Serie A Looking More Like Serie A

By: Daryl | June 10th, 2007

Serie A will look a little more normal next season, as some familiar names return to Italy’s top flight. Napoli and Genoa played out the above 0-0 draw in Serie B this afernoon, a result which won both teams promotion to Serie A. They’ll be joined there by Serie B champions Juventus, meaning all three promoted clubs were originally relegated for off the field reasons.

Juventus famously had that whole match fixing business in 2006, but Genoa had been relegated to Serie C1 for basically the same thing in 2005 while SSC Napoli officially folded in 2004 after going bankrupt, before reforming as Napoli Soccer and climbing their way back up the leagues. The original name was restored just this season.

The Genoa vs Napoli game was odd, thanks to Serie B’s semi-complicated but actually quite sensible promotion set-up. The top two (Juventus and Napoli) always go up automatically, but then there’s usually an English Championship style play-off between the 3rd,4th,5th and 6th place teams for the final promotion spot. However, because 3rd placed Genoa finished 10 points clear of 4th placed Piacenza they’re awarded automatic promotion.

Which is also why news of Piacenza’s 1-1 draw with Triestina caused a celebratory pitch invasion at the Genoa vs Napoli game. Players thought the game was over and so gave away their shirts, meaning club officials had to find some spare kit so the remainder of the game could be played out. This was followed by the equally odd sight of two sets of fans who’d just played each other celebrating promotion together, though I hasten to add there’s no suspicion of collusion, especially since a draw wouldn’t have been enough for Genoa had Piacenza won their game, and a win for either team would have guaranteed second place.

Obviously match-fixing is an evil and Juve and Genoa’s punishments were deserved, but purely from a fans perspective, and for the well-being of Italian football in general, it’s calming to see things looking a little more normal for the 2007/8 season. Even though Jean-Alain Boumsong will be playing for Juve.