The 2023/24 Serie A season will be the 122nd season of top-tier Italian football, the 92nd in a round-robin tournament, and the 14th since its organization under an own league committee, the Lega Serie A.
Napoli, who won the title for the first time in 33 years, will be the defending champions.
Spezia, Cremonese and Sampdoria were relegated after three, one and eleven years respectively in the top flight. They were replaced by Frosinone, Genoa and Cagliari.
In this article, FootballOrbit brings you a brief profile of the newly promoted sides in Serie A for the 2023/24 campaign.
Frosinone
Frosinone return to the top flight by winning the Serie B, coming back after a 4-year absence.
Fully known as Frosinone Calcio, it is based in Frosinone, Lazio. The club was founded on the 5th of March 1906 under the name Unione Sportiva Frusinate, but conventionally the year 1928 is indicated as the beginning of competitive activities of significant importance.
Following cancellation by the Italian Football Federation, it was refounded in 1959 and in 1990.
Nicknamed I Canarini (The Canaries), it plays its home games at the 16,227 capacity Stadio Benito Stirpe. The club is owned by the Stirpe Family, with the Chairman being Maurizio Stirpe, while the manager is Eusebio Di Francesco.
After a long tradition of playing in Serie C, the club won promotion to Serie B in the 2005/06 season, and remained there for 5 consecutive seasons, becoming, after the two teams in Rome, the third most notable team of the region of Lazio.
In the club’s history at a national level, Frosinone have won two Serie C2 titles (1986/87 and 2003/04) and two Serie D (1965/66 and 1970/71).
On the 16th of May 2015, after a 3-1 win over Crotone, Frosinone secured an historic promotion to Serie A for the first time ever. But they got relegated back down to Serie B after just one season as they finished in 19th place.
In the 2018/19 season, they secured promotion to Serie A for a second time. They were again relegated back to Serie B after one season at the top level.
In their first season back in Serie B, the club missed out on promotion after losing in the playoff final to Spezia.
Frosinone secured a return to the top flight for the 3rd ever after emerging as Serie B champions in 2022/23.
Genoa
Genoa got promoted to Serie A after finishing as runners-up in the 2nd division, they return to the top flight after just a single season absence.
The club is based in Genoa, Liguria, Italy. It was founded on the 7th of September 1893. It is nicknamed Il Grifone (The Griffin) and plays at the 36,599 capacity Stadio Luigi Ferrari.
It is owned by American private investment company, 777 Partners, with Alberto Zangrillo as the President, while the manager is Alberto Gilardino.
Established in 1893, Genoa is Italy’s oldest football team, and the oldest Italian football team still active with over 125 years of history.
During their long history, they have won the Italian Championship 9 times. Genoa’s first title came at the inaugural championship in 1898, and their last Scudetto was as far back in 1923/24.
Moreso, they have won the Coppa Italia once.
Historically, Genoa are the 4th most successful Italian club in terms of championships won.
In the 2014/15 season, Genoa finished in 6th place and were set to qualify for the UEFA Europa League qualifying round when they were denied a UEFA license because they filed paperwork late and because their stadium was not up to standard for UEFA competition.
Subsequently, the spot was passed on to 7th placed Sampdoria. This damaged Genoa’s momentum, and they finished in 11th-place finish in the following season.
In 2016/17, they avoided relegation in 16th-place, and once again finished in mid-table in the 2017/18 season.
In 2018/19, Genoa mathematically avoided relegation from Serie A. They were tied on 38 points with Empoli, but Empoli went down due to Genoa’s superior head-to-head record.
On the 23rd of September 2021, it was announced that Genoa had been acquired by 777 Partners, a US-based private investment firm founded by Steven W. Pasko and Josh Wander. While terms were not publicly released, sources close to the deal revealed that the team was acquired for its enterprise value of $175 million.
Despite being relegated to Serie B in their very first season under 777 Partners ownership, Genoa immediately made it back to Serie A the following season (2022/23).
The most significant and traditional rivalry for Genoa is the inner-city one with the club with whom they share a ground; Sampdoria. The two clubs compete together in the heated Derby della Lanterna (“Derby of the Lantern”); a reference to the Lighthouse of Genoa.
Furthermore, Genoa’s supporters also have a strong distaste for AC Milan.
Cagliari
The third side to be promoted to Serie A in 2023/24 is Cagliari, who qualified after winning the Play-offs. They return after one year of absence.
Fully known as Cagliari Calcio, it is based in Cagliari, Sardinia. It was founded on the 30th of May 1920 and is nicknamed Gli Isolani (The Islanders) due to the fact that they are the main club from the island of Sardinia.
The team temporarily plays its home games at the 16,416-seat Unipol Domus, adjacent to their future new stadium site.
Cagliari is owned by Italian chemical and mining company, Fluorsid. The club’s Chairman is Tommaso Giulini, while the manager is Claudio Ranieri.
Founded in 1920, Cagliari became the first ever out-right champions of Serie C during the 1951/52 season. They won their only Scudetto in 1969/70, when they were led by the Italian national team’s all-time leading scorer, Gigi Riva. The triumph was also the first by a club from south of Rome.
The club’s best European performance was in the 1993/94 UEFA Cup, losing in the semi-finals to Inter Milan.
In 1988, Claudio Ranieri was appointed coach, and led the team to two successive promotions, to Serie B in 1989 and to Serie A in 1990.
The first two seasons back in Serie A saw Cagliari fight relegation, with safety being achieved by excellent second half runs. But the 1992/93 season would see Cagliari fight for a European place and succeed under the management of Carlo Mazzone.
The following season saw a best-ever run to the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup, taking out Juventus in the quarter-finals before being narrowly eliminated 5-3 on aggregate by compatriots Inter Milan, having won the first leg 3-2 at home.
The next few years would see Cagliari return to mid-table anonymity, before a struggle in 1996/97 saw Cagliari relegated after losing a play-off to Piacenza. Once more they bounced back after just one year, but their next stay in Serie A lasted just two seasons.
Cagliari spent the next four seasons in Serie B, until in 2003/04 with Sardinian-born veteran striker Gianfranco Zola, the team won promotion. In 2005/06, the first season without Zola, the team changed their manager three times before Nedo Sonetti, appointed in November, was able to save the team from relegation, especially thanks to the excellent goal contribution from Honduran striker David Suazo.
Apart from finishing 9th in 2008/09 season, Cagliari regularly finished in the bottom half of Serie A under a sequence of managers, before being relegated in 2014/15. They immediately gained promotion back the following season as champions of Serie B.
In 2014, the club passed, after 22 years of Massimo Cellino’s presidency, into the hands of Tommaso Giulini, president and owner of Fluorsid, a multinational in the chemical sector.
Relegation took place in the first season, but the team won the Serie B championship in 2016, returning permanently to the top division, albeit always finishing in the second half of the table.
Cagliari was relegated at the end of the 2021/22 season.
They reappointed Claudio Ranieri halfway through the 2022/23 season with the club in 14th place.
He guided Cagliari to 5th place in the regular season, Ranieri eventually succeeded in leading the Sardinian to promotion to Serie A, after defeating Bari in a two-legged final thanks to an injury-time goal by Leonardo Pavoletti β thus marking his second promotion to the top flight with Cagliari.
Moreover, as with the flag of its city, Cagliari’s colours are blue and red. The club badge incorporates the flag of Sardinia.
Read: Meet the newly promoted La Liga teams for the 2023/24 season.
