About Serie A Futsal

History, Format, Organization, Media Coverage

Serie A Futsal is Italy's premier futsal league, governed by UEFA rules and organized by Divisione Calcio a 5, an organ of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC). It was established in 1984, though the first national futsal championship only occurred in the 1989-90 season, with Roma RCB winning that campaign.

The Serie A Futsal season runs from August/September to May/June, featuring 16 teams in a round-robin format where each team plays every other side twice during the regular season.

The top eight teams advance to the playoffs at the end of the regular season, culminating in a champion being crowned. The playoffs include quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final, all played in a best-of-three format. The quarterfinal matchups are as follows: the first-placed team faces the eighth, the second takes on the seventh, the third plays the sixth, and the fourth faces the fifth.

The first two matches can end in a draw in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds. The higher-ranked team from the Serie A Futsal regular season progresses in this event. If a match ends level in the first two games, five-minute overtime is played, but no penalty shootouts occur. If each team wins one of the first two fixtures, a decisive Game 3 is held, where overtime and penalty kicks may be used. The same rules apply for the final. The Serie A Futsal champion qualifies for the UEFA Futsal Champions League the following season.

The two teams finishing at the bottom of the table are automatically relegated to Serie A2 Élite, Italy’s second-tier futsal league. If the third and fourth-last teams are within seven points or less of each other, they enter a two-legged relegation playoff. The team with the most goals over the two matches wins the playoffs and remains in Serie A Futsal. In case of a tie, a five-minute overtime period is added, and if still tied, the higher-ranked team from the regular season stays up. However, if the gap between these two sides is eight or more points, the playoffs are not played, and the third-last team gets relegated automatically.

Luparense and Roma RCB are two of the most dominant teams in Serie A Futsal history, with the latter winning four titles in a row between 1987 and 1991 while the former was crowned Serie A Futsal champion in three consecutive seasons between 2006 and 2009.