Country Italy Founded 1991 Level on pyramid 5 | Confederation UEFA Number of teams 466 | |
Divisions 28 in the different Regions of Italy | ||
Eccellenza (Italian for "excellence") is the fifth level (since 2014-15) of Italian football. It is a regional league, composed of 28 divisions divided geographically. All 20 regions are represented by at least one division except for Piedmont and Aosta Valley which share 2 divisions. Veneto, Tuscany, Sicily, Lazio, Emilia-Romagna and Campania also have 2 divisions each, while the region of Lombardy has 3 divisions.
Contents
Promotion and relegation
After the regular season is completed, the first-placed team for each division is automatically promoted to Serie D.
Each division also admits one other team to participate in national playoffs that take place in late May and early June. Some divisions select the second-placed team directly, while other divisions schedule a series of divisional playoff games among the top teams in that division in order to determine the national playoff participant. Once the 28 national playoff participants are finalized, they are paired in a double-leg series, and the 14 winners participate in a second round double-leg series. The 7 winners of the second round are promoted to Serie D as well. One more place to Serie D is allowed to the winner of the "Coppa Italia Dilettanti" (Amateur Italian Cup), a year-long competition between all the national teams of both Eccellenza and Promozione (the lower division). In all, 36 teams are promoted to replace the 36 teams relegated down from Serie D.
The relegation rules are decided regionally, but there are usually three teams relegated from each division.