How Serie A works: format, relegation and European spots

Serie A is Italy's top division and gathers 20 clubs in a single round-robin league: 38 rounds in which every team faces all the others twice, once at home and once away. A win is worth 3 points, a draw 1, and the club that finishes top wins the scudetto, the title symbolised by the tricolour shield sewn onto next season's shirt.

The most important rule for reading the table is the tiebreaker: when clubs are level on points, Serie A looks first at the head-to-head record between them, and only then at overall goal difference. It differs from the English model, where goal difference decides immediately, and it explains why two level teams can appear in an unexpected order. In defined cases involving the title and relegation, the league even allows a one-off playoff match.

At the bottom the verdict is harsh: the last three go down to Serie B. In the opposite direction three clubs come up, the top two directly and a third through the Serie B playoffs, a mini tournament that keeps half the second division dreaming until June. This rise and fall is part of Italian football's identity, with historic clubs vanishing from and returning to the elite.

The table also hands out Europe. The top four enter the Champions League, and the performance of Italian clubs in continental competition can earn the country a fifth spot. Fifth place brings the Europa League, which also welcomes the Coppa Italia winner, while the next position leads to the Conference League playoffs. A good finish is worth an entire season.

Around the league orbits a small ecosystem of trophies: the knockout Coppa Italia and the Supercoppa Italiana, which opens the year between the previous season's champions. On the shirt, every ten scudetti become a star: Juventus, record champions with 36 titles, wear three, while Inter and Milan sit side by side at around twenty championships each.

The calendar runs from August to May, with a winter pause around the holidays and international breaks in between. There is no English-style Boxing Day, although recent seasons have seen matches played close to Christmas. For anyone arriving from other leagues, the advice is simple: before judging the table, check the head-to-head records, because in Italy they decide the positions that matter.