Serie A is the top league in Italy and was at one point the best league in the world and was made popular by the success of teams like AC Milan, Juventus, AS Roma and Internazionale in European competitions. Serie A has been in existence since 1939 and it is one of the ‘big five’ football teams in the world. The official website is http://www.legaseriea.it/it

Serie A consists of 20 teams from different parts of Italy. Each team plays a total of 38 teams, 19 home and 19 away in a round-robin format and the team with the most points at the end of the season will win the title which is referred to as the Scudetto.

A Serie A season is divided into two parts , there is the first half of the season, called the andata, where each team plays a total of 19 matches after which there will be a break. After the break comes the second half of the season, called the ritorno, where each and every team plays an additional 19 games. If two teams are tied on points, there are tie breakers in place to choose the winner, firstly head-to-head record come into play followed by the goal difference and if the teams cannot be separated then goals scored will be used.

Serie A has four spots for the Champions League with the three best teams automatically going to the group stage and the fourth team will have to go through the preliminary stages of qualification. Europa League spots are awarded to teams finishing fifth and sixth with the third Europa League spot reserved for the winner of the Coppa Italia.

At the end of each Serie A season, the bottom three clubs are relegated to Serie B whilst these clubs are replaced by the three top-ranked teams at the end of the Serie B season. The Europa league spots and the battle for survival makes Serie A a very competitive and unpredictable league and results can go either way in this league.

Serie A is a highly tactical league and Italian teams are known for their defensive qualities and you will not find many high scoring matches in this division. Quite a number of big star players have played in Serie A like Zidane, Kaka, Ronaldinho, Pogba and more recently Cristiano Ronaldo, and the Cristiano Ronaldo move to Juventus has seen more attention being placed on Serie A because he is the best of his generation.

Juventus has dominated the league for some time now with a total of 35 league titles, and have won it in eight consecutive seasons since the 2011-12 season, a feat that will be difficult to match. AC Milan and Internazionale have won the league 18 times and basically these three teams are the face of Italian football.

Serie A teams have not been successful in European competitions in recent years because Inter Milan are the last team to win the UEFA Champions League in 2010, Juventus have been in the UCL final in 2015 and 2017 but have failed to win in both occasions, even the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo was not enough as they were booted out of the competition last season by a youthful Ajax Amsterdam team.

Juventus are the odds on favourite to win the scudetto again in the 2019/20 season because they are such a strong team, Inter Milan are also a team to watch out for after the acquisition of Antonio Conte as their new manager.