The 2019–20 Serie C was the 61st season of the Serie C, the third tier of the Italian football league system, organized by the Lega Pro. The season was scheduled to run from 24 August 2019 to 26 April 2020, however, on 9 March 2020, the Italian government halted the league until 3 April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. Serie C did not resume play on this date. On 18 May, it was announced that Italian football would be suspended until 14 June.
On 8 June, the Italian Football Federation formally declared Monza, Vicenza, and Reggina as champions of their respective groups, thus awarding them promotion to Serie B, while also confirming the promotion and relegations playoff will take place as planned, based on the league standings by the time of the regular season suspension.
Teams The league was contested by 60 teams.
Relegated from Serie B Padova Carpi
Venezia was readmitted in Serie B after the bankruptcy of Palermo.
Promoted from Serie D Lecco (Girone A winners) Como (Girone B winners) Arzignano Valchiampo (Girone C winners) Pergolettese (Girone D winners) Pianese (Girone E winners) Cesena (Girone F winners) Avellino (Girone G winners) Picerno (Girone H winners) Bari (Girone I winners)
Readmissions Following the disbandment of Arzachena, Lucchese and Siracusa and the failure of Albissola to register for the league, four relegated clubs were readmitted as members of Serie C. Virtus Verona Fano Paganese Bisceglie
Repechages Following the bankruptcy of Foggia (relegated from Serie B) and Palermo, FIGC chose two historic big clubs from Serie D to fill the vacancies. Modena Reggio Audace
Bisceglie readmission and Audace Cerignola case On 12 July, the FIGC additionally excluded Arzachena from Serie C, but Bisceglie were not initially readmitted and were awaiting the result of court proceedings, along with Audace Cerignola. As a result, one vacancy remained in Group C that had not been filled, due to a lack of valid applications for Serie C readmissions.
On 23 July, the Court of the CONI overturned the original decision from the FIGC by declaring both Bisceglie and Audace Cerignola's readmission requests as valid, thus creating uncertainty on the new format and even opening doors to a potential 21-team Group C.
On 25 July, the FIGC readmitted Bisceglie to Serie C, whereas, in spite of the ruling by the Court of the CONI, Audace Cerignola's request was rejected due to alleged stadium irregularities. On August 5, however, CONI once again overturned the FIGC's decision not to admit Audace Cerignola to Serie C.
On 10 September, Lazio's Regional Administrative Tribunal denied Audace Cerignola's appeal for readmission, by suspending the measures for which CONI had used to readmit the club into Serie C. A new hearing was set for February 11, 2020, at which time a repecheage would no longer be possible, which effectively left the club in Serie D.
COVID-19 pandemic suspension On 9 March 2020, the Lega Pro committee announced the suspension of the league due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.
On 8 May 2020, the league committee formally proposed the Italian Football Federation to end the season altogether and award promotion to the three league toppers (Monza, Vicenza and Reggina), plus Carpi for having the highest point-per-game ratio among all other teams by the time of the suspension, and block all relegations to Serie D. This proposal was however rejected by the Italian Football Federation on 20 May, as they objected the Serie C season will have to end as planned, with 20 August as the formal deadline to complete it.
On 8 June, the Italian Football Federation formally declared the end of the Serie C regular season; Monza, Vicenza and Reggina were awarded promotion to Serie B, while Gozzano, Rimini and Rieti were relegated to Serie D. Promotion and relegation playoffs will take place as planned, albeit on a voluntary basis.
Following the deliberation from the Italian Football Federation, Pontedera, Arezzo, Modena, Pro Patria, Piacenza and Vibonese announced they would not take part to the promotion playoffs.
Stadia and locations
Group A (North & Central West) 8 teams from Lombardy, 6 teams from Tuscany, 5 teams from Piedmont and 1 team from Sardinia.
Club City Stadium Capacity AlbinoLeffe Albino and Leffe Città di Gorgonzola (Gorgonzola) 3,766 Alessandria Alessandria Giuseppe Moccagatta 5,827 Arezzo Arezzo Città di Arezzo 13,128 Carrarese Carrara Dei Marmi 9,500 Como Como Giuseppe Sinigaglia 13,602 Giana Erminio Gorgonzola Città di Gorgonzola 3,766 Gozzano Gozzano Stadio Alfredo d'Albertas 1,510 Juventus U23 Turin Giuseppe Moccagatta (Alessandria) 5,827 Lecco Lecco Rigamonti-Ceppi 4,997 Monza Monza Brianteo 18,568 Novara Novara Silvio Piola (Novara) 17,875 Olbia Olbia Bruno Nespoli 3,200 Pergolettese Crema Giuseppe Voltini 4,100 Pianese Piancastagnaio Carlo Zecchini (Grosseto) 9,779 Pistoiese Pistoia Marcello Melani 13,195 Pontedera Pontedera Ettore Mannucci 2,700 Pro Patria Busto Arsizio Carlo Speroni 4,627 Pro Vercelli Vercelli Silvio Piola (Vercelli) 5,500 Renate Renate Città di Meda (Meda) 2,900 Siena Siena Montepaschi Arena 15,373
Group B (North & Central East) 8 teams from Emilia-Romagna, 4 teams from Marche, 4 teams from Veneto, 1 team from Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 1 team from Lombardy, 1 team from Trentino-Alto Adige and 1 team from Umbria.
Club City Stadium Capacity Arzignano Arzignano Romeo Menti (Vicenza) 13,173 Carpi Carpi Sandro Cabassi 5,550 Cesena Cesena Dino Manuzzi 20,194 Fano Fano Raffaele Mancini 8,800 FeralpiSalò Salò Lino Turina 2,364 Fermana Fermo Bruno Recchioni 8,920 Gubbio Gubbio Pietro Barbetti 4,939 Imolese Imola Romeo Galli 4,000 Modena Modena Alberto Braglia 21,092 Padova Padua Euganeo 32,420 Piacenza Piacenza Leonardo Garilli 21,668 Ravenna Ravenna Bruno Benelli 12,020 Reggio Audace Reggio Emilia Mapei Stadium – Città del Tricolore 21,584 Rimini Rimini Romeo Neri 7,442 Sambenedettese San Benedetto del Tronto Riviera delle Palme 13,705 Südtirol Bolzano/Bozen Druso 3,500 Triestina Trieste Nereo Rocco 32,454 Vicenza Vicenza Romeo Menti 13,173 Virtus Verona Verona Gavagnin Nocini 1,200 Vis Pesaro Pesaro Tonino Benelli 4,898
Group C (Center & South) 4 teams from Apulia, 4 teams from Calabria, 4 teams from Campania, 2 teams from Basilicata, 2 teams from Lazio, 2 teams from Sicily, 1 from Abruzzo and 1 from Umbria.
Club City Stadium Capacity Avellino Avellino Partenio-Adriano Lombardi 10,215 Bari Bari San Nicola 58,270 Bisceglie Bisceglie Gustavo Ventura 5,000 Casertana Caserta Alberto Pinto 12,000 Catania Catania Angelo Massimino 20,266 Catanzaro Catanzaro Nicola Ceravolo 14,650 Cavese Cava de' Tirreni Simonetta Lamberti 5,000 Monopoli Monopoli Vito Simone Veneziani 6,880 Paganese Pagani Marcello Torre 5,093 Picerno Picerno Alfredo Viviani (Potenza) 4,977 Potenza Potenza Alfredo Viviani 4,977 Reggina Reggio Calabria Oreste Granillo 27,454 Rende Rende Marco Lorenzon 5,000 Rieti Rieti Manlio Scopigno 10,163 Sicula Leonzio Lentini Angelino Nobile 2,500 Teramo Teramo Gaetano Bonolis 7,498 Ternana Terni Libero Liberati 17,460 Vibonese Vibo Valentia Luigi Razza 6,500 Virtus Francavilla Francavilla Fontana Giovanni Paolo II 2,000 Viterbese Castrense Viterbo Enrico Rocchi 5,460
League tables
Group A (North & Central West)
Group B (North & Central East)
Group C (Center & South)
Promotion play-offs
First round If tied, higher-placed team advances.
Second round If tied, higher-placed team advances.
Third round If tied, higher-placed team advances.
Fourth round If tied, higher-placed team advances.
Final four If tied after regular time, winner is decided by extra-time and eventually penalty shoot-out.
Reggio Audace promoted to Serie B.
Relegation play-outs
Higher-placed team plays at home for second leg. If tied on aggregate, lower-placed team is relegated.
Top goalscorers
RankPlayerClubGoals1 Mirco Antenucci1Bari212 Giuseppe FellaMonopoli17 Saveriano Infantino1Carrarese4 Tommaso Biasci2Carpi165 Simone CorazzaReggina146 Daniele PaponiPiacenza137 Germán DenisReggina12 Umberto Eusepi3Alessandria9 Aniello CutoloArezzo11 Francesco GaluppiniRenate Augustus Kargbo2Reggio Audace Facundo LescanoSicula Leonzio Leonardo PérezVirtus Francavilla Federico Vázquez1 Emanuele SantanielloPicerno Simone Simeri1Bari
Note 1Player scored 1 goal in the play-offs. 2Player scored 2 goals in the play-offs. 3Player scored 3 goals in the play-offs.
Notes
Footnotes
References
External links Official website