Serie A

Serie A is the top flight of Italian football and was been running since the 1929/30 season. The league has 20 teams that play a total of 38 games. The 3 lowest placed teams at the end of the season are relegated to Serie B. European qualification can be achieved by finishing in the top 5 positions with the top 3 entering the Champions League and 4th and 5th position entering the UEFA Europa League.

Stadium Capacity

Of the clubs in Serie A during the 2016/17 season, Internazionale and AC Milan who share the Giuseppe Meazza stadium, more commonly known as the San Siro, have the biggest stadium in terms of Capacity at 80,018 with Crotone having the smallest holding just 9,631.
Atalanta Stadio Atleti Azzurri d’Italia 26,542
Bologna Stadio Renato Dall’Ara 38,279
Cagliari Stadio Sant’Elia 16,000
Chievo Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi 38,402
Crotone Stadio Ezio Scida 9,631
Empoli Stadio Carlo Castellani 16,800
Fiorentina Stadio Artemio Franchi 47,282
Genoa Stadio Luigi Ferraris 36,685
Internazionale San Siro 80,018
Juventus Juventus Stadium 41,475
Lazio Stadio Olimpico 72,698
Milan San Siro 80,018
Napoli Stadio San Paolo 60,240
Palermo Stadio Renzo Barbera 36,349
Pescara Stadio Adriatico 20,476
Roma Stadio Olimpico 72,698
Sampdoria Stadio Luigi Ferraris 36,685
Sassuolo Mapei Stadium 23,717
Torino Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino 27,994
Udinese Stadio Friuli 25,144

Most successful teams

Juventus hold the record for the most Seie A championships won by a club at 32. They share the record for most consecutive championships with Torino and Inter at 5.

Coverage

Unlike most leagues, Serie A clubs are in the position to negotiate individual deals when it comes to broadcast rights. However in the 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons they negotiated a collective deal for 181.5 million Euro’s.

Transfers

The largest transfer fee paid by a Serie A club was by Juventus who paid £76.5m for Argentine forward Gonzalo Higuain from Napoli, this is also the record for any transfer between two Serie A Clubs. The highest transfer fee received for a player was the £89.25m paid by Manchester United for Paul Pogba from Juventus.

Cash Prizes

Prize money in Serie A is divided in regards to finishing positions and the money received for TV deals is distributed based on certain factors including the clubs support, historical results, last 5 years results, previous years position as well as an equal cut of 40% of the total money for each team.

Players Records

The record for the most goals scored in a season is held by Gonzalo Higuain who netted 36 times for Lazio in the 2015/16 season before his record breaking transfer to Juventus. Silvio Piola holds the record for the most Serie A goals scoring 274 while Gunnar Nordahl holds the best goal per game ratio at 0.77.

Fanbase

In the current 2016/17 season Inter have the best average attendance for home matches at 44,602 compared to Crotone at the bottom who have an average of 6,922. Taverage attendance for Serie A is 21,586.

International Football

Controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the Italian national team played their first game in 1910 and have gone on to become one of the most successful teams in international football.

Playing in both the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championships Italy has garnered a reputation as having a formidable defence that is difficult for the opposition to break down.

With 4 World cup wins they are joint second in overall wins with Germany while Brazil are top with 5. The most recent World Cup win came in 2006 when they overcame France on penalties in a game that is most remembered for being Zinedine Zidane’s final game for France and being sent off for a head butt on Italy’s Marco Materazzi.

Italy have also qualified for the European Championships a total of 9 times and have won it once back in 1968.

The most capped player for Italy is Gianluigi Buffon who has played an incredible 168 times from 1997 however he has said that he will be retiring from international football after the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Italy’s top goal scorer is Luigi Riva who scored 35 goals between 1965 and 1974 playing 42 times in total.