Serie A 26/27 Season Preview: A Look at Italy

The Serie A 26/27 Season Preview covers the 95th season of Italy's top league: 20 clubs, 380 matches, 38 matchdays. For the first time in years, the defending champion enters the season as the clear favorite.

The season kicks off on August 22, 2026, and the final matchday is scheduled for Sunday, May 30, 2027. In between, there are only two back-to-back match weeks, but three international breaks and a full winter break: Play will come to a complete halt on the weekend of December 27.

This preview of the Italian league season highlights who's new to the league, who has a shot at the Scudetto, who's at risk of relegation, and which dates you should mark on your calendar.

Three clubs have joined the league, and three had to leave. There is no relegation system in Italy like the one in Germany.

The teams promoted from Serie B:

• Frosinone: Back in the top flight after two years in the second division. The club from Lazio is a classic yo-yo team.
• AC Monza: Promoted via the playoffs after just one season in Serie B.
• FC Venezia: Also back immediately. The club from the lagoon city plays at Stadio Penzo.

The teams relegated to Serie B:

• US Cremonese: After their promotion in 2025, they lasted only one year.
• Hellas Verona: Five straight losses in the second half of the season sealed their relegation.
• Pisa: 17 consecutive games without a win. That marks the longest winless streak in the entire league.

It’s worth noting that all three promoted teams were most recently in the top flight. This means there won’t be any true newcomers in the 2026–27 season either. This is a pattern that has characterized Serie A for years.

Inter Milan is the defending champion and the favorite. The Nerazzurri clinched their 21st Scudetto on May 3, 2026, with a win over Parma. Cristian Chivu remains in his position, and the roster has been bolstered by the additions of John Stones and Ivan Provedel.

These five clubs are aiming for the title:

• SSC Napoli: The biggest shakeup in the league. Antonio Conte left after two years, and Massimiliano Allegri took over—just one day after Conte’s departure, he had been fired by Milan. With Kevin De Bruyne and Scott McTominay, he inherits two world-class players and a team that finished the previous season in second place with 76 points.
• Juventus Turin: Luciano Spalletti remains at the helm and heads into his second year with a well-established squad.
• AC Milan: Unbeaten in 24 consecutive games, yet still only qualifying for the Europa League in the end. Following Allegri’s departure, the club kicks off the season with new head coach Rúben Amorim.
• AS Roma: Gian Piero Gasperini led Roma to third place and has been given a second season to take the team to the next level.
• Como: Fourth place under Cesc Fàbregas, plus the club’s first-ever Champions League appearance. The 2024 promoted team is the surprise of Italian soccer.

The bottom three teams are automatically relegated, and the newly promoted teams traditionally face the greatest risk. Frosinone, Monza, and Venice have the smallest budgets in the league and must first prove that their rosters can hold their own at the Serie A level. Cremonese shows just how quickly things can go wrong: promoted in 2025, relegated again immediately in 2026. An immediate drop back down is the norm in Italy, not the exception.

Behind them comes the group of clubs that fluctuate between 13th and 18th place year after year. Cagliari, Genoa, Lecce, and Parma are among them. These are teams that usually manage to avoid relegation, but rarely do so early on. Any team that gets off to a slow start here quickly finds itself in a relegation battle that drags on throughout the entire second half of the season.

For Serie A predictions, this means one thing above all else: In Italy, there are traditionally only a few points separating 13th and 18th place. The outcome is therefore almost always decided in the final matchdays and often involves a club that no one had on their radar back in August.

• 11.68 million spectators: That’s how many people attended games at the stadiums last season, averaging 30,739 per game. The record was set by the Milan vs. Juventus match, which drew 75,681 spectators.

• 922 goals were scored in 380 games: That's 2.43 per game.

• Lautaro Martínez was the leading scorer with 17 goals: a low total by European standards, which clearly reflects the league's defensive nature.

• AC Milan went 24 games in a row without a loss: the longest streak of the season. In the end, though, it was only enough to qualify for the Europa League.

• Four Italian clubs are in the Champions League: Inter, Napoli, Roma, and Como.

In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, DAZN remains the only place to watch the games on TV. The streaming service extended its exclusive rights early, at the end of July 2026, through the 2028–29 season. In addition to the league, the deal also includes the Coppa Italia and the Supercoppa.

Broadcasts will feature either German or English commentary; selected matches will also be shown in the original Italian audio with commentary by DAZN Italia.