It was in 1986/1987 that the first women’s football championship in Italy took place. Almost 90 years after the men’s had their first football championship. Now the league is fully profesional and the salary cap was removed. The Serie A Femminile is ranked fifth in the UEFA Women’s coefficient and their top two qualify for the Women’s Champions League. This year AS Roma and Juventus earned their tickets to the prestigious tournament.
The growth of the Serie A Femminile
The Italian women’s football league started out in the 1960 but was always listed as ‘amateur athletes’. The players fought for decades to be recognized but the disinterest did not allow them to grow the came. Only recently Italy embraced their women’s national team more after they reached the quarter-finals in the World Cup 2019. This forced the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) to take the Serie A Femminile more seriously.
In 2020 the FIGC announced that the Italian women’s football league would reach professional status by 2022. In that same year the Italian Senate passed an amendment to the 2020 Budget Law to help amateur athletes turn professional. By doing so the players have a guaranteed minimum wage, pension and healtcare.
Serie A Femminile League Format
Almost every women’s football competition has a slightly different league format. In the Serie A Femminile there are two phases. There are currently ten teams that face each other in a round-robin tournament. This is the first phase.
In the second phase: The top five teams compete in the champions round and the bottom five teams compete against relegation. The teams again play in a round-robin format, playing another 10 games (home and away). There are two rest sessions per team in the second phase. The winner of the champions round is the best club of Italy that season and together with the number two they get a ticket to the UWCL. The club that ends up last ranked in the relegation round goes back to the Serie B. The second to last team in the Serie A has to play against the second best team in the Serie B for a spot in the Serie A Femminile next season.
Clubs in the Serie A Femminile
There are currently ten clubs in the Italian women’s football competition:
- Como
- Fiorentina
- Inter Milan
- Juventus
- AC Milan
- Napoli
- Pomigliano
- AS Roma
- Sampdoria
- Sassuolo
Where can I watch the Serie A Femminile?
You can currently watch the Serie A women on W-Sport, DAZN UK/ITALY and RAI Sport Rai Play.
