Serie A football championship 2023 and the historic rivalry between Milan and Inter Milan.  

“Goodbye summer, welcome back championship” seem to say these first weeks of September. As the sun continues to warm the peninsula, vacation memories fade away and give way to the entertainment par excellence in our country: the 2023-2024 Serie A Football Championship. Officially renamed Serie A TIM from 1998-1999, the top men’s football league is in its 122nd edition, the 92nd if only the seasons played with the single national round are counted, however.  

For commitments related to the group stage and the possible playoffs for the 2024 European Championship qualifiers, the schedule includes four breaks: September 10, October 15, November 19, 2023, and March 24, 2024. The first day is played on August 19, 2023, while May 26, 2024 is the date when the champion team of Italy is determined. 

The tricolor shield on uniforms was introduced exactly 100 years ago as a distinctive symbol for the champions of Italy and was first sewn on the jerseys of the players of Genoa, the absolute ruler of Italian football in the early 20th century. However, that of 1923/24 was a bittersweet year for the Rossoblù colors, as the Genoans celebrated their ninth but last national championship that season. 

The 2023 Serie A said goodbye to Spezia, Cremonese and Sampdoria, who dropped to Serie B at the end of the previous season and welcomed back Frosinone (in its third participation in the top flight), Cagliari, after only one season in the cadetteria, as well as the much-titled Genoa, winner among others of the very first Italian championship ever, that of 1898. A decidedly peculiar championship… 

Serie A: history, numbers and some curiosities

Since that first Genoa title in 1898, the current Serie A has come a long way, in terms of organization and popularity. In fact, the first edition of the Italian men’s football championship was resolved in a quadrangular organized at the Velodromo Umberto I in Turin on May 8, ’98, with three teams from the Piedmontese capital and, indeed, the Ligurians facing each other on the field and coming out on top. Until the late 1920s, it was Genoa itself that was depopulated, along with Pro Vercelli (9 and 7 championships won respectively), to which were added the sporadic successes of teams that would later become among the most important in the world: Juventus (36 scudetti and one revoked), Milan and Inter (both at 19, stopped on the threshold of the second star, awarded every ten championships won). 

The turning point came in the 1929/30 edition, not only in terms of the organization of the league, which changed to a single national round with round-robin matches, but also in terms of the social and cultural perception of men’s football in our country. In fact, the notoriety of the Serie A championship reached the height of popularity, and for the first time it ousted cycling from the first place in the hearts of Italian sports fans. 

Although Juventus is the most titled club, the single-round Serie A attendance record is held by Inter, which has played all 92 since its inception, followed by the Bianconeri themselves and Roma with 91, then Milan with 90. Carpi, Pistoiese and Treviso count one presence, out of a total of 68 clubs that have appeared in the top flight. 

In the last two decades, there has been a dominance of the big three from the north, with 11 scudetti for Juventus, including as many as 9 consecutive, 6 for Inter and 3 for Milan, up to the impressive ride of Napoli, absolute ruler of the 2022/2023 championship. With a proven team and the great enthusiasm of an entire city, will the Parthenopeans repeat? Will there be a return to the title by one of the Romans, who succeeded each other at the top of Serie A, winning it in 1999-2000 (the biancazzurri) and 2000/2001 (the giallorossi)? Will Allegri’s Juventus be able to make people forget the last few disappointing seasons and the accumulated scandals? Or will it be a two-way race between Inter and Milan, both in the hunt for a second star to sew on their shirts? For sure, the one between the Milanese, is a derby that goes far beyond current events and marks the history of the sport at the city, national, and international levels. 

Milan-Inter derby, Milan’s historic rivalry born over the registration of foreign footballers 

In the beginning was Milan. This is how one could tell this extraordinary story of sports and social aggregation. The year was 1899 when a mix of English and Italian fans founded the Milan Football & Cricket Club in the Lombard capital, which only later became the Milan Football Association. The history of the Rossoneri began at the turn of the century (some say December 16, some say 13), at the Hotel Du Nord and des Anglais, where the founding members met. In January 1900 the membership in the Italian Football Federation, which was followed in 1901 by the first Italian title, a championship won against Genoa defeated 3-0 in the final. The Ligurians had won the previous three titles, and would go on to establish themselves over the next three years.  

After not even a decade of good results, however, a rift arose within the club, particularly over whether or not to sign foreign players to its roster. This was the trigger that convinced a group of dissidents to call together other fans, and meet on March 9, 1908 at the Orologio restaurant in Piazza del Duomo. A total of 44 people joined, and at that moment the charter of the International Football Club Milano was born, with the belief that the new Milanese club should embrace the ideals of brotherhood among the peoples of the world and welcome international athletes. Needless to add, at the Orologio restaurant, Milan’s new rivalry was served on a silver platter. 

In fact, the derby between Milan and Inter immediately became a much-loved event in the city, as well as in the rest of the country, since the two Milanese teams are among the most supported in Italy (and the world). So far, Milan and Inter have faced each other 238 times in the various competitions. The overall tally smiles on the Nerazzurri, who have won on 90 occasions against the Rossoneri’s 79; 67 draws instead. Inter’s advantage also in the tally of goals scored, 334 to 311, and if Milan holds the record in the streak of consecutive derbies won (6, in two different circumstances), 2023 is definitely the year of Inter, which has won all 5 of the cross-city matches played, including the 5-1 win on September 16, 2023. 

For those who decide to travel to Milan, fascinated by this unmissable sporting spectacle, the San Siro stadium is very easily accessible from Hotel VIU Milan, in the Paolo Sarpi area connected by the M5 subway with the San Siro terminus stop. Before and after the game, all the comfort spaces of Hotel VIU Milan guarantee perfect relaxation and a home atmosphere, whether one’s team has won, or not.