The 2003–04 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 102nd season of top-tier Italian football, the 72nd in a round-robin tournament. It contained 18 teams for the 16th and last time from the 1988–89 season. With the bottom three being relegated, the 15th placed side would face the sixth-highest team from Serie B, with the winner playing in the Serie A in the subsequent 2004–05 season.

As usual, the top two teams would progress directly to the UEFA Champions League group stage, while third and fourth place would have to begin in the third qualifying round. The UEFA Cup places would be awarded to fifth and sixth place, and the winners of the Coppa Italia.

Milan won their 17th scudetto; Roma impressed and were pushing for the title until the last few weeks of the season; Internazionale only made it to the Champions League ahead of Parma and Lazio on the last day thanks to Adriano, who had been signed from Parma earlier in the season; Lazio won the Coppa Italia against Juventus, handing Udinese the UEFA Cup spot; Ancona were relegated with only two wins, the joint lowest tally ever (Brescia's 12 points in 1994–95 Serie A is still the lowest ever); Empoli and Modena were also relegated; Perugia lost their special play-off, imposed to expand the league, against Fiorentina, who returned to Serie A after a two-year absence.

Ukrainian forward Andriy Shevchenko of Milan was the top scorer, with 24 goals. The 2003–04 league was the last professional season in the career of former European Footballer of the Year and Italian international Roberto Baggio, who finished among the tournament's top ten scorers with 12 goals, and among the all-time top five scorers in Serie A, with 205 career goals. It was also the last Serie A season for Baggio's former teammate Giuseppe Signori, who then moved to the Super League Greece. Signori ended his career in Italy as the seventh highest scorer ever in Serie A.

Teams Eighteen teams competed in the league – the top fourteen teams from the previous season and the four teams promoted from the Serie B. The promoted teams were Siena, Sampdoria, Lecce and Ancona. Sampdoria, Lecce and Ancona returned to the top flight after an absence of four, one and ten years respectively, while Siena played in the top flight for the first time in history. They replaced Atalanta (relegated after three seasons in the top flight), Piacenza, Torino (both teams relegated after a two-years presence) and Como (relegated after a season's presence).

Rule changes Unlike La Liga, which imposed a quota on the number of non-EU players on each club, Serie A clubs could sign as many non-EU players as available on domestic transfer. But for the 2003–04 season a quota was imposed on each of the clubs limiting the number of non-EU, non-EFTA and non-Swiss players who may be signed from abroad each season, following provisional measures introduced in the 2002–03 season, which allowed Serie A & B clubs to sign only one non-EU player in the 2002 summer transfer window.

Personnel and sponsoring

Team Head coach Kit manufacturer Shirt sponsor Ancona* Giovanni Galeone Le Coq Sportif Banca Marche Bologna Carlo Mazzone Macron Area Banca Brescia Gianni De Biasi Umbro/Kappa Banca Lombarda Chievo Luigi Del Neri Lotto Paluani/Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International Empoli Attilio Perotti Erreà Sammontana Internazionale Alberto Zaccheroni Nike Pirelli Juventus Marcello Lippi Nike Fastweb/Tamoil (in UEFA matches) Lazio Roberto Mancini Puma Parmacotto/Indesit (in UEFA matches) Lecce* Delio Rossi Asics SalentoMilan Carlo Ancelotti Adidas Opel Meriva Modena Gianfranco Bellotto Erreà Immergas Parma Cesare Prandelli Champion Parmalat/Cariparma/Santàl (in UEFA matches) Perugia Serse Cosmi Galex Toyota Reggina Giancarlo Camolese Asics Spi Serramenti/Credit Suisse/FamilyMart/Stocco&Stocco (in cup matches) Roma Fabio Capello Diadora Mazda Sampdoria* Walter Novellino Asics Erg Siena* Giuseppe Papadopulo Lotto Monte Paschi Vita Udinese Luciano Spalletti Le Coq Sportif Bernardi/Postalmarket (*) Promoted from Serie B.

Managerial changes Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Incoming manager Date of appointment Position in table Empoli Silvio Baldini End of contract 30 June 2003 Daniele Baldini 1 July 2003 Pre-season Ancona Luigi Simoni Leonardo Menichini Reggina Luigi de Canio Franco Colomba Modena Gianni De Biasi Alberto Malesani Brescia Carlo Mazzone Gianni De Biasi Bologna Francesco Guidolin Sacked 26 August 2003 Carlo Mazzone 28 August 2003 Ancona Leonardo Menichini 29 September 2003 Nedo Sonetti 1 October 2003 18th Internazionale Héctor Cúper 20 October 2003 Alberto Zaccheroni 21 October 2003 8th Empoli Daniele Baldini 21 October 2003 Attilio Perotti 22 October 2003 17th Reggina Franco Colomba 24 November 2003 Sergio Buso (caretaker) 27 November 2003 13th Sergio Buso End of caretaker spell 1 December 2003 Giancarlo Camolese 3 December 2003 12th Ancona Nedo Sonetti Sacked 27 January 2004 Giovanni Galeone 28 January 2004 18th Modena Alberto Malesani 23 March 2004 Gianfranco Bellotto 24 March 2004 15th

League table

Results

Qualification play-offs Perugia had to play a qualification match with 6th-placed team of Serie B, Fiorentina.

Fiorentina won 2–1 on aggregate and were promoted to 2004–05 Serie A; Perugia were relegated to 2004–05 Serie B.

Top goalscorers

Rank Player Club Goals1 Andriy ShevchenkoMilan242 Alberto GilardinoParma233 Francesco TottiRoma204 Javier ChevantónLecce195 AdrianoInternazionale, Parma176 David TrezeguetJuventus167 Antonio CassanoRoma148 Fabio BazzaniSampdoria13 Christian VieriInternazionale10 Roberto BaggioBrescia12 Andrea CaraccioloBrescia Dino FavaUdinese Jon Dahl TomassonMilan

Season transfers Summer transfer Winter transfers Co-ownerships Co-ownerships II

Attendances

Source:

# Club Avg. attendance Highest 1 AC Milan 63,245 78,334 2 Internazionale 58,352 75,831 3 SS Lazio 49,341 60,929 4 AS Roma 46,458 73,383 5 Juventus FC 34,365 53,883 6 UC Sampdoria 26,224 35,557 7 Bologna FC 23,062 33,782 8 Reggina Calcio 20,523 24,082 9 Udinese Calcio 17,642 29,819 10 US Lecce 16,409 31,967 11 Parma AC 15,904 23,663 12 Modena FC 15,480 18,748 13 ChievoVerona 14,868 34,624 14 Brescia Calcio 13,807 20,878 15 AC Ancona 13,235 23,306 16 AC Siena 11,142 13,310 17 AC Perugia 11,047 18,796 18 Empoli FC 7,340 16,186

References Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio – La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005

Footnotes

External links

Italian Wiki-version, with pictures and extra info Season results, at RSSSF Season squads, at FootballSquads.com