Coppa Italia 2026/27: the 44-club bracket and home advantage by number

The Coppa Italia 2026/27 does not draw its ties. Under the regulations published by the Lega Serie A in Comunicato Ufficiale n. 253, of 27 May 2024, every club is given a position from 1 to 44 in a tennis-style bracket, and it is that number which decides the round it enters, whether it plays at home and who it can meet on the way to the final. The main bracket holds 40 clubs and is preceded by a preliminary round that takes the field to 44.

By the Lega's own count, the 2025/26 edition was the 79th, which makes 2026/27 the 80th. It is also the last one covered by those regulations, signed by Lorenzo Casini, then president of the Lega, and valid for the 2024/25, 2025/26 and 2026/27 seasons. The document calls the competition the Coppa Italia Frecciarossa.

The rule became visible on 16 August 2026, in the trentaduesimi. Lazio, number 9 in the bracket and runners-up in the 2025/26 edition, hosted Mantova, number 29 and a Serie B club in 2026/27, at the Stadio Olimpico, because in a one-off tie home advantage belongs to the lower number. Lazio lost 2-0, with goals from Ruocco and Cajazzo, according to the Lega, and went out at the first hurdle.

This guide works through the 2024-27 regulations, with the pages checked on 11 September 2026: who enters the competition and when, how the positions from 1 to 44 are handed out, who has home advantage in each round, what happens when scores are level, what the trophy is worth in Europe, how much it pays and who the leading winners are. The calendar reserved by the Lega runs from the preliminary round of 9 August 2026 to the final, scheduled for 19 May 2027.

Who plays: Serie A and Serie B by right, plus four guests from Serie C

Under the 2024-27 regulations, every club admitted to Serie A and Serie B enters by right. The field is completed by 4 Serie C clubs invited by the Lega Serie A and nominated by the Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico, the Serie C league, with their participation subject to approval by the Lega Serie A. Those invitations take the total to 44 and give the Italian cup the shape of an open tournament, even with most of the bracket reserved for the top two divisions.

Under the same 2024-27 regulations, the last eight positions in the bracket are numbered by performance in the previous Serie C season: the three group winners take numbers 37, 38 and 39; the winner of the Serie C play-off final takes 40; the three group runners-up take 41, 42 and 43; and the winner of the Coppa Italia Serie C takes 44. Those eight open the competition, in the preliminary round. Not all of them are in the third tier, though: because Serie A and Serie B enter by right with 40 clubs and positions 1 to 36 are not enough for all of them, four also fall into that closing band, and only four of the 44 entrants are the Serie C guests.

The 44-club format is recent. According to the Italian-language Wikipedia, the change of formula in the 2021/22 season cut the field from 78 to 44, keeping Serie A and Serie B and adding the four from Serie C. The split into ranking bands was already described by Stadionews on 7 August 2021, in the same shape the 2024 regulations preserve: 1 to 8, 9 to 24, 25 to 36, 37 to 40 and 41 to 44.

In 2026/27, Serie C did not last long. The preliminary round paired Ascoli (40) with Potenza (44) and LR Vicenza (37) with Catania (41), a tie that finished 1-1 and went to penalties, with Catania going through. In the trentaduesimi, Parma hosted Catania, by then the only Serie C club left in the cup, and won 2-0 on 14 August 2026, according to the Lega. No Serie C club reached the sedicesimi.

The number in the bracket: how the Lega hands out positions 1 to 44

Under the regulations for the 2024/25 to 2026/27 editions, the top of the list is fixed and rewards the previous season. Number 1 goes to the holders of the Coppa Italia; number 2 to the Serie A champions. If the same club won both competitions, 2 passes to the league runners-up. From there down, every club falls into a band defined by what it did the previous season, so the whole bracket is known as soon as the league and the promotion play-offs are over.

The ranking of the seeds starts with the cup holders and continues with the clubs qualified for the Champions League, the Europa League or the Conference League, in league order. When the cup holders are already among those qualifiers, the 8th-placed side in Serie A is added so that the list is complete. The first 8 in that ranking are the seeds and take numbers 1 to 8.

The next band gathers the sides finishing 9th to 17th in Serie A and the 3 clubs promoted from Serie B, in their order of finishing once the play-offs are done: those are positions 9 to 20. Positions 21 to 24 go to the three relegated clubs and to the losers of the promotion play-off final. Those 16 clubs, from 9 to 24, cannot meet each other in the trentaduesimi and play at home. The next 12 Serie B clubs, from 25 to 36, start away.

In the 2026/27 edition that clause applied to Inter, who won both the Coppa and Serie A in 2025/26: they took 1, and 2 went to Napoli, league runners-up on 76 points. From 1 to 17, the bracket simply repeated the final Serie A 2025/26 table, from Inter on 87 points to Lecce, 17th on 38. Venezia (18), Frosinone (19) and Monza (20) fill the promoted clubs' slots; Cremonese (21), Hellas Verona (22) and Pisa (23) are the relegated sides, in table order; and 24, reserved by the regulations for the losers of the play-off final, went to Catanzaro.

The names of the rounds confuse newcomers, because they count ties and not clubs. The trentaduesimi have 32 clubs in 16 ties; the sedicesimi, 16 clubs in 8 ties; the ottavi are back to 16 clubs, because that is where the eight seeds come in. Annex 1 of the regulations carries the bracket already drawn, and it is that chart which guides the ties in every round up to the final. The Lega reserves the right to move the position of clubs under the same ownership, so that they can only meet in the decider.

The table below puts the formula from the regulations alongside the reference dates the Lega reserved in Comunicato Ufficiale n. 200, of 25 May 2026. These are reference dates, not necessarily the dates the matches are played: according to the Italian-language Wikipedia, the preliminary round was played between 8 and 9 August 2026, the trentaduesimi between 14 and 17 August, and the sedicesimi between 1 and 3 September, with two ties set for the reserve date, 15 September 2026.

The sums close both ways. Adding the clubs that enter, 8 in the preliminary round plus 28 in the trentaduesimi plus 8 in the ottavi gives the 44 entrants, exactly the split set out in article 3.1. Adding the ties, 4 plus 16 plus 8 plus 8 plus 4 plus 4 plus 1 gives 45, and the Italian-language Wikipedia numbers the final of 19 May 2027 as Gara 45. The number bands also cover the whole bracket: 37 to 44, 9 to 36 and 1 to 8 add up to 44 positions.

Home advantage: the lower number plays at home

Under the 2024-27 regulations, the rule on home advantage is arithmetic. In the preliminary round, the trentaduesimi, the sedicesimi and the quarter-finals, all one-off ties, the club with the lower bracket number is at home. In the ottavi the seeds are always at home, and it is their numbers that set home advantage in the quarter-finals and the order of the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, over two legs, the lower number plays the return at home. The final is a one-off tie, with a nominal home side settled by a draw.

The effects show up in every round of 2026/27. Lazio (9) hosted Mantova (29) at the Olimpico. The bracket gives Como (4) home advantage against Cremonese (21) in the ottavi. According to Pisa's official website, on 18 August 2026, the club's tie against Fiorentina was scheduled for Tuesday 15 September 2026 at 21:00, at the Stadio Franchi, home of Fiorentina, number 15 in the bracket.

There is a get-out clause. Under article 5 of the regulations, the Lega may reverse home advantage in four situations: a written request from both clubs at least 3 days in advance, an unavailable stadium, inadequate floodlighting, or a stadium the Lega judges unsuitable. If both stadiums are unavailable, it falls to the home club to nominate another ground. That is what happened with Lecce (17) against Palermo (25): PalermoToday reported on 24 June 2026 that redevelopment work at the Via del Mare would send the tie to the Renzo Barbera, and ANSA recorded Palermo winning 2-0 there, on 17 August 2026, in front of 33,009 people.

Level scores: straight to penalties up to the quarter-finals, extra time only in the semi-finals and the final

In the one-off ties of the 2024-27 regulations, a draw in normal time goes straight to a penalty shoot-out, with no extra time. The exception sits at the end of the bracket: in the semi-finals, a level aggregate over the two legs brings two 15-minute periods of extra time and, if it is still level, penalties; in the final, the same follows the 90 minutes. When it published the regulations for the three seasons, on 27 May 2024, Calciomercato picked out precisely that change: extra time only from the semi-finals on.

The decision has consequences on the bench. Each club may make up to 5 substitutions in a maximum of 3 stoppages, not counting half-time, and a sixth substitution is only allowed when there is extra time. Since extra time in this formula exists only in the semi-finals and the final, that sixth window can only appear in those matches, and only when the deadlock survives normal time, on aggregate in the semi-final or over the 90 minutes of the decider.

The 2025/26 edition showed the effect. On 11 February 2026, in the quarter-finals, Bologna against Lazio finished 1-1 in normal time and went straight to penalties: Lazio went through and Bologna, winners of the 2024/25 edition, went out, according to Italpress. The night before, Como had already knocked Napoli out on penalties, in Naples. In the second leg of the semi-final, with extra time available, Atalanta against Lazio was still level after 120 minutes, and Lazio advanced on penalties, according to the Lega.

In 2026/27 the pattern repeated itself in the early rounds. LR Vicenza 1-1 Catania, in the preliminary round, and Catanzaro 2-2 Südtirol, in the trentaduesimi, were settled on penalties, with Catania and Südtirol going through. In the sedicesimi, Sassuolo against Frosinone was also decided from the spot, according to Oggi Sport Notizie.

The ottavi: the seeds come in and the halves take shape

Under the 2024-27 regulations, the ottavi bring together the 8 winners of the sedicesimi and the 8 seeds, who only then begin their campaign. In that round the seeds cannot meet each other and they play at home. In 2026/27 the eight are, in ranking order, Inter, Napoli, Roma, Como, Milan, Juventus, Atalanta and Bologna, the eight top finishers in Serie A 2025/26, according to Calcio e Finanza.

In the official bracket published by the Lega and updated on 10 September 2026, the ottavi stood as follows: Bologna (8) against Palermo (25), Milan (5) against Monza (20), Como (4) against Cremonese (21), Roma (3) against Hellas Verona (22), Juventus (6) against Sassuolo (11) and Atalanta (7) against Udinese (10). Inter (1) awaited the winners of Genoa against Südtirol and Napoli (2) those of Fiorentina against Pisa, ties scheduled for 15 September 2026. Comunicato Ufficiale n. 200 reserved 2 and 16 December 2026 for the round, with 13 January 2027 in reserve.

The shape of the halves is a direct inheritance of the numbering. In Annex 1 of the regulations, positions 1 and 2 sit on opposite sides, which is why Inter and Napoli could only meet in a final. Analysing the bracket on 24 June 2026, Calcio e Finanza noted that the left-hand side could produce a Milan derby in the semi-finals, while the right-hand side opened a path to Roma against Napoli or Juventus against Napoli.

Three Serie B clubs of 2026/27 reached the ottavi through the sedicesimi played between 1 and 3 September 2026: Cremonese, relegated at the end of 2025/26, beat Parma 2-0 at the Tardini on 1 September; Palermo beat Mantova 5-2; and Hellas Verona won 2-1 away at Cagliari. On the morning of 3 September 2026, the Lega counted six Serie B clubs still in the cup: Palermo, Mantova, Pisa, Verona, Cremonese and Südtirol. Palermo and Mantova, according to the same page, were the only clubs from the division to knock out Serie A sides in the trentaduesimi.

Two details in the regulations address the gap between those who start in August and those who come in in December. To offset the disciplinary difference between the 36 clubs that play the first three rounds and the 8 seeds, the text provides for the Lega to ask the Federal Council to wipe out any yellow cards left over after those rounds. And technology arrives in steps: VAR is used from the trentaduesimi on, and not in the preliminary round; goal-line technology and semi-automated offside, from the ottavi on.

Two-legged semi-finals and a final at the Olimpico

The semi-finals are the only round over two legs: 4 clubs, home and away, with the return played by whoever holds the lower bracket number. Comunicato Ufficiale n. 200 reserved 3 March 2027 for the first leg and 21 April 2027 for the second. If the aggregate is level, the two periods of 15 minutes follow and then penalties. The quarter-finals, set for 3 and 10 February 2027, keep the 8 clubs in one-off ties with home advantage to the lower number.

The final brings together 2 clubs in a single tie, in principle at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome or at another venue chosen by the Lega's board, with a draw to settle the nominal home side. It was scheduled for 19 May 2027. That design has a dated origin: according to the Italian-language Wikipedia, a reform approved in 2007 reintroduced the one-off final at the Olimpico, and the 2008 change created the tennis-style bracket with one-off ties in every round except the semi-finals, played over two legs ever since.

What the title is worth: a place in the Europa League league phase

Under the Europa League regulations for 2026/27, adopted by the UEFA Executive Committee on 11 February 2026, in force from 1 March and amended on 20 May and 29 July 2026, associations may enter their domestic cup winners alongside other clubs from the league, according to the coefficient rankings. Associations with two representatives enter the cup winners and the club placed immediately below the last Champions League qualifier.

In the 2026/27 access list, Annex A of the same regulations, Italy is association 2: the champions and the sides placed 2nd, 3rd and 4th go to the Champions League league phase; the cup winners and the 5th-placed side go to the Europa League league phase; the 6th-placed side goes to the Conference League play-off. The cup winners' place is not lost when they have already qualified through the league: in that case UEFA adapts the list, the slot passes to the best-placed club among the Europa League or Conference League qualifiers, and each representative moves up to the stage of the club immediately above.

The Italian case in 2026/27 is exactly that. Inter won the Coppa in 2025/26 and Serie A as well, and went into the Champions League through the league. According to the English-language Wikipedia, the Europa League league phase in 2026/27 took in Milan, 5th, and Juventus, 6th; Atalanta, 7th in Serie A 2025/26, entered the Conference League play-off through the Main Path, the stage Annex A reserved for the 6th-placed Italian club.

One caveat on scope: these are the rules of the 2026/27 European season. The winners of the Coppa Italia 2026/27 will play in the 2027/28 season, whose regulations were not part of this check.

Trophy, coccarda, medals and money

The 2024-27 regulations set out what the winners receive: the gold replica of the trophy, 40 gold medals and the right to wear the Coppa Italia winners' badge on the shirt the following season. The runners-up take 40 silver medals. According to the Lega, on 12 May 2026, the trophy was gold-plated, weighed around 8 kg and stood 60 cm tall. The tricolour coccarda on the winners' kit dates from the late 1950s, and Lazio were the first to wear it, in the 1958/59 season.

Gate receipts follow a sliding rule. Outside the semi-finals and the final, the takings, after tax and 10% in costs, are split 50% to each club. In each semi-final the takings stay with the home club, which adds weight to the right to host the return. In the final, 45% goes to each finalist and 10% to the Lega.

Prize money is not in the regulations, which is why the figures come with an attribution to the press and a date. According to Money.it, on 12 May 2026, the day before the final, the 2025/26 Coppa paid 400k euros in the ottavi, 800k in the quarter-finals, 1.5 million in the semi-finals, 1.9 million to the beaten finalist and 4.4 million to the winners. On the day of the final, Tuttomercatoweb calculated that each finalist had already banked 2.7 million euros, so that the winners would reach 7.1 million in total.

A cup that stopped twice before it became annual

The timeline explains why the numbering of the editions does not match the years. According to the Italian-language Wikipedia, the first edition was in 1922, won by Vado; the 1926-27 edition was never completed; and there was no competition between 1923 and 1926 or between 1927 and 1935. The cup stopped again in 1943, because of the Second World War, and only returned in 1958, under the Lega Nazionale Professionisti, which ran it until 2009-10. In 2010-11 it passed to the Lega Serie A. The Lega's own albo d'oro jumps from 1942-43 to 1958.

The recent reforms come in blocks and, apart from the last one, are recorded in the Italian-language Wikipedia: in 2007 the competition was restricted to Serie A and Serie B, with a single-match final at the Olimpico; in 2008 it reopened to the lower divisions in a tennis-style bracket; in 2021/22 the number of entrants fell from 78 to 44. The fourth change is in the document itself: the regulations of 27 May 2024 removed extra time from every round up to the quarter-finals. By the same encyclopedia, the historical tally is asymmetrical: 79 editions from 1922 to 2026 and 78 winners, because the 1926-27 edition never finished.

The leading winners up to the 2025/26 edition

In the Lega's albo d'oro consulted on 11 September 2026, there are 78 titles shared between 16 clubs. Juventus lead with 15, from the first in 1937/38 to the most recent up to the 2025/26 edition, in 2023/24, and they own a run of four in a row, from 2014/15 to 2017/18. Inter have 10, from 1938/39 to 2025/26, and moved clear in second with their tenth.

That tenth came on 13 May 2026, at the Olimpico in Rome, when Inter beat Lazio 2-0 in the final, with a Marušić own goal after 14 minutes and a Lautaro Martínez goal after 35, in front of 68,729 people. The individual Haier award went to Inter's captain in that final, Lautaro Martínez. Behind the two come Roma on 9 titles, Lazio on 7, the first of them in 1958, and Napoli and Fiorentina on 6 each. Bologna won in 2024/25, 51 seasons after the title of 1973/74, by the albo's own count.

Two details help in reading the list. Up to the 2025/26 edition, according to the Lega on 12 May 2026, Vado (1922) and Napoli (1961-62) were the only winners of the Coppa Italia not playing in Serie A. On the same date, Massimiliano Allegri was the manager with the most titles in the competition, five, and Alessandro Altobelli the cup's all-time leading scorer, with 56 goals.

The remaining calendar of the 80th edition was reserved in full in Comunicato Ufficiale n. 200, of 25 May 2026: the ottavi on 2 and 16 December 2026, with 13 January 2027 in reserve; the quarter-finals on 3 and 10 February 2027; the semi-finals on 3 March and 21 April 2027; and the final on 19 May 2027.

After that final, the regulations of 27 May 2024 complete the last of their three seasons of validity. The bracket numbered from 1 to 44, home advantage to the lower number and penalties without extra time up to the quarter-finals hold, in writing, only until then.