Serie A

Serie A, also called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa Campioni d’Italia.

Serie A is regarded as one of the best football leagues in the world and it is often depicted as the most tactical and defensively sound national league.

The league hosts three of the world’s most famous clubs as Juventus, Milan and Internazionale, all founding members of the G-14.

During the season, which runs from August to May, each club plays each of the other teams twice; once at home and once away, totalling 38 games for each team by the end of the season. Thus, in Italian football a true round-robin format is used. In the first half of the season, called the andata, each team plays once against each league opponent, for a total of 19 games. In the second half of the season, called the ritorno, the teams play in exactly the same order that they did in the first half of the season, the only difference being that home and away situations are switched. Teams are awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw and no points for a loss.

The top four teams in the Serie A qualify straight to the UEFA Champions League. Team finishing fifth, with the winner of the Coppa Italia, qualify for the UEFA Europa League tournament. The sixth or the seventh ranked club, depending from the Coppa Italia winner’s performance, joins the preliminary round of the UEFA Europa Conference League. The three lowest-placed teams are relegated to Serie B.

If two or more teams are tied in points (for any place), the deciding tie-breakers are as follows:

1. Head-to-head records (results and points).
2. Goal difference of head-to-head games.
3. Goal difference overall.
4. Higher number of goals scored.
5. Draw.