History of Serie A
The Italian Serie A competition was recognized as a professional league in 1929 bringing together the top brass of Italian football. The competition originally started in 1898, but it was played regionally during this period. The number of teams participating in the Serie A Football League has been 20 since the 2004-05 season, before which it was either 16 or 18. The Serie A is known as the scudetto because the team that wins bears a coat of arms with the Italian flag colors on their shirts during the corresponding soccer season.
In terms of the format, the teams play each other twice over the season in home and away games. The top three football teams directly qualify for the Champions League group phase, while the fourth placed team plays a qualifying round to get into the group stage. The last three teams are relegated to the Serie B. The honor of Golden Star for Sports Excellence is conferred on the team who wins 10 Serie A Football League titles, and the team can wear golden stars on their team crests and jerseys. Juventus pride themselves on wearing two stars as they have won 27 titles, while Inter and AC Milan wear one star each with 17 titles to their credit.
Previous Serie A Season(s)
The 2006-07 Serie A football season turned out to be the most controversial soccer season in the history of Serie A as the competition was rocked by a match fixing scandal. For the first time in the history of the league, champions Juventus were relegated to Serie B. Inter Milan went on to win that year. Juventus were back for the next season, but still could not stop Inter Milan from winning their 16th Serie A title. Against all odds, Juventus finished 3rd and qualified for the following season’s Champions League. The 2008-09 Serie A football season progressed along similar lines with Inter winning their fourth consecutive Serie A title and by a ten point margin. Torino, Reggina and Lecee were relegated to play in the Serie B the following year. On 30 April, 2009, except for Lecce all the other 19 teams unanimously voted in favour of the formation of the Lega Calcio Serie A, breaking away from the Serie B over issues of Television rights and revenue sharing.
