Today, the Federal Council has approved the following fundamental principles that regulate the participation of the Second Teams of the Serie A Clubs in the 2024/2025 Serie C Championship. The new features starting from this season are in bold:
I. CATEGORY PASSAGES
At the end of the 2024/2025 Serie C Championship, the Second team may be promoted to the Serie B Championship, but may never participate in the same Championship as the first team, nor in a higher Championship.
If at the end of the relevant Championship, there is a hypothesis of co-presence of the first and second team in the same category, the second team will have to participate in the professional championship of the lower category.
In the event of relegation of the Second Team to the National Serie D Championship, it will be able to register for the 2025/2026 Amateur Championship, without prejudice to the possibility of repechage in Serie C according to the procedures established for the Second Teams.
II. SECOND TEAM PLAYERS
The second team will be able to include up to 26 players in the match list. Only 4 players born before 1 January 2002 can be included in the match list; all the other players on the match list must have been born after 31 December 2001.
In the match list, in compliance with the numerical and age limits identified above, up to a maximum of 7 players who have been registered with a football club affiliated to the FIGC for less than seven sporting seasons may be included. All the other players on the match list must have been registered with a football club affiliated to the FIGC for at least seven sporting seasons.
The players included in the match list must not be present in the list of 25 players for the Serie A Championship, nor must they have played more than 50 matches in the Serie A Championship. In compliance with the provisions of the previous paragraphs, players will always be permitted passages between the first and second teams. Only those players who have reached 25 appearances in the Second Team’s match rosters during the regular season may be used in any Play-Off or Play-Out matches, or 12 appearances if the player was registered by the Serie A Club only starting from 1 January 2025. In derogation from the provisions of the previous paragraph, those players who have not reached the aforementioned minimum appearances in the Second Team’s match rosters may always be used in any Play-Off or Play-Out matches, provided that they have not played any match in the Serie A Championship during the sporting season.
Violation of any provision of the preceding paragraphs will result in the second team losing the match with a score of 0-3. This provision integrates in all respects the disciplinary provisions of the Sports Justice Code.
III. RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SERIE A CLUBS AND LOWER CATEGORY PROFESSIONAL LEAGUE
The Serie A club that participates with the second team in a lower category professional championship does not acquire economic rights or the right to vote, despite being represented within said category.
The second team of the Serie A club will not be able to participate in the Coppa Italia Serie A, while it will participate in the Coppa Italia Serie C.
