Serie A

Infobox football league

pixels = 150
country = Italy
confed = UEFA|
founded = 1898
teams = 20
relegation = Serie B
levels = 1|
domest_cup = Coppa Italia
Supercoppa Italiana
confed_cup = Champions League
UEFA Cup
Intertoto Cup|
champions = F.C. Internazionale Milano
season = 2007-08|
most successful club = Juventus F.C. (27 titles)|
website = http://www.lega-calcio.it
current = 2008-09 season

Serie A (officially known as the Lega Calcio Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top echelon of the Italian football league system. It is widely regarded as one of the elite leagues of the footballing world. Historically, Serie A has produced the highest number of European Cup finalists. In total Italian clubs have reached the final of the competition on a record of twenty-five different occasions, winning the title eleven times. [Cite web
url = http://www.uefa.com/competitions/ucl/news/kind=1/newsid=542188.html
publisher = UEFA.com
accessdate = 2007-08-13
date = 2007-05-24
author = Kevin Ashby
title = Serie A reiterates star quality] As of 2008, Serie A is ranked third among European leagues by UEFA, based on the performance of Italian clubs in the Champions League and the UEFA Cup. [ [http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method3/crank2009.html UEFA Country Ranking 2008] ]

In its current format, the Italian Football Championship was revised from having regional and interregional rounds, to just one solid league for the 1929–30 season onwards; the Serie A system carries on today. The championship titles won before 1929 are officially recognised by FIGC as a championship in the same way the ones since then are.

The league hosts some of the world's most famous clubs: Juventus, Milan, Inter, Roma, Lazio and Napoli. Juventus, Milan and Inter were all founding members of the G-14 a group representing the largest and most prestigious European football clubs; Serie A was the only league to produce three founding members. [cite web | url=http://www.g14.com/G14members/index.asp | title=G-14's members | work=g14.com | accessdate=12 September | accessyear=2006] More players have won the coveted "Ballon d'Or" award while playing at a Serie A club than any other league in the world. [cite web | url=http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/europa-poy.html | title=European Footballer of the Year ("Ballon d'Or") | work=RSSSF.com | accessdate=17 December | accessyear=2007] AC Milan is the club with the most official international titles in the world. [cite web | url=http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/dec16g.html | title=Milan top of the world! | work=Channel4.com | accessdate=17 December | accessyear=2007] Juventus, the most winning Italian team, is the third in Europe and sixth in the world in the same ranking. They are, also, the only club on the planetcite web|url=http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/clubs/club=31085/detail.html|title=FIFA Classic Clubs: Juventus FC|accessdate=2007-08-31|publisher=FIFA Official Website] to have won all official club competitions.cite web|url=http://www.uefa.com/printoutfiles/competitions/supercup/2006/e/e_84343_pk.pdf|title=UEFA club competitions press kit (.PDF archive, page 23)|accessdate=2006-08-25|publisher=UEFA Official Website]

Format

For most of Serie A's history there have been 16 or 18 clubs competing at the top level; however since 2004–05 there have been 20 clubs altogether. Below is a complete record of how many teams have played in each season throughout the league's history;

The bolded teams compete in Serie A currently. Inter is now the only team to have played Serie A football in every season, following Juventus' FIGC-imposed relegation to Serie B after the 2005–06 season.

erie A members for 2008–09

The following twenty clubs will be competing in Serie A during the 2008–09 season.

Records

:main|Football records in Italy

References and notes

ee also

*List of foreign Serie A players

External links

* [http://www.lega-calcio.it Official Site]
* [http://www.figc.it/ FIGC Official Site]

; History
* [http://www.resultsfromfootball.com/seriea-seasons.html Serie A] — All results since 1929.