Italy – ranked number 1. And rightly so. Yet the most attractive to players club championship suffered from its old, ancient by now, habits: draws. Only 12 of the 146 teams, playing in the top 4 divisions, finished the season with less than 10 ties. In Serie A only the champion had less than 10. The rest were in 3rd and 4th division. Second Division was the champion of ties: no team with less than 10 and Ancona had the record of all 4 divisions: they tied 23 of total 38 matches they played. Winning was a joke, as always: only 8 teams ended with more than 50% of games won – 2 in Serie A and 6 in 3rd and 4th divisions. Scoring was naturally low – no team in the four divisions achieved 2-goals-per-game average. More ‘natural’ was to score fewer goals than the games played – and the Serie B champion distinguished itself with scoring measly 35 goals in their 38 championship games. Finally, it was a bit odd, but the country attracting the best foreign players and now taking advantage of permitted 3 foreigners on the field had imports only in Serie A. There have been foreigners in the Second Division before, but not now.
IV Division – Serie C/2 – the biggest championship, where 72 teams played divided in 4 groups. The top 2 teams in each group were promoted to third level. A mere glimpse of this vast championship:
Girone A. The weakest team in all divisions played here: Sorso won only 1 match, tied 6, and lost all th e rest. Not much at the top – two teams dominated.
Alessandria finished 2nd with 47 points – 7 points ahead of the next pursuer – and earned promotion.
Casale won the group with 48 points: 16 wins, 16 ties, 2 losses, 33-13 goal-difference. Promoted, naturally.
Girone B.
Treviso finished 12th with 31 points.
Sassuolo – 5th with 39 points.
Legnano was 3rd with 40 points.
Carpi was comfortably 2nd with 45 points and promoted.
Chievo won the championship and was promoted with 48 points: 18 wins, 12 ties, 4 losses, 41-15.
Girone C. Dramatic championship – 3 teams finished with 48 points and intricacy of the rules followed: the number on team was decided on head-to-head record against direct opponents, but second place required a play-off.
Potenza finished 14th with 29 points.
Lanciano was 12th with 31 points.
Chieti, Ternana, and Fidelis Andria finished with 48 points each. As already mentioned, head-to-head record decided the champion. Chieti and Ternana went to a play-off for second place. The match ended 0-0 and only penalty shoot-out broke the iron scoreless tie – Chieti lost 1-3 and took 3rd place.
Ternana clinched 2nd place and promotion after the decisive play-off.
Fidelis Andria won the group thanks to better head-to-head record against its challengers. There 48 points came from 21 wins, 6 ties, 7 losses, 42-19 goal-difference. Promoted.
Girone D.
Sorrento took 5th place with 36 points.
Siracusa clinched 2nd place, a point ahead of Cavese – 44 points vs 43 – and was promoted.
Campania Puteolana was first with 49 points: 19 wins, 11 ties, 4 losses, 44-13. Promoted up as group champion.