Structure
The first tier of Italian football is Serie A, which is governed by the Lega Nazionale Professionisti Serie A and is made up of 20 teams. Next is the 22-team Serie B, which is organised by the Lega Nazionale Professionisti Serie B. Both of these leagues cover the whole of Italy.
In the third and fourth tier, there are parallel divisions; the Prima Divisione and the Seconda Divisione (both run by Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico) each have two divisions, which are generally split on the basis of location. The Prima Divisione divisions have 17-16 clubs and the Seconda Divisione leagues have 18 clubs each.
At the fifth tier is Serie D, a league of nine parallel divisions (in which the clubs are divided by geographical location) that is organised by the Dipartimento Interregionale of the Lega Nazionale Dilettanti. Beneath these are five further levels; four of them, Eccellenza, Promozione, Prima Categoria and Seconda Categoria, are organised by regional committees of the Lega Nazionale Dilettanti; and the last one, Terza Categoria, by provincial committees.
All Serie A, Serie B and Lega Pro clubs are professional. Since 2011–12, the fourth tier was reduced from 3 divisions to 2 because of the international economic crisis.
Read more about this topic: Association Football League System In Italy
Famous quotes containing the word structure:
“... the structure of our public morality crashed to earth. Above its grave a tombstone read, Be toleranteven of evil. Logically the next step would be to say to our commonwealths criminals, I disagree that its all right to rob and murder, but naturally I respect your opinion. Tolerance is only complacence when it makes no distinction between right and wrong.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 2, ch. 2 (1962)
“Agnosticism is a perfectly respectable and tenable philosophical position; it is not dogmatic and makes no pronouncements about the ultimate truths of the universe. It remains open to evidence and persuasion; lacking faith, it nevertheless does not deride faith. Atheism, on the other hand, is as unyielding and dogmatic about religious belief as true believers are about heathens. It tries to use reason to demolish a structure that is not built upon reason.”
—Sydney J. Harris (19171986)
“Each structure and institution here was so primitive that you could at once refer it to its source; but our buildings commonly suggest neither their origin nor their purpose.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)