Editing Serie A (section)

===Predecessors to Serie A, 1898–1928===
In the [[Italian football league system]], the Federazione Italiana del Football (FIF), began organising football in Italy in 1898. Its first competition, the [[1898 Italian Football Championship]], was held at the [[Velodrome Humbert I]] in Turin on 8 May 1898. First in the [[List of Italian football champions]] is thus [[Genoa CFC]], who won against three Turin based teams. Other Italian teams existed but hadn't joined at this stage. Genoa won the Italian Football Championship on five out of six occasions, interrupted by [[AC Milan]] in 1901.

From 1904, the tournament was named [[Prima Categoria]], structured into regional groups. The winners of each group participated in a playoff to declare the champions.

The FIF joined [[FIFA]] and was renamed in 1909 to Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC). The FIGC usurped the rival Federazione Ginnastica Nazionale Italiana (FGNI) as a football administration. The FGNI organised football tournaments in Italy between 1895 and 1913.

Argument in 1921 on the number of teams to be allowed in the set up, led to a split forming the Confederazione Calcistica Italiana (CCI). In 1921-22 the CCI conducted a rival tournament named [[Prima Divisione]] with Northern Italy's wealthiest clubs, in opposition to the competition organised separately by the FIGC. The FIGC then accepted the Prima Divisione as the new format from 1922-23 with its reduced number of teams.  

Prima Divisione played from 1921 to 1926. Prima Divisione was divided into Lega Nord (Northern League) and Lega Sud (Southern League). Lega Nord was divided into two non-regional, 12 team groups of which the winners played off in the Northern League Final. Lega Sud was sub-divided regionally with winners playing off in a finals series. The winners of the Northern and Southern Leagues then played off in the Finalissima (literally The Biggest Final), to be national champions.

In 1926 the [[Fascist]] regime placed the FIGC under control of politician [[Leandro Arpinati]]. Prima Divisione was replaced with [[Divisione Nazionale]]. Divisione Nazionale initially comprised the previous Liga Nord plus 2 of the 3 Roman teams that would merge in 1927 into [[AS Roma]], and [[SSC Napoli]] (newly formed from the merger of 2 previously separate Neapolitan clubs). Divisione Nazionale was based as per the previous Lega Nord on two non-regional groups, now composed of only ten clubs each. The top 3 teams in each of the 2 groups then played in a round robin finals competition to decide the national champion.