2025–26 Serie D

Serie D
Season	2025–26
	← 2024–25

The 2025–26 Serie D is the seventy-eighth season of the top-level Italian non-professional football championship, the forty-fifth edition under the lordship of the Amatorial National League. It represents the fourth tier in the Italian football league system.

Rules

The season will provide a total of nine promotions to Serie C (those being the winners of all nine groups). Teams placed between second and fifth for each group will play a so-called "playoff tournament," starting with two one-legged games played at the best-placed team's home venue:

2nd-placed team vs 5th-placed team;
3rd-placed team vs 4th-placed team.

In case of a draw by the end of the game, two extra times will be played; in case of no winner after that, the best-placed team will advance to the final.

The two winning teams will then play a one-legged final, to be hosted at the best-placed team's home venue, with the same rules as in the first round. The playoff winners will be prioritized to fill a potential Serie C league vacancies.^[1]

The two bottom-placed teams for each league group are automatically relegated to Eccellenza. Two two-legged relegation playoff games (known in Italian as "play-out") will therefore be played between:

13th-placed team vs 16th-placed team (for 18-team groups), or 15th-placed team vs 18th-placed team (for 20-team groups);
14th-placed team vs 15th-placed team (for 18-team groups), or 16th-placed team vs 17th-placed team (for 20-team groups).

Two extra times will be played in case of an aggregate draw after the second leg; in case of a further aggregate draw, the worst-placed team will be relegated.

In case the two teams have a league gap of at least eight points, the relegation playoff will not take place and the worst-placed team will be automatically relegated instead.^[2]

Teams

The league's composition involves nine divisions, grouped geographically and named alphabetically.

Relegated from Serie C

The regulations would interchange 9 clubs between Serie C and Serie D. However, three clubs from the C went bankrupt and were disbanded. The number of clubs in Serie D decreased from 168 to 165 to achieve the objective of 160 teams in eight groups for the 2026–27 season. Article 52 of NOIF regulations was consequently amended in order to ban the recreation of bankrupted clubs in this league, moving them to the lower fully amateur divisions instead.

Cheating case

Other than the cited three C clubs, also SPAL went bankrupt. However, as it applied a fake inscription demand, according to a new FIGC rule it could not be counted between the ordinary relegations. It was simply excluded, and replaced in C by Ravenna from the D. The number of clubs in Serie D consequently decreased from 165 to 164.

Promoted from Eccellenza

As usual, there was an interchange of 36 clubs between Serie D and Eccellenza. However, in a very exceptional case, both the winners, the finalists, and the semifinalists of the Amatorial Italian Cup won their championships and were already promoted. The spot consequently vacated, reducing the number of clubs from 164 to 163 teams. More, during the summer the Amatorial Champions of Molise did not apply, achieving the final goal of 162 clubs.

References

^ "SERIE D: Il Regolamento e le date dei Play Off" (in Italian). Tuttocampo. 15 March 2022. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
^ "Il regolamento dei Play Out" (in Italian). LND.it. 3 February 2022. Retrieved 1 May 2022.

[1] "SERIE D: Il Regolamento e le date dei Play Off" (in Italian). Tuttocampo. 15 March 2022. Retrieved 1 May 2022.

[2] "Il regolamento dei Play Out" (in Italian). LND.it. 3 February 2022. Retrieved 1 May 2022.

[1]

[2]

Serie D seasons
Promozione	1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52
IV Serie	1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57
Campionato Interregionale	1957–58 1958–59
Serie D	1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81
Campionato Interregionale	1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92
Campionato Nazionale Dilettanti	1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99
Serie D	1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25