Italian Football Ups & Downs 2025-26: Promotions, Relegations & European Places

Here are the Italian Football Promotions, Relegations & European Places for the 2025-26 season.

Updated June 1, 2026. You can skip ahead to this season’s results here.

After every season, as it is all over Europe, Italian football clubs go up, go down, and get into Europe. Here’s an explainer of how that works and what happened after the 2025-26 season.

League Structure in Italian Football

As in all countries, Italy has tiers of leagues in its football structure. At the top is Serie A, and just below that is Serie B, then Serie C, and so on. Serie A has 20 teams per season; Serie B has 20 as well.

Connecting all of this is a system of promotion and relegation. The bottom three in Serie A go down automatically, the top two in Serie B come up automatically, and a third team comes up via a playoff among Serie B clubs finishing 3rd through 8th.

Here is a map of Italian clubs for the 2026-27 season.

Here is a post all about promotion and relegation in other top European football leagues.

Buying Serie A tickets can be tricky, but Groundhopper Guides are official sellers for several Serie A clubs. Get in touch today to see how we can help!

Italian Football Clubs Qualifying For Europe

At the end of each Serie A season, the following Italian teams go to Europe:

• Nos. 1 through 4 qualify for the next season’s Champions League.
• No. 5 goes to the Europa League
• No. 6 goes to the Europa Conference League
• The winner of the Coppa Italia goes to the Europa League. If they already qualified for the Champions League via the table, then #6 goes to Europa League and #7 to Conference League.

How Does Promotion and Relegation Work in Italian Football?

Promotion and relegation in Italian football is generally similar to other leagues, but there are some differences. Here we will break it all down for you.

• The bottom three in Serie A go down to Serie B
• Top two in Serie B go up automatically
• Nos. 3 through 8 in Serie B go into a playoff for the last promotion spot — but in later rounds, the lower-seeded team has to win, because if it’s a draw, the higher-placed team in the table wins.
• Just for fun, in Serie B, after nos. 18 through 20 go down to Serie C, there’s a playoff between #16 and #17 to see who also goes down — unless the point difference between them is big enough to cancel that playoff!

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2025-26 Promotions, Relegations and European Places in Italy

Here is the top of the final 2025-26 Italian Serie A table. Links are to our profiles of each club.

1. Inter Milan — Champions League (Buy Inter Milan Tickets)
2. Napoli — Champions League (Buy Napoli Tickets)
3. Roma — Champions League (Buy Roma Tickets)
4. Como — Champions League (Buy Como Tickets)
5. AC Milan — Europa League (Buy AC Milan Tickets)
6. Juventus — Europa League because Inter Milan won the Coppa Italia (Buy Juventus Tickets)
7. Atalanta — Conference League (Buy Atalanta Tickets)

Relegated from Serie A to Serie B

• Cremonese
• Hellas Verona
• Pisa

Promoted from Serie B to Serie A

• Venezia
• Frosinone
• Monza via the playoffs

Italian Football Promotion Playoffs

This is for the last promotion spot from Serie B to Serie A.

• Preliminary Round: Juve Stabia 1-0 Modena, Catanzaro 3-0 Avellino
• Semifinals: Monza 4-3 Juve Stabia, Catanzaro 3-2 Palermo
• Final: Monza 2-2 Catanzaro, but since Monza was higher in the table, they go to Serie A and Catanzaro remain in Serie B.

In the Serie B “playout” for relegation to Serie C, Bari drew with Sudtirol, 0-0. But since Bari were below them in the table, Sudtirol will stay in Serie B for next season.

This map shows where all the Italian football clubs are, in Serie A and Serie B, for the 2026-27 season. Blue is Serie A, red is Serie B.

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