Italian Serie B is the second tier of the Italian football system.
The league title is contested by 22 clubs usually from August to May. Each club plays 42 matches a season in a round-robin format which is similar to home-and-away system. The first half of the season is called andata and the second one is called ritorno. The best two teams get direct promotion to Serie A. The next four teams enter a play-off to determine the third ticket to the top flight. Meanwhile, four teams that finish bottom at the end of a season are classed down to the Lega Pro Prima Divisione.
The first official season of Serie B dates back to the 1929/30. Casale Calcio became the first club to win the championship then, though they’ve not repeated the feat ever since. Genoa established themselves as the most titled Serie B side as they claimed the Ali della Vittoria – championship trophy – six times. Brescia Calcio and Hellas Verona are the long-livers of the tournament as they took part in 55 and 51 seasons respectively out of 81 league editions.
In the early years the league was composed of 18-20 clubs. In the 2003/04 season it reached the biggest ever number of 24 teams and since 2004, Serie B contains 22 teams.
Found a mistake? Highlight it with mouse and press CTRL + Enter. Thank you!
