On 19 August 2003, four teams are re-admitted to Serie B: the birth of a 24-team championship.

On August 19, 2003, a historic verdict is passed. Serie A, like last year, has 18 teams, and Serie B has 24. This is the decision of the Football Federation at the end of the meeting of the Federal Council, in which Catania, Genoa, Salernitana and Fiorentina are fished out. In particular, the situation with the alt-club, which went bankrupt a year earlier and was forced to restart from C2 – then won – and was pardoned with a jump in the category for “sports-territorial merits”, according to the quotes of the deputy. President Giancarlo Abete. Instead, AIC secretary Grazioli was responsible for reporting that Serie A had 18 teams left.

So, in 2003-2004, 24 teams participated in Serie B. Five promotions plus a playoff between Perugia and Fiorentina. These are the cadets. AlbinoLeffe, Ascoli, Atalanta, Avellino, Bari, Cagliari, Catania, Como, Fiorentina, Genoa, Livorno, Messina, Naples, Palermo, Pescara, Piacenza, Salernitana, Ternana, Turin, Treviso, Triestina, Venice, Verona, Vicenza. On Thursday it will be the opinion of Coni, who then rewrote the Serie B calendar. Apparently the mayor of Florence, President of Genoa Preziosi is happy – who finished fifteenth, far from the top positions – while Catania, coached by Colantuono, will take ninth place in the standings.

Already at that time there was a timeshare problem: Preziosi owned Genoa and Como. In the end, the President will be left alone in Genoa, handing Como over to Aleardo Dall’Oglio. It was a truly fiery summer in terms of dishes and appeals, which, as in the Italian tradition, ended with taralucci and wine, a Gattopardian change of everything in order to change nothing. Serie A from next year was expanded to 20 teams. And never shrink again despite everyone’s arrows (but no one’s true intentions).