Representatives of Inter, AC Milan, and Juventus met with the President of the Italian FA yesterday to argue in favour of reducing Serie A to eighteen teams.

This according to Italian news agency ANSA, via FCInterNews.

Since the 2004-05 season, there have been twenty teams playing in each Serie A season.

Prior to that, there had been eighteen.

The current format of the competition means that each team plays a total of 38 matches. Twice against each of the nineteen other teams in the division, home and away.

This is in line with the format of the Premier League, La Liga, and Ligue 1.

However, German top flight the Bundesliga contains just eighteen teams.

Naturally there are some important advantages to having more teams in the league.

This gives two more teams an opportunity to compete in top flight football.

More variety in terms of the composition of the league, and great opportunities for “smaller” teams to compete can certainly lead to a more competitive and entertaining league.

But on the other hand, the contribution of the larger league to fixture congestion has increasingly become a problem.

Between multiple club and international competitions, many have observed a high level of stress on players’ fitness.

Inter CEO Beppe Marotta, to use one example, has noted this problem.

Teams in European knockout competitions are particularly hard-hit by this problem.

Inter, AC Milan & Juventus Meet With Italian FA President About Reducing Serie A To 18 Teams

It is therefore the biggest clubs in Serie A who would most strongly favour reducing the size of the league.

Teams lower down the table are naturally skeptical.

After all, such a plan would jeopardize the places of many “smaller” teams in the Italian top flight.

But for all of Inter, Milan, and Juventus, it would be the preferred way forward.

And representatives of the trio met with Italian FA President Gabriele Gravina yesterday. They continued to make their case for the change.

CEO Marotta was the representative for the Nerazzurri. Meanwhile, the Rossoneri were represented by their President Paolo Scaroni.

And then Bianconeri CEO Maurizio Scanavino and director Francesco Calvo were both present at the meeting yesterday afternoon.