Serie A’s relegation playoff… since when has there been one and why has it been introduced?

The Serie A calendar has had an extra game added to it this year, with Spezia and Verona facing a playoff in Reggio Emilia to survive the drop to Serie B

You might have been caught by surprise over the last week or so when talk of a Serie A relegation playoff first started to take off. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. With Spezia and Hellas Verona looking likely to end the season level on points, which they inevitably did, the realisation started to hit that this season wasn’t quite a normal one in Serie A.

So, then, what exactly is happening this year that means we have an additional game added onto the end of the regular Serie A season? 

A rule change at the beginning of the 2022/23 campaign was rather sneakily introduced as, let’s be honest, not everybody pays the closest of attention to such things until they become relevant. But, in short, it effectively did away with Serie A’s tried and trusted tiebreaker of head-to-head record in the event of teams finishing level on points, but only to decide two positions in the table.