2002–03 Serie A Explained

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.

Rule changes

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.

Managerial changes

TeamOutgoing managerManner of departureDate of vacancyPosition in tableIncoming managerDate of appointment
Udinese Giampiero VenturaEnd of contract30 June 2002Pre-season Luciano Spalletti1 July 2002
Reggina Franco ColombaEnd of contract30 June 2002Pre-season Bortolo Mutti1 July 2002
Piacenza Walter NovellinoEnd of contract30 June 2002Pre-season Andrea Agostinelli1 July 2002
Parma Pietro CarmignaniEnd of contract30 June 2002Pre-season Cesare Prandelli1 July 2002
Lazio Alberto ZaccheroniEnd of contract30 June 2002Pre-season Roberto Mancini1 July 2002
Torino Giancarlo CamoleseSacked25 October 200216th Renato Zaccarelli (caretaker)26 October 2002
Torino Renato ZaccarelliEnd of caretaker spell29 October 200217th Renzo Ulivieri30 October 2002
Reggina Bortolo MuttiSacked7 November 200216th Luigi De Canio8 November 2002
Como Loris DominissiniSacked25 November 200218th Eugenio Fascetti25 November 2002
Piacenza Andrea AgostinelliSacked3 February 2003[3] 16th Luigi Cagni3 February 2003[4]
Torino Renzo UlivieriSacked24 February 200317th Renato Zaccarelli24 February 2003
Torino Renato ZaccarelliSacked15 April 200318th Giacomo Ferri15 April 2003
Atalanta Giovanni VavassoriSacked21 April 200315th Giancarlo Finardi21 April 2003

Personnel and sponsoring

TeamChairmanHead CoachKit manufacturerShirt sponsor
Atalanta Ivan Ruggeri Giancarlo Finardi AsicsPromatech
Bologna Renato Cipollini Francesco Guidolin MacronArea Banca
Brescia Luigi Corioni Carlo Mazzone UmbroBanca Lombarda
Chievo Luca Campedelli Luigi Del Neri JomaPaluani
Como Enrico Preziosi Eugenio Fascetti ErreàTemporary
Empoli Fabrizio Corsi ErreàSammontana
Internazionale Massimo Moratti Héctor Cúper NikePirelli
Juventus Vittorio Chiusano Marcello Lippi LottoFastweb/Tamoil (in UEFA matches)
Lazio Sergio Cragnotti
Ugo Longo
Roberto Mancini PumaSiemens Mobile
Milan Silvio Berlusconi Carlo Ancelotti AdidasOpel
Modena Romano Amadei Gianni De Biasi ErreàImmergas
Parma Stefano Tanzi Cesare Prandelli ChampionParmalat
Perugia Luciano Gaucci Serse Cosmi GalexToyota
Piacenza Fabrizio Garilli Luigi Cagni LottoLPR Brakes
Reggina Pasquale Foti Luigi De Canio AsicsCaffè Mauro
Roma Francesco Sensi Fabio Capello KappaMazda
Torino Attilio Romero Giacomo Ferri AsicsIxfin
Udinese Franco Soldati Luciano Spalletti Le Coq SportifBernardi
(*) Promoted from Serie B.

League table

Overall

Relegation tie-breaker

----Reggina won 2 – 1 on aggregate.

Atalanta relegated to Serie B.

Top goalscorers

RankPlayerClubGoals
1 Christian VieriInternazionale24
2 Adrian MutuParma18
3 Filippo InzaghiMilan17
4 Alessandro Del PieroJuventus16
6 AdrianoParma15
Claudio LópezLazio
8 Dario HübnerPiacenza14
Francesco TottiRoma
10 Antonio Di NataleEmpoli13

Transfer

References and sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Italy blocks non-EU players. 2003-03-05. 2010-03-09. UEFA.com.
  2. News: Italians bar non-EU imports. 2002-07-17. 2010-03-09. UEFA.com.
  3. News: Piacenza Sack Agostinelli . Soccerway . 3 February 2003 . 23 May 2012.
  4. News: Cagni returns as Piacenza sack Agostinelli . Soccerway . 3 February 2003 . 23 May 2012.