Major changes to women's Serie A format

League officials have announced a major shake-up of the format of the women's Serie A season, starting from 2022-23.

The campaign - which will also be notable as the first with female footballers are recognised as professionals in Italy - will see a new calendar put in place.

From next season the league will be comprised of 10 teams (currently 12), with all teams facing each other both home and away in the first phase of proceedings.

At that point the league will be divided in two, with a 'Title Group' and 'Survival Group' being created.

The five teams in the 'Title Group' will fight it out to become league champions - while an additional Champions League qualification spot will also be up for grabs.

In the 'Survival Group' meanwhile, the team that ultimately finishes bottom will be relegated to Serie B, while the team that finishes ninth in the table will face a play-off against the runner-up in the second division to decide who will play in the top flight the following season.

In this second phase of the season, all teams in their respective groups will once again face each other home and away, for a total of eight additional games (with two bye weekends for each team).

Teams will start the play-out phase of the season with the same number of points they finished the league phase.

Overall, the changes mean teams will go from playing 22 league games across the course of the campaign to playing 26 (18 in the first phase, eight in the play-out round).

As a result, a change has also been made to the format for the Supercoppa: the competition will go back to being a one-off clash between the winners of the league and the Coppa Italia, ending the 'Final Four' format of the past two seasons.