Serie A 2024/2025 season guide: newcomers, calendar, high-profile transfers

Club championships are gradually coming out of the pause and preparing for the start of the new season. The Dailysports team has prepared a guide to the upcoming Italian Serie A campaign.

Who will play in the 2024/2025 Serie A season?

Last season three teams left Serie A: Frosinone, Sassuolo and Salernitana. They were replaced by the top two teams in Serie B, namely Parma and Como, as well as the winner of the play-off for Serie A, Venice.

Otherwise, the list of participants has not changed:

• Atalanta
• Bologna
• Venezia
• Verona
• Genoa
• Empoli
• Inter
• Cagliari
• Como
• Lazio
• Lecce
• Milan
• Monza
• Napoli
• Parma
• Roma
• Torino
• Udinese
• Fiorentina
• Juventus

We would also like to remind you that Inter will be defending the title this season. The format of the league swap remains unchanged: three teams will drop out of Serie A, to be replaced by the top two Serie B teams and the winner of the play-offs.

Unlike the Premier League and La Liga, the play-offs in Serie B follow a slightly more complicated structure. It involves the teams that finished third to eighth. The tournament starts with the quarter-final stage, in which teams from fifth to eighth take part.

The fifth team plays the eighth team and the sixth team plays the seventh team in a one-leg match. The winners of the quarter-finals are joined by the third and fourth teams in the standings. And from this moment begins the classic elimination tournament, but it is held in two matches: home and away. The winner of this tournament gets a ticket to Serie A.

When are the Serie A matches for the 2024/2025 season?

The new Serie A season starts on 17 August and runs until 25 May 2025. During the campaign, there are international breaks for national team matches (2-10 September, 7-15 November, 11-19 November 2024, and 17-25 March 2025).

In the Italian Championship, as in the Premier League, there are no Christmas and New Year holidays.

What coaching changes happened before the start of the season?

The Italian Championship is almost a record-breaker among the top leagues in terms of the number of coaching changes. Just 14 out of 20 clubs changed their coaches before the start of the season.

We will not list all the changes, we will only mention the most high-profile ones. Thus, Antonio Conte returned to his native championship, taking over Napoli. And Milan sacked Stefano Pioli, with whom he won the Scudetto, and he was replaced by Paulo Fonseca.

Juventus are also obviously attracting attention, as they seem to have finally said goodbye to Massimiliano Allegri and replaced him with Thiago Motta.

What high-profile transfers happened in Serie A before the start of the season?

One of the most high-profile in the transfer market was Roma, who signed last season's top scorer Artem Dovbyk and Juventus midfielder Matias Sule.

Also attracting attention was Championship newcomer Como, who signed players such as Raphael Varane, Alberto Moreno and Pepe Reina.

You can find all the acquisitions and losses of Serie A clubs in the separate table.

Who will represent Serie A in the European Cups?

Thanks to the fact that Italy is in the top two leagues with club coefficient, Serie A will delegate eight teams to international tournaments at once. Five of them, namely Inter, Milan, Juventus, Atalanta and Bologna will play in the league stage of the Champions League.

The Roman clubs, namely Roma and Lazio, will spend the coming season in the Europa League, having reached the league stage. Fiorentina will have to fight for a place in the league stage of the Conference League, as they still have to overcome the play-off round of qualification.

Putting aside all related factors, the picture for the 2024/25 season is as follows: the top four Serie A sides will qualify for the Champions League, the fifth team and the Italian Cup winner will qualify for the Europa League, and the sixth team will qualify for the Conference League.

Note that the shift of European Cup quotas can happen if the winner of the Italian Cup becomes a team that has already guaranteed itself a place in the Champions League or Europa League through the championship. Then the fifth and sixth teams will play in the Europa League, while the seventh team will play in the Conference League.