Competition: | Serie A |
Season: | 2002–03 |
Dates: | 14 September 2002 – 24 May 2003 |
Winners: | Juventus 27th title |
Relegated: | Atalanta Piacenza Como Torino |
Continentalcup1: | Champions League |
Continentalcup1 Qualifiers: | Juventus Internazionale Milan Lazio |
Continentalcup2: | UEFA Cup |
Continentalcup2 Qualifiers: | Parma Udinese Roma |
Continentalcup3: | Intertoto Cup |
Continentalcup3 Qualifiers: | Perugia Brescia |
League Topscorer: | Christian Vieri (24 goals) |
Biggest Home Win: | Milan 6–0 Torino (6 October 2002) |
Biggest Away Win: | Torino 0–4 Juventus (17 November 2002) Torino 0–4 Parma (1 December 2002) Chievo 0–4 Parma (16 March 2003) |
Highest Scoring: | Parma 4–3 Brescia (6 November 2002) Empoli 3–4 Internazionale (6 November 2002) Juventus 4–3 Chievo (24 May 2003) |
Matches: | 306 |
Total Goals: | 789 |
Prevseason: | 2001–02 |
Nextseason: | 2003–04 |
The 2002–03 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 101st season of top-tier Italian football, the 71st in a round-robin tournament. It was composed by 18 teams, for the 15th consecutive time from season 1988–89.
The first two teams qualified directly to UEFA Champions League. Teams finishing in third and fourth position had to play Champions League qualifications. Teams finishing in fifth and sixth positions qualified to UEFA Cup (another spot was given to the winner of Coppa Italia). The bottom four teams were to be relegated in Serie B.
Juventus won its 27th national title, with Internazionale placing second and Milan third. Lazio was admitted to the UEFA Champions League preliminary phase, whereas Parma, Udinese and Roma (through the Coppa Italia finals) obtained a spot to the next UEFA Cup. Brescia and Perugia were admitted to participate in the UEFA Intertoto Cup, after Chievo declined to participate.
Piacenza, Torino, Como and Atalanta were relegated to Serie B, with the latter after having lost a relegation play-off against Reggina.
Unlike La Liga, which imposed a quota on the number of non-EU players on each club, Serie A clubs could sign as many non-EU players as available on domestic transfer. But for the 2003–04 season a quota was imposed on each of the clubs limiting the number of non-EU, non-EFTA and non-Swiss players who may be signed from abroad each season,[1] following provisional measures[2] introduced in the 2002–03 season, which allowed Serie A & B clubs to sign only one non-EU player in the 2002 summer transfer window.
Team | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Position in table | Incoming manager | Date of appointment | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Udinese | Giampiero Ventura | End of contract | 30 June 2002 | Pre-season | Luciano Spalletti | 1 July 2002 | |
Reggina | Franco Colomba | End of contract | 30 June 2002 | Pre-season | Bortolo Mutti | 1 July 2002 | |
Piacenza | Walter Novellino | End of contract | 30 June 2002 | Pre-season | Andrea Agostinelli | 1 July 2002 | |
Parma | Pietro Carmignani | End of contract | 30 June 2002 | Pre-season | Cesare Prandelli | 1 July 2002 | |
Lazio | Alberto Zaccheroni | End of contract | 30 June 2002 | Pre-season | Roberto Mancini | 1 July 2002 | |
Torino | Giancarlo Camolese | Sacked | 25 October 2002 | 16th | Renato Zaccarelli (caretaker) | 26 October 2002 | |
Torino | Renato Zaccarelli | End of caretaker spell | 29 October 2002 | 17th | Renzo Ulivieri | 30 October 2002 | |
Reggina | Bortolo Mutti | Sacked | 7 November 2002 | 16th | Luigi De Canio | 8 November 2002 | |
Como | Loris Dominissini | Sacked | 25 November 2002 | 18th | Eugenio Fascetti | 25 November 2002 | |
Piacenza | Andrea Agostinelli | Sacked | 3 February 2003[3] | 16th | Luigi Cagni | 3 February 2003[4] | |
Torino | Renzo Ulivieri | Sacked | 24 February 2003 | 17th | Renato Zaccarelli | 24 February 2003 | |
Torino | Renato Zaccarelli | Sacked | 15 April 2003 | 18th | Giacomo Ferri | 15 April 2003 | |
Atalanta | Giovanni Vavassori | Sacked | 21 April 2003 | 15th | Giancarlo Finardi | 21 April 2003 |
----Reggina won 2 – 1 on aggregate.
Atalanta relegated to Serie B.
Rank | Player | Club | Goals | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Christian Vieri | Internazionale | 24 | |
2 | Adrian Mutu | Parma | 18 | |
3 | Filippo Inzaghi | Milan | 17 | |
4 | Alessandro Del Piero | Juventus | 16 | |
6 | Adriano | Parma | 15 | |
Claudio López | Lazio | |||
8 | Dario Hübner | Piacenza | 14 | |
Francesco Totti | Roma | |||
10 | Antonio Di Natale | Empoli | 13 |