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Serie B
The Serie B (Italian pronunciation: [ˈsɛːrje ˈbi]), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010 and the Lega B ever since. Common nicknames for the league are campionato cadetto and cadetteria, since cadetto is the Italian name for junior or cadet.
The first Italian football championships were composed of a small number of teams. It was in 1904 that the tournament expanded with the first edition of the Seconda Categoria (Second Category): this was a competition in which, on one side, the reserve teams of clubs affiliated with the Prima Categoria (First Category) participated, and on the other side, those provincial clubs that had recently joined the Italian Football Federation (FIGC).
For the provincial teams, it wasn't enough to beat the reserve teams of the metropolitan clubs by winning the second-tier championship: they had to prove to a Federal Technical Commission that they had acquired a sufficient level of technical ability to compete with the first-team players of the Prima Categoria. Therefore, they were required to demonstrate this in a unique test match, not comparable to a play-off, a match against a Prima Categoria team in front of prominent football figures of the time. The first team to reach the honour, was Pro Vercelli in 1907, which even won the scudetto in 1908.
The status quo was challenged by a federal official with a letter published in the football columns of La Gazzetta dello Sport in February 1912: according to him, there was no movement between the Prima Categoria and the Seconda Categoria, which had to bear the expenses of an entire season only to see them wasted by a single match against the reserve teams of the larger clubs. The official proposed the introduction of a promotion-relegation system, which immediately gained the support of many clubs. As a result, several proposals for changes to the current Championship Regulations were drawn up in preparation for the annual Federal Assembly. This mechanism was introduced by the Federal Assembly on 31 August 1912, when the Valvassori-Faroppa plan was approved. This plan modified the Italian football pyramid, turning the Seconda Categoria into the new Promozione (Promotion) championship and creating a dedicated championship for Reserve teams. Just as the Seconda Categoria had been managed in the past, the Promozione was entrusted to the Regional Committees, which the FIGC had established in 1909.
It wasn’t until 1921 that the Pozzo Plan, made by manager Vittorio Pozzo, created a true national second-tier league by establishing the Seconda Divisione (Second Division), a tournament in which all the clubs affected by the heavy trimming of the Prima Categoria, now renamed Prima Divisione (First Division), participated. The new introduced regulations, strongly supported by the secessionist Italian Football Confederation (CCI) (which applied them starting in the 1921–22 season) and approved along with the Pozzo Plan, involved the division of Italy into two large geographical areas, managed by the North and South Leagues, with a sharp cut at the center of the country. This meant teams from Tuscany played in the North, and those from Marche and Umbria played in the South. As a result, the Seconda Divisione experienced two different sets of rules, due to the stark geographical and organizational differences: in the North, the league was organized outside the regional framework directly by the Lega Nord, while in the South, it was still managed by the Regional Committees because the distances and means of transportation didn’t allow for interregional league management. Only in the 1925–26 season did the Lega Sud of major clubs organized the regional Seconda Divisione groups directly. The first teams to be relegated (1921-22 season) were Vicenza and Inter Milan even if, after the CCI reunion with FIGC, the regulations were changed, and Venezia was demoted instead of the Milanese club.
In the north, the new competition started in the 1922–23 season with 48 teams divided into six groups, structured at the interregional level but still vaguely corresponding to the jurisdictions of the regional committees. By 1924–25, the number dropped to 40 teams and four groups, now geographically more extensive. In the south, not all Regional Committees managed to organize the Seconda Divisione championship immediately, which was especially difficult in the island regions, where the number of regulation-sized fields was minimal. The first season saw about 25 teams participating, and by the following season, this increased to 40, but problems related to the particularly troubled political era began to emerge. Few clubs managed to complete all four championships organized by the Lega Sud between 1922–23 and 1925–26 due to high operating costs.
In 1926, the Viareggio Charter renamed the top league to Divisione Nazionale (National Division), consequently renaming the lower categories, with the Seconda Divisione becoming the Prima Divisione. The two bodies managing the tournament, the Lega Nord and Lega Sud, were merged into a national governing body called the Direttorio Divisioni Superiori (Directory of Higher Divisions). This led to one of the groups being reserved for southern clubs, with many northern teams effectively relegated by default.
The far-reaching reform envisioned by the Viareggio Charter was completed in 1928 by the new FIGC president, the fascist politician from Bologna, Leandro Arpinati. The influential politician established the creation of a radically different second-tier league within a year, meaning no longer an interregional tournament but a single national group, exactly like the one planned for the top league. Thus, in 1929, the Serie B of the Divisione Nazionale was born. The establishment of a single group for the second-tier league sparked protests from smaller clubs, who complained about the high travel costs for matches across the entire country and the lower gate receipts compared to the top league. They unsuccessfully proposed expanding the first edition of Serie B of the Divisione Nazionale to two groups based on territorial criteria, admitting the semifinalists of the southern Prima Divisione championship by default. The two-group formula would have reduced the high operating costs of participating in the second-tier league and given more representation to the central and southern teams. However, the proposal was not accepted, and Serie B remained a single group.
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Serie B
The Serie B (Italian pronunciation: [ˈsɛːrje ˈbi]), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010 and the Lega B ever since. Common nicknames for the league are campionato cadetto and cadetteria, since cadetto is the Italian name for junior or cadet.
The first Italian football championships were composed of a small number of teams. It was in 1904 that the tournament expanded with the first edition of the Seconda Categoria (Second Category): this was a competition in which, on one side, the reserve teams of clubs affiliated with the Prima Categoria (First Category) participated, and on the other side, those provincial clubs that had recently joined the Italian Football Federation (FIGC).
For the provincial teams, it wasn't enough to beat the reserve teams of the metropolitan clubs by winning the second-tier championship: they had to prove to a Federal Technical Commission that they had acquired a sufficient level of technical ability to compete with the first-team players of the Prima Categoria. Therefore, they were required to demonstrate this in a unique test match, not comparable to a play-off, a match against a Prima Categoria team in front of prominent football figures of the time. The first team to reach the honour, was Pro Vercelli in 1907, which even won the scudetto in 1908.
The status quo was challenged by a federal official with a letter published in the football columns of La Gazzetta dello Sport in February 1912: according to him, there was no movement between the Prima Categoria and the Seconda Categoria, which had to bear the expenses of an entire season only to see them wasted by a single match against the reserve teams of the larger clubs. The official proposed the introduction of a promotion-relegation system, which immediately gained the support of many clubs. As a result, several proposals for changes to the current Championship Regulations were drawn up in preparation for the annual Federal Assembly. This mechanism was introduced by the Federal Assembly on 31 August 1912, when the Valvassori-Faroppa plan was approved. This plan modified the Italian football pyramid, turning the Seconda Categoria into the new Promozione (Promotion) championship and creating a dedicated championship for Reserve teams. Just as the Seconda Categoria had been managed in the past, the Promozione was entrusted to the Regional Committees, which the FIGC had established in 1909.
It wasn’t until 1921 that the Pozzo Plan, made by manager Vittorio Pozzo, created a true national second-tier league by establishing the Seconda Divisione (Second Division), a tournament in which all the clubs affected by the heavy trimming of the Prima Categoria, now renamed Prima Divisione (First Division), participated. The new introduced regulations, strongly supported by the secessionist Italian Football Confederation (CCI) (which applied them starting in the 1921–22 season) and approved along with the Pozzo Plan, involved the division of Italy into two large geographical areas, managed by the North and South Leagues, with a sharp cut at the center of the country. This meant teams from Tuscany played in the North, and those from Marche and Umbria played in the South. As a result, the Seconda Divisione experienced two different sets of rules, due to the stark geographical and organizational differences: in the North, the league was organized outside the regional framework directly by the Lega Nord, while in the South, it was still managed by the Regional Committees because the distances and means of transportation didn’t allow for interregional league management. Only in the 1925–26 season did the Lega Sud of major clubs organized the regional Seconda Divisione groups directly. The first teams to be relegated (1921-22 season) were Vicenza and Inter Milan even if, after the CCI reunion with FIGC, the regulations were changed, and Venezia was demoted instead of the Milanese club.
In the north, the new competition started in the 1922–23 season with 48 teams divided into six groups, structured at the interregional level but still vaguely corresponding to the jurisdictions of the regional committees. By 1924–25, the number dropped to 40 teams and four groups, now geographically more extensive. In the south, not all Regional Committees managed to organize the Seconda Divisione championship immediately, which was especially difficult in the island regions, where the number of regulation-sized fields was minimal. The first season saw about 25 teams participating, and by the following season, this increased to 40, but problems related to the particularly troubled political era began to emerge. Few clubs managed to complete all four championships organized by the Lega Sud between 1922–23 and 1925–26 due to high operating costs.
In 1926, the Viareggio Charter renamed the top league to Divisione Nazionale (National Division), consequently renaming the lower categories, with the Seconda Divisione becoming the Prima Divisione. The two bodies managing the tournament, the Lega Nord and Lega Sud, were merged into a national governing body called the Direttorio Divisioni Superiori (Directory of Higher Divisions). This led to one of the groups being reserved for southern clubs, with many northern teams effectively relegated by default.
The far-reaching reform envisioned by the Viareggio Charter was completed in 1928 by the new FIGC president, the fascist politician from Bologna, Leandro Arpinati. The influential politician established the creation of a radically different second-tier league within a year, meaning no longer an interregional tournament but a single national group, exactly like the one planned for the top league. Thus, in 1929, the Serie B of the Divisione Nazionale was born. The establishment of a single group for the second-tier league sparked protests from smaller clubs, who complained about the high travel costs for matches across the entire country and the lower gate receipts compared to the top league. They unsuccessfully proposed expanding the first edition of Serie B of the Divisione Nazionale to two groups based on territorial criteria, admitting the semifinalists of the southern Prima Divisione championship by default. The two-group formula would have reduced the high operating costs of participating in the second-tier league and given more representation to the central and southern teams. However, the proposal was not accepted, and Serie B remained a single group.