Italian journalist Paolo Condo believes that Serie A should go back to having just eighteen teams in it rather than the twenty that it has today.
Speaking to Rome-based newspaper La Repubblica in an interview published in today’s print edition, via FCInterNews, the journalist argued that a trimmed-down league structure would increase quality and competitiveness even if many teams would oppose it on the basis of a top flight spot being harder to maintain.
Since the 2004-05 season, Serie A has had twenty teams in it, the same as is currently the case in the Premier League, Ligue 1, and La Liga.
Meanwhile, German top flight the Bundesliga continues to have just eighteen teams.
Whilst the expanded format allows for more teams to enjoy top flight status and a larger competition, there have long been criticisms aimed at the expanded competition format.
Among these have been the suggestion that there are too many lower-quality teams in the division, and also that player fitness takes a hit with four extra league matches in each season, sapping the energy of teams, leading to lower-quality matches, and causing more injury.
For his part, Condo feels that “In my opinion, we should go back to having an eighteen-team league, to improve the average quality of teamns in the league, and the resulting competitiveness, including in Europe.”
“However, there are a lot of teams that have gone back and forth between Serie A and Serie B in recent season who are worried about this possibility, for fear of being the teams who’d be relegated as part of the change of format.”
“For example, Atalanta are among the teams to have consistently voted against a reduction of the league to eighteen teams, even though they’ve been in the top flight for years now and have been qualifying for European competition almost permanently, because of their past in the lower divisions,” Condo noted.
