Serie A Betting
Serie A is the top-level professional football league in Italy. The league’s official title is the Lega Calcio Serie A TIM but it is often referred to simply as ‘Serie A’. Betting on Serie A Football is big business both in Italy and across Europe. Italian football is amongst the world’s finest and the betting market reflects this. The majority of UK bookmakers offer regular bets on Serie A and Italian football.
The Structure
A season of Serie A football runs from August to May during which each of the 20 clubs in the league plays every other club twice, one home game and one away game. Each team plays a total of 38 games over the season.
The season is divided into two halves, ‘andata’ and ‘ritorno’. During the andata period each team plays just one match against each other team for a total of 19 games. Then, during the ritorno period, the same sequence of matches is played again with the home and away location reversed.
Points are awarded for each game played with a win scoring three points, a draw one points, and lost games scoring no points. Teams are ranked at the end of the football season according to the points that they have gained. In the past if two teams were tied for a place in a European tournament or for relegation the teams would play a deciding match after the end of the season. This practice was changed in 2005-2006 and now the head-to-head records of the two teams involved decide tiebreakers. If that still is fails to produce a winner then goal difference is used to decide the issue.
Championships
The Serie A football championship is highly competitive. The most successful club has been Juventus F.C. that has taken the title 27 times. A.C. Milan has won the title 17 times, Internazionale Milano 15 times, and Genoa C&FC has taken nine titles.
Serie A also has an impressive European record as producing the highest number of European Cup finalists. Italian clubs made it to the final 25 times and won the title 11 times.
UEFA
The league is ranked by UEFA as one of the top three leagues in Europe and that means that the top four teams from the league qualify for the UEFA Champions League. The top teams qualify straight to the group phase and the third and fourth placed teams qualify for the third qualifying round.
The clubs that finish 5th and 6th in Serie A qualify for the UEFA Cup Tournament.
Teams finishing 5th and 6th qualify for the UEFA Cup Tournament. A third UEFA Cup spot is reserved for the winner of the Coppa Italia. If the Coppa Italia champion has already qualified for one of the two European tournaments by placing in the top six of Serie A, the third UEFA Cup spot goes to the losing finalist. If both Coppa Italia finalists finish among the top six teams in Serie A, the 7th classified team in Serie A is awarded the UEFA Cup spot. The three lowest placed teams are relegated to Serie B.
A Bit of History
Serie A began in 1929 as an amalgamation of the northern and southern regions that were used in Italian football until that time. The championship title is sometimes called the ‘scudetto’ that means ‘small shield’. This is a reference to the coat of arms with the Italian tri-colours that the winning team wears on the strip for the following season.
In the past Serie A had between 16 and 18 clubs competing but since the 2004-2005 season that number increased to 20 clubs.
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