Soccer Games in Italy

Traveling in Italy in June 2008? Be sure to check out when Italy’s national soccer team is playing in the Euro 2008 Championships!

Soccer in Italy is more than just a game, it’s a passion. (If you’re thinking that Italians treat everything with passion - from food to wine to cars to fashion - you’re right. It’s one of Italy’s charms. Really.) People are fiercely loyal to their local soccer club, and that loyalty is only put on hold when the Italian national team is playing. For sports fans, seeing a soccer game in Italy is an important part of getting to know the culture; and even for people who are only marginally interested in soccer, it can be a great experience.

The top league in Italian soccer - called “calcio” in Italian, and “football” pretty much everywhere in the world except the USA - is called Serie A (pronounced SEH-reh-uh AH). At the moment it’s officially called Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons - TIM is the initials of an Italian telecom company - but it’s most commonly referred to simply as Serie A. There are twenty teams in this league, and the teams included can change season to season - the teams on the lowest end of the points system can get relegated to Serie B (one step down) and Serie B teams can get moved up. Generally speaking, however, the top teams in Serie A are consistent from year to year. Inter Milan carries the distinction of being the only team left in Serie A to have never been relegated.

As of the 2007-2008 season, the Serie A teams are (the city and region they’re based in is in parentheses, and the team’s official website is linked - please note, they are often in Italian only):

• Atalanta (Bergamo, Lombardy)
• Cagliari (Cagliari, Sardinia)
• Catania (Catania, Sicily)
• Empoli (Empoli, Tuscany)
• Fiorentina (Florence, Tuscany)
• Genoa (Genoa, Liguria)
• Internazionale - known as Inter or Inter Milan (Milan, Lombardy)
• Juventus - known as Juve (Turin, Piedmont)
• Lazio (Rome, Lazio)
• Livorno (Livorno, Tuscany)
• AC Milan (Milan, Lombardy)
• Napoli (Naples, Campania)
• Palermo (Palermo, Sicily)
• Parma (Parma, Emilia-Romagna)
• Reggina (Reggio Calabria, Calabria)
• Roma (Rome, Lazio)
• Sampdoria (Genoa, Liguria)
• Siena (Siena, Tuscany)
• Torino (Turin, Piedmont)
• Udinese (Udine, Friuli-Venezia-Giulia)

There are lower levels of play in Italian soccer, too, from Serie B through D to several levels below that, so if the ticket prices for a Serie A game are too dear on your travel budget, ask around for another place you can catch a soccer game.

The soccer season runs roughly from August through May, so if your visit to Italy falls during this time you may want to look into the schedules of the teams in the towns you’ll be visiting. You can check out the official site of the Italian professional soccer league here, which includes Serie A and B, as well as the Under 21 league and some other competitions. To see specific calendars for the Serie A and B teams, start on this page and click the league you’re interested in.

One a note about reading the calendars - teams in the league play each other twice during a season; once at home and once at the opposing field. So for each team name you click on, you’ll see two dates listed for each match-up. The team listed in the left-hand column is the away team, and the right-hand column is the home team. If you’re visiting Florence, for instance, click on the Fiorentina page and then note which dates Fiorentina’s name appears in the right-hand column. Those will be the days the team is playing in Florence. And remember - the dates are written day-month-year.

Be advised that if you have a liking for a particular squad and you happen to be in a position to catch them at an away game you’ll want to be careful about parading around town wearing the colors of any but the local squad. In some stadiums, opposing fans are all made to sit together and are protected as they enter and leave from the home team’s fans. Yes, this is serious business - it’s not a bad idea to ask around before you dive in.

Should you be fortunate enough to visit Italy during a time when the Italian national team is the one everyone’s cheering for, all you’ll need to remember is to be on the Italian side. The national squad, nicknamed the “Azzurri” (Blues) for their blue uniforms, won the 2006 World Cup in Germany - their fourth World Cup title ever. They’ll be looking to defend that title at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, but all over Italy television sets will be tuned into the games so you’ll have a hard time believing the whole thing isn’t taking place in Italy.

If you like the idea of seeing a few soccer games during your trip, you can also book a soccer tour - there aren’t many companies offering such tours, as it’s a rather niche market, but you can find them by typing “Italian soccer games” into your search engine of choice.

To get acquainted with Serie A and learn a little about the passion behind the sport, be sure to check out the Serie A Italian Football Guide. And for a little insight into the Italian soccer vocabulary, see this nice list of soccer words.

Italian Soccer News

• Serie A Week 37 Review
  
• Serie A Week 37 Preview
  
• Video of the Week: Great Serie A Goals
  
• Coppa Italia: Roma eases past Catania, Roma-Inter for the 4th consecutive time
  
• Coppa Italia: Inter reaches the final yet again
  
• Nazionale News
  
• Daily Calcio News and Notes: 5/6/08
  
• The Hellas Verona Tragedy
  
• Farewell Bobo Vieri?
  
• Serie A Week 36 Round-up
  

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