Italia Azzurra

Scudetto

The Italian football champions (Italian: Scudetto - little shield) are the annual winners of Serie A, Italy's premier annual football league competition. The title has been contested since 1898, in varying forms of competition. While Internazionale are the current champions, Juventus has won a record 27 championship titles. The first time scudetto was used in 1924 when Genoa won its 8th championship title and decided to point a little shield as to reward and celebrate themselves, the champions.

The finals of the first Italian Football Championship was decided in a single day with four teams competing, three from Turin and one from Genoa. The title was decided using a knock-out format between the finalists with Genoa Cricket & Athletic Club the inaugural winners. The knock-out format was used until the 1909–10 season, when a league consisting of nine teams was formed. The regular league season was followed by a championship game featuring the first and second place teams. The championship, which had been confined to a single league in the north of Italy, became a national competition in 1929 with the foundation of Serie A and Serie B.

Several times in history, a champion was not named. World wars suspended the official Championship from both 1915 to 1919 and 1943 to 1945 although unofficial championships were contested in both 1916 and 1944. Match fixing prevented a champion being declared in both the 1926–27 and 2004–05 seasons with Torino and Juventus being stripped of their titles.