totti is in second place with 50 and Gunnar Nordahl is third on 225.

Serie B

Italy’s second tier of club football is Serie B which has been running since 1929 and features 22 teams trying to gain promotion to Serie A.

Teams

The team to have played the most seasons in Serie B is Brescia who have played 59 seasons in the second league in Italy. Verona are next having played 52 seasons and Modena have played 50.

Both Genoa and Atalanta have won Serie B 6 times each, the most of any team in Italy while Palermo have won it 5 times.

Lower Leagues

After Serie A and Serie B, Serie C or the Lega Pro has 3 leagues of 18 that are split by location. Below Serie C is Serie D which runs 9 parallel leagues.

Below Serie D there are a further 5 levels each leading up to the top of the pyramid in Serie A.

Italian Cup Competitions

There are a number of cup competitions for club teams in Italy including;

The Supercoppa Italiana. The Supercoppa Italiana is played by the league winners and the Coppa Italia winners before the start of the season the same as the Charity Shield in England.

The Coppa Italia. The Coppa Italia is the main cup competition in Italy and has been running since 1922. The most successful team in the Coppa Italia’s history is Juventus who have won the cup a total of 11 times. The winner is also guaranteed a spot in the UEFA Cup the following season.

The Coppa Italia Lega Pro. The Coppa Italia Lega Pro is played by the teams in the third tier of the Italian league system.

The Coppa Italia Serie D. The Coppa Italia Serie D is played by the teams in the fourth tier of the Italian league system.