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Serie B is the name of the second highest football league in Italy. It consists of 22 teams. The championship is often called the cadetti. Serie B was composed until the 2002-2003 season of 20 teams, then was enlarged for the 2003-2004 season to 24 teams, due to legal problems relating to Calcio Catania relegation (Caso Catania). The league reverted to 22 teams for the 2004-2005 season, while Serie A expanded from 18 to 20 teams. During the regular season, each team plays 42 games - 2 each against every opponent, home and away. In Italian football, a true round-robin format is used. In the first half of the season, called 'andata', each team will play one time against all its opponents, a total of 21 games. In the second half of the season, called 'ritorno', each team will play the exact same teams in the exact same order, the only difference being that a home game played in the first half will be an away game with that same team in the second half, and visa versa.
Promotion and Relegation At the end of the season, three teams are promoted to Serie A and four teams are relegated to Serie C1. The top two teams are automatically promoted, while the 3rd through 6th place teams enter a playoff tournament to determine the other team that will be promoted. The first round pairs the 3rd placed team vs the 6th placed team and the 4th vs the 5th in a double leg series with the higher classified team having home-field advantage in the 2nd leg. The team with the higher aggregate score moves on to the second round. If at the end of regular play in the second leg an aggregate tie exists, extra time is played. If the two teams are still tied after thirty minutes, the higher classified team moves on (the away goals rule is not used). The two winners play each other under the exact same format to determine the third team that will be promoted. In the relegation zone, the three last placed teams (20th,21st and 22nd) are automatically demoted. The teams placed 18th and 19th must play in a playoff more commonly called playout. The same rules mentioned for the promotion playoffs are used here. The winner remains in Serie B while the loser becomes the fourth team relegated to Serie C1. Teams 2006-2007 For the 2006/07 season, A.C. Arezzo, and Juventus F.C., will be deducted 6, and 17 points, respectively, due to their involvement in the 2006 Italian Match Fixing Scandal. In addition, U.S. Triestina Calcio will be deducted 1 point because of financial irregularities, and Pescara Calcio takes a 1 point penalty for late tax payments. Performance by club Complete team list These are the 133 clubs which took part to the 76 Serie B editions played from 1929-30 to 2006-07. See also | ||||||||
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