I have watched how the Super League has brought a considerable deal of debate to the game. I am personally against it as it in my opinion would destroy domestic leagues and it is not meritocratic. However, I do understand the desire of the top Italian clubs to keep pace financially with the top English sides. Therefore, I propose the following Italian football league system. I would shrink Serie A, B, and C to 12 sides apiece with an identical format. Each side would face each of the other 11 three times. After 33 matches, the table would be split into a Championship group and Relegation group with each team playing the other five in their group in additional time, giving the each tier a total of 38 league matches. This is effectively stealing the Scottish model. The bottom team in each league would be relegated and the second bottom would face the second place finisher in the league below in a relegation playoff. In my opinion, this would significantly increase the broadcast value and talent level in all three leagues. In other news, Serie A have announced a change in the Coppa Italia. From now, only teams in the top two divisons can compete in the competition. This in my opinion will lead to the competition losing its appeal due to the lack of minnows and potential upsets. I would institute a German model when the top two divisions enter in the round of 64 and the smaller sides play at home until the latter stages of the competition. I would also eliminate the Super Cup because it is pointless. What do you think?
For me already decreasing Serie A from 20 to 18 teams would make a difference. Right now you examine the table from this season, you can see that Samp and Hellas coasted in the remaining weeks. They didn't have enough points for the European spots and they were relatively safe from relegation. Taking two teams out of the picture and adding one more relegation spot would ensure that everyone in the table has something to play for. Serie A,B and C need to be lean 18 team leagues. Serie C right now is too bloated. It needs to be single table. Already changing this would improve the quality. Let Lega Pro be the regional leagues that feed Serie C. Add play-outs and play-in to Serie A. Example: 4th vs. 5th get the last CL spot. 14th vs. 15th battle out to avoid relegation. To increase competitiveness of Serie B (since there are no euro competitions for the upper mid table teams) increase the relegation zone from 4 to 6 teams)
you kinda contradict yourself here... you don't want the coppa italia to not have minnows... but Serie A you want to reduce to 11 teams? i'm all for maybe reducing it to 18 teams.. but 11 is overkill. IMO what is needed is to have more teams owning their own stadiums... and keep pushing the needle forward with getting higher broadcast revenues when possible.
It's a trade-off: less clubs in the top flight but more clubs get to compete in the cup. This is just one idea. If Serie A went to a 16-team 30-game slate that would be my ultimate preference. The top four would qualify for the Champions League. Five and six would qualify for the Europa League, and seven would qualify for the Conference League. The bottom two would be directly relegated while the third from bottom would play third from Serie B in playoff. There would be drama throughout the table and the reduction in fixtures would mean no more midweek match days. It would be a higher quality league. My only fear is that the reduction in revenue might not outweigh the reduced costs.
I liked the format used until 2003/04 of 18 clubs with four relegated/promoted. However, any reduction to 18 will be welcomed by me.
The pie might be smaller but the individual slices may actually be bigger. France decided yesterday to shrink Ligue 1 to 18 clubs starting in 2023 as Canal+ (Ligue 1's previous broadcaster) were not interested in televising a 20-team league.
I didn’t know where to post this, but this thread seems close enough. Linked article: “Serie A has become the Serie B of Europe”. I think we already knew this, but it’s still hard to acknowledge. https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/ser...n-football-descended-into/blte64bc0d06d63e3fe
Would be all for shrinking Serie A to 16 or 18 teams. As other posters mentioned, we need more games to matter. I hate the midweek fixtures, when are teams supposed to train properly?
problem with serie a it is not how many teams there is. but napoli showed old serie a system does not work. like spalletti said there is no more system but thinking as yo go. but serie a is stuck in system o team is in 442 formation let open the manual and see what system nutralize it. that is why napoli is amazing in europe and inter these two team are not rely on system or how to counter opposition they play THEIR GAME
Serie A Needs League Reform, Starting With 18 Teams The 2003/04 season was the last of the old 18-team league, which had been in place since 1988, and the format, which saw four teams relegated and four teams promoted from Serie B, worked perfectly Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmetg...a-needs-league-reform-starting-with-18-teams/
Great article, thanks. The medium-to-small clubs in Serie A will never vote in favour of reducing the division back to 18 clubs though because they want the security of their share of the ever shrinking cake which is the value of the media rights. The key thing to understand is that by not investing sufficiently in their clubs these presidents are completely reliant on media rights revenue. They want their clubs' games to become friendlies as early as possible in the season so they are safe from relegation and can budget for the following season based on Serie A media rights revenue. Some of them might also care about the wider Italian football movement (developing modern infrastructure, increasing the attractiveness of Serie A and Serie B at home and abroad, better performances by Serie A clubs in the UEFA club competitions, better development of Italian talent to create a stronger set of national teams) but even among them it is a lower priority than ensuring their clubs' survival. This is why fans I know in Italy tell me they are pessimistic about the future of Italian football.
Looking back at this, I do think 18 is the sweet spot. I would relegate three automatically and keep the Serie B playoff. I don’t see a big deal with Serie B staying at 20 teams. The cup is still a disaster. I actually wouldn’t be stunned if Italy became the first European country to bin it.
I had an epiphany on the Coppa Italia today. Assuming Serie A goes to 18 teams at some point in the near future due to Champions League expansion, I think I have found a way to spice up the Coppa Italia to make it a big deal. Instead of making it a pure knockout competition, I would have the final 16 play a World Cup style tournament between Matchday 6 and 7 of the Champions League in mid-December to mid-January. Serie A, Serie B, and Serie C would go on a six-week winter break (similar to Germany) so that the focus would be on the cup. The first three rounds of the competition would remain the same. If Serie A had a 34-game calendar and started a week earlier, I think everybody involved would make more money. Using the 23/24 calendar for each Serie A week (with my proposed changes): 1: 8/6 2: 8/13 3: 8/20 4: 8/27 5: 9/3 6: 9/17 7: 9/24 8: 10/1 9: 10/8 10: 10/22 11: 10/29 12: 11/5 13: 11/12 14: 11/26 15: 12/3 16: 12/10 Coppa Italia: 12/17-1/14 17: 1/21 18: 1/28 19: 2/4 20: 2/11 21: 2/18 22: 2/25 23: 3/3 24: 3/10 25: 3/17 26: 3/31 27: 4/7 28: 4/14 29: 4/21 30: 4/28 31: 5/5 32: 5/12 33: 5/19 34: 5/26 This accomplishes several things: 1. 18 team league 2. No weekday Serie A match weeks 3. Christmas-time Coppa Italia that doesn't interfere with Serie A or Europe 4. Gets rid of the Supercoppa as it won't be needed and the clubs can make much more in this format
Potential groups for said tournament: A: Inter Milan, Fiorentina, Bologna, and Parma B: AC Milan, Atalanta, Udinese, and Sassuolo C: Lazio, Roma, Genoa, and Cittadella D: Napoli, Juventus, Torino, and Sampdoria
After years of contemplating this, I have came to the conclusion that the Tier 1 European leagues should be 12, 14, 16, 18 teams depending on how high they are on the UEFA Coefficient Table. I reckon that 16 is good number for England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France. The rest would be better off being 12 or 14 clubs. Here in Scotland, we have been a 12-team league since the 2000/2001 season. It used to be 10 teams, each playing each other four times. There just seems to be a lot of glorified tier 2 clubs in tier 1 leagues these days. Even some tier 2 clubs are glorified, fake, badly run clubs in England tier 2 league, "parachute payments" to keep them afloat, it will end badly, maybe even this season for that league. Luton Town's stadium was deemed not up to criteria on Saturday and the match was postponed. It's a tiny, old stadium, it's weird! Can't wait to see Man City play here! No, I mean, we are in the age of elite football and those elite teams need to stick to playing each other at home and in Europe and in the Club World Cup from 2025, just as tier 6/5, tier 4/3 routinely play each other as they yoyo between promotion and relegation. You should REALLY REALLY REALLY have to earn your place in tier 1 of England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, even Scotland, Holland, Belgium, Portugal. Playoffs between tier 1 teams who are bottom of the league and tier 2 teams who finish third, fourth place should 80-90% of the time end in the tier 1 clubs staying in tier 1. That sounds harsh, but these tier 2 clubs are nowhere near capable of playing against Man City, Liverpool, Real Madrid, even Rennes, Toulouse, etc. Ajaccio of Corsica were hopeless last season and making the nine northern French teams travel 500 miles by plane to thrash teams like that these days is pointless. Get rid of tier 1 "league cups" and I'd make the tier 1 teams who enter F.A cups in the Round of 32 play ALL their games away from home when they play tier 2 or lower clubs. Make it harder and more lucrative for lower down clubs in the cups. And only one leg, no replays, no extra time - go straight to penalties unless it's the Final. English F.A. Cup is arcane with it's two legs and replays and matches get postponed to later dates, it's arcane, tighten that shit up! This is how the Coupe de France is played with 8,000 clubs. I'd make the tier 1 teams who enter F.A cups in the Round of 32 play ALL their games away from home when they play tier 2 or lower clubs. Make the elite players feel the pressure in small grounds! It sounds snobbish, but I'm not a snob, well... maybe a little bit! It's just that in the age of 32-team, 64-match Club World Cups followed 12 months later by 48 team, 104-match World Cup after a gruelling 60-match (or more) club season plus Nations League, international qualifiers. The 2024/2025 UEFA season will then end with (bigger 36-team, 10-matches per team Group Stage) Champions League Semis and Finals then straight into the World Club Cup in America, a whole new experience that might very taxing and then in September ass-clenching 2026 World Cup qualifiers begin in earnest and many teams will shit the bed, I reckon. Things just need streamlining but still maintain and even enhance the competitiveness in the leagues. Quality not quantity, less is more, Tier 1 top-flight needs to be of supreme, maximum value.
I've been saying for years that F.A. Cups should culminate (last 16 teams) over Christmas and New Year. It would be a more fun time to play out those cups.
Not any more! This season there will be no winter break, with the clubs playing on Saturdays 23 and 30 December.
The idea is to reduce the number of midweek rounds - it would be better to reduce Serie A to 18 clubs to achieve this (in addition to other benefits from having 2 fewer clubs) - of which there will only be one this season in the last week of September.