The Italian football league system , also known as the Italian football pyramid , refers to the hierarchically interconnected league system for association football in Italy . It consists of nine national and regional tournaments, the first three being professional, while the remaining six are amateur, set up by the Italian Football Federation . One team from San Marino also competes. The system has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegation between leagues at different levels.
26-736: The Prima Categoria is the seventh level (since 2014–15) in the Italian football league system and is organized by the National Amateur League by the Regional Committees. Each individual league winner within the Prima Categoria level progresses to their closest regional league in the Promozione level. Depending on each league's local rules, a number of teams each year are relegated from each league, to
52-451: A single point, finishing second in the league to Virtus Entella and eight points above third placed Südtirol. Striker Ettore Marchi starred throughout the season, scoring 15 goals. In the promotion play-offs, Pro Vercelli eliminated FeralpiSalò , Savona and ultimately defeated Südtirol in the final, thus returning to Serie B after only one season away. Pro Vercelli finished 16th in Serie B in
78-474: A slow but continuous decline. They played Serie A for their last time to date in 1934–35, and went ultimately relegated also from the 1947–48 Serie B , starting a long period out of the two top divisions of Italian football, even being relegated to Italy's amateur league, Serie D , in multiple times. They regained professional status for good after winning promotion and the Scudetto Dilettanti in
104-615: Is Serie B , which is organised by the Lega Nazionale Professionisti B . Both of these leagues cover the whole of Italy. The third tier is Serie C . It is run by the Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico ; it has three divisions of 20 clubs each, which are generally split on the basis of location. At the fourth tier is Serie D , a league of nine parallel divisions (in which the clubs are divided by geographical location) that
130-545: Is mostly renowned as one of the most successful teams in the early football era of Italy, with seven national titles (all won between 1908 and 1922). They currently play in Serie C , the third tier of Italian football . The origins of football in Vercelli go back to 1892 when it was founded as Società Ginnastica Pro Vercelli ( Pro Vercelli Gymnastics Society ), and 1903 with its Football Division. The first official match for
156-712: Is organised by the Dipartimento Interregionale of the Lega Nazionale Dilettanti . Beneath these are five further levels; three of them, Eccellenza , Promozione and Prima Categoria , are organised by regional committees of the Lega Nazionale Dilettanti; and the last two levels, Seconda Categoria and Terza Categoria , by provincial committees. All 100 Serie A, Serie B and Serie C clubs are professional . From 2005—2006 season, if two or more teams end
182-427: Is significant movement within the pyramid. A notable example is AC ChievoVerona , which from the lower division went to Serie A, the highest level, reaching as good as 4th place in 2005–06 Serie A . The top two levels contain one division each. Below this, the levels have progressively more parallel divisions, which each cover progressively smaller geographic areas. The Genoa Cricket and Athletic Club, later known as
208-699: The Genoa Cricket and Football Club was established on 7 September 1893, Italy's fourth oldest football team (after Torino F.C.C., Nobili Torino and Internazionale Torino ), and the oldest active Italian football team, with 13 decades of activity. In March 1898, the Italian Football Federation ( Federazione Italiana del Football , later re-called Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio , FIGC) was set up in Turin . With four clubs joining – Genoa, FC Torinese , Internazionale di Torino and
234-537: The Serie D 2007–08 season, the team finished 3rd in the same division, qualifying for the Serie D play-offs. It won its way to the group stage of the tournament, but failed qualify as one of the top 5 teams of the play-offs, all of which were later promoted to Lega Pro Seconda Divisione . In the 2008–09 Serie D , Pro Belvedere finished first in Girone B, winning direct promotion to Lega Pro Seconda Divisione. Their debut season into professional football also featured, for
260-550: The Società Ginnastica di Torino ( Gymnastic Society of Torino ). Other clubs existed but decided not to join. The first championship took place on a single day, May 8, 1898, in Torino. The title was won by Genoa. FIGC joined FIFA in 1905 and the championship moved to a league structure, based on regions, in the same year. After the interruption of World War I , football popularity grew and smaller clubs joined. In
286-458: The FIGC, and therefore does not have a predefined structure. The number of rounds in which the league is at the regional level varies, as does the number of teams participating in each league, today www.datasport.it seconds (source) teams in the first category are 1686. The promoted teams go in and promotion are the winners of their group. Varies from region to region, there is a mechanism that allows
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#1732802130774312-627: The country, they left the FIGC to create their private super league, the Northern League , the ancestor of actual Lega Serie A . After a year of talks, the clubs agreed to come back to the FIGC and the Prima Categoria was abolished and divided in two separate leagues, the Prima Divisione for the greatest teams and the Seconda Divisione for the others. Established recently in 1959, is organized by regional committees of
338-534: The eighth level of Italian football, the Seconda Categoria . This level of Italian football is completely amateur and is run on a regional level. From 1898–1922, the highest league in Italy was named the Prima Categoria, the predecessor to the later Prima Divisione and current Serie A . That Prima Categoria has no relation to the one of today, which was founded in 1959. Originally, the Prima Categoria
364-420: The final return of the play-off after the 0–0 of the first round. The club had a very unsuccessful return to Serie B, finishing 21st of 22 teams and with a goal difference −30, the worst in the league. Their placing in the league meant that they were relegated to Lega Pro Prima Divisione . In 2013–14 season, Girone A of Lega Pro 1, Pro Vercelli missed out on an immediate automatic promotion back to Serie B by
390-416: The first time in the club's history, a crosstown derby with Pro Vercelli, but was not particularly successful, with the team lying in second-last place for most of the time in the 2009–10 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione , and promotion winning coach Luca Prina being replaced by the more experienced Gianfranco Motta. Pro Belvedere were relegated after only one season but re-admitted to fill a number of vacancies in
416-528: The football division of S.G. Pro Vercelli took place on 3 August 1903 against the Forza e Costanza. The club won seven Italian Football Championships from 1908 to 1922: 1908 , 1909 , 1910–11 , 1911–12 , 1912–13 , 1920–21 , and 1921–22 . The introduction of professionalism in Italian football, and the rise of teams from larger industrial and business cities such as Milan and Turin , led Pro Vercelli to
442-510: The historical names and colours of the original team. In the season 2010–11 the team played in Lega Pro Seconda Divisione ranking 3rd and was eliminated from Pro Patria in the semifinal of the play-off, but on 4 August 2011 it was later admitted to Lega Pro Prima Divisione to fill vacancies. In the season 2011–12 of Lego Pro Prima Divisione the club was promoted to Serie B after 64 years, beating Carpi 3–1 in
468-499: The league since World War II, having won the title in 57 of the 74 seasons. The current league system dates back to 1978, when semi-professional sector was disbanded. In that year, the current Lega Pro (then known as National Semiprofessional League ) which ruled Serie C and Serie D , turned in a fully professional league organizing new Serie C1 and Serie C2 . Italy so became the only country having two distinct professional football leagues, 14 years before England . In 2010, with
494-568: The league with the same number of points, the final place is given from following criteria (that count for every division): The women's system is divided into five levels. From 2002 to 2013, the Serie A2 existed between the Serie A and B, but it has since been renamed to B. Pro Vercelli Football Club Pro Vercelli 1892 , commonly referred to as Pro Vercelli , is an Italian football club based in Vercelli , Piedmont . The club
520-418: The league; at the same time, due to large debts, Pro Vercelli was not allowed to participate in the 2010–11 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione and so folded. In order to keep the old Pro Vercelli alive, Pro Belvedere changed its name to U.S. Vercelli Calcio and weeks later acquired honours and trademarks from the old Pro Vercelli, being thus allowed to switch its denomination to the current one, as well as to maintain
546-484: The playoffs to winning teams to be included in a list that would result (in case of vacancies) in Promozione . The reduction relegated to the Seconda Categoria . Italian football league system In theory, it is possible for a lowly local amateur club to rise to the pinnacle of the Italian game and win the Scudetto . While this may be unlikely in practice (at the very least, in the short run), there certainly
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#1732802130774572-496: The season 1993–94. In the early 2000s, Pro Vercelli also had to challenge crosstown rivalry from a new team, A.S. Pro Belvedere Vercelli (with the colours yellow and green), founded in the summer of 2006 as a merger between A.S. Trino Calcio (based in Trino, Piedmont ), who played in Serie D and minor league team P.G.S. Pro Belvedere , founded in 1912. In the 2006–07 Serie D , the team finished 9th in Girone A. A year later, in
598-502: The split between Lega Serie A and Lega Serie B , Italy became the sole country with three professional leagues. The Serie C was brought back in 2014, abolishing Serie C1 and Serie C2. The system uses the principle of promotion and relegation . The first tier of Italian football is Serie A , which is governed by the Lega Nazionale Professionisti Serie A and is made up of 20 teams. The second tier
624-616: The summer of 1921, a second association was briefly created in competition with the FIGC: the Confederazione Calcistica Italiana (CCI), emerged from an argument between major and minor clubs over the structure of the national leagues. Hence in 1922 Italy had two champions US Pro Vercelli and US Novese . The two groups eventually re-merged at the end of the season. The move to a single national league structure occurred in 1929 with initially eighteen teams in
650-504: The top league. The first winners in 1930 were Internazionale. The national team also won the World Cup in 1934 and 1938. After World War II the league briefly returned to a regional structure with a north–south divide and a play-off for a single year before Serie A was restored. Torino were the first post-war league champions and went on to win four in a row. However, it is Juventus , Milan and Internazionale that have dominated
676-484: Was the equivalent of the Serie A , until 1922 this was in fact the official name of the Italian top division. As today, it was run by the Regional Committees so it did not have a predefined structure. A variable number of teams (generally 16 or 18) progressed to the national phase run by the FIGC itself. When this amateur system did not match the interests of the growing richest clubs of the Northern industrialized part of
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