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The Italian football league system, also known as the Italian football pyramid, refers to the hierarchically interconnected league system for the association football in Italy, that consists of 594 divisions having 3332 teams (excluding Seconda and Terza Categoria), in which all divisions are bound together by the principle of promotion and relegation, with one team from San Marino also competing. The system has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegation between leagues at different levels, allowing even the smallest club the theoretical possibility of ultimately rising to the very top of the system. A certain number of the most successful clubs in each league can rise to a higher league, whilst those that finish at the bottom of their league can find themselves relegated. In addition to sporting performance, promotion is usually contingent on meeting criteria set by the higher league, especially concerning appropriate facilities and finances. In theory it is possible for a lowly local amateur club to rise to the pinnacle of the Italian game and win the ''Scudetto''. While this may be unlikely in practice (at the very least, in the short run), there certainly is significant movement within the pyramid. The top two levels contain one division each. Below this, the levels have progressively more parallel divisions, which each cover progressively smaller geographic areas. ==History== The first leagues were started by English immigrants in the 1890s in Italy. The first club was ''Genoa Cricket and Athletic Club'' (now ''Genoa Cricket & Football Club''). Initially there were separate leagues for Italians and foreigners, they merged around 1897. In March 1898, the Italian Football Federation (''Federazione Italiana del Football'', later re-called ''Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio'', FIGC) was set up in Turin. With four clubs joining - Genoa, ''FC Torinese'', ''Internazionale di Torino'' and the ''Società Ginnastica di Torino'' (''Gymnastic Society of Torino''). Other clubs existed but decided not to join. The first championship took place on a single day, May 8, 1898 in Torino. The title was won by Genoa. FIGC joined FIFA in 1905 and the championship moved to a league structure, based on regions, in the same year. After the interruption of World War I, football popularity grew and smaller clubs joined. In the summer of 1921, a second association was briefly created in competition with the FIGC: the ''Confederazione Calcistica Italiana'' (CCI), emerged from an argument between major and minor clubs over the structure of the national leagues. Hence in 1922 Italy had two champions ''US Pro Vercelli'' and ''US Novese''. The two groups eventually re-merged at the end of the season. The move to a single national league structure occurred in 1929 with initially eighteen teams in the top league. The first winners in 1930 were Internazionale. The national team also won the World Cup in 1934 and 1938. After World War II the league returned to a regional structure with a north-south divide and a play-off for a single year before returning to a national league. Torino were the first post-war league champions and went on to win four in a row. However, it is Juventus, Milan and Internazionale that have dominated the league since World War II, having won the title in 52 of the 69 seasons. The current league system dates back to 1978, when semi-professional sector was disbanded. In that year, the current Lega Pro (then known as ''National Semiprofessional League'') which ruled Serie C and Serie D, turned in a fully professional league organizing new Serie C1 and Serie C2. Italy so became the only country having two distinct professional football leagues, 14 years before England. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Association football league system in Italy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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