Historical Ranking: ITALY

[Last updated: end of 2007-08 season]

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The About a Ball ranking is a progressive points scoring system devised our statisticians to grade each league club according to their historical achievements since the beginning of organised football in this country. We felt the need for such a ranking after hearing numerous lower division chairmen claiming that their club is one of the biggest in the country and should rightfully be in the top division. However, there are only 20 places in Serie A and therefore only 20 clubs deserve to occupy them, so we decided to find out which clubs really are sleeping giants and which are currently flying well above their historical status.

How it works

Points awarded as follows:

Champions Cup Win	+15
Other European Trophy Win	+10
League Championship	+10
FA Cup Win	+6
League Cup Win	+3
Second Level Division Win	+3
Lower Division Win	+1
Season in top division	+2
Season in 2nd division	+1
Bonuses: Super Cup; Club Cup; Double	+1

Notes: The scores include any points scored by a club under a former name. In cases where clubs have merged or re-formed, the new club has been awarded the points accumulated by its previous incarnations wherever there is a continuation or substantial link between the old and new clubs.

Criticisms and Improvements

There is no account taken of when the points were scored so a team (i.e. Torino) could have scored most of their points a long time ago but are still ranked high up today. The teams did not all join the league at the same time so founder members have scored their points over a much longer period of time than the newer clubs. The old clubs will have benefited from the points for a large number of seasons in the top divisions and therefore be above clubs with a more impressive record over a shorter period. My system takes account only of on the pitch successes and not off the pitch factors such as attendance and annual budget which could indicate a big club. The About a Ball system could be improved (and also complicated) by including points for average attendances and annual budget/profit, dividing points totals by the number of years clubs have been in the league, or by giving less weight to points scored a long time ago. However, we feel that the passage of time should not be taken into account because staying power and longevity are indicators of a great club. Equally, small clubs enjoying a current period of success are not guaranteed to remain big. All in all, we are satisfied that the ranking shows the relative playing merits of the current league clubs based on historical success, and identifies clubs currently under or over achieving.

Conclusions

It is clear that Juventus are by far the most successful Italian football club ever, which came as no surprise. They are predictably followed by the illustrious Milan pair, with AC Milan being comfortably ahead of Inter. Then there’s a considerable gap back to Torino, Roma, Genoa, Bologna and Fiorentina, which confirms the traditional dominance of teams from the industrial triangle in the north-west of the country. Familiar names fill the next few places down to Atalanta in 12th – the highest club never to have won the scudetto. Fifteen of the historical top 20 clubs are currently playing in Serie A. Of the other five, Bari, Bologna, Brescia and Vicenza are all in Serie B whereas Verona have slumped right down to Serie C1. The ’smallest’ club currently in Serie A is Siena at 49th in our ranking, which would put them in Serie C1 along with Empoli and Reggina, the other two Serie A clubs playing two levels above their historical status. Livorno and Catania are one level above their Serie B status according to the table.

There are 72 other clubs that have registered points under our system but are currently outside the top four divisions or have ceased to exist. In fact, a handful of them have enough points to consider themselves Serie B level clubs. Pro Vercelli, who were the dominant team either side of the First World War, have been struggling in the lower divisions for many years now whereas Como have only recently dropped down through the leagues.

It is strictly forbidden to copy or reproduce these tables without permission. Any breach of copyright may lead to prosecution. The tables will be updated annually and any feedback on the results/corrections to data is welcome.

aboutaball.com 2007