Serie A title deciders to be played Friday
The Italian football league announced the schedule for the 38th and final matchday of the Serie A season on Monday, with the title contenders opening the weekend's action.
Leaders Napoli, on 79 points, will host mid-table Cagliari, while Inter visit Cesc Fabregas' Como who are already assured of 10th place.
If Napoli win, they will be crowned Italian champions for the fourth time in their history. They will also be crowned champions if they match Inter's result.
If Inter win and Napoli lose, the Nerazzurri will retain their Scudetto crown.
Both sides will play their matches without their respective coaches Antonio Conte and Simone Inzaghi, after the pair were suspended following Sunday's matches.
Napoli's Conte was sent off during his side's goalless stalemate at Parma following a blazing row with the opposition dug-out.
Inzaghi was dismissed for his livid reaction to a penalty awarded against his team as Inter were held 2-2 by Lazio.
If Napoli lose and Inter draw, the two teams will be level on 79 points, forcing them to face each other in a play-off to determine the league champions.
In this eventuality, the decider will take place on May 26, five days before Inter meet Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final.
Only once in Serie A history has a play-off been required to decide the title, which Inter lost in 1964 to Bologna.
Fixtures for the final matchday of the Serie A season (all times 1845 GMT unless stated):
Playing Friday
Napoli v Cagliari, Como v Inter Milan
Saturday
Bologna v Genoa (1600), AC Milan v Monza
Sunday
© 2025 AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
13 hours ago
- France 24
Arsenal women to play all league matches at the Emirates
The Gunners made the Emirates their main home last season, hosting nine WSL games with an average attendance of 34,000. Arsenal will begin their defence of the Champions League at Meadow Park, the longstanding home of the club's women's team, which will also host home matches in the domestic cups. But should Renee Slegers' side progress, their home knockout ties in the Champions League will also be at the Emirates. Arsenal shocked Barcelona in Lisbon last month to become the first English side to win the Women's Champions League since they themselves won it in 2007. But they have not won the WSL since 2019 as Chelsea have stormed to six consecutive titles. "For us, this is just the beginning, and bringing every WSL match to the Emirates is another step for more supporters to be part of this special journey," said Slegers. "We'll come back next season, with fire in our hearts, more determined, more ambitious, and more together than ever." Aston Villa and Leicester City hosted all their home WSL games at their main club grounds last season and Everton's women's team will move to Goodison Park next season as the men's side move to a new stadium. However, a report by Deloitte this week found that average attendances across the league dipped by 10 percent last season to 6,642 as the surge in interest generated by England's Euro 2022 success faded.
France 24
20 hours ago
- France 24
Club World Cup riches await four African challengers
By securing places, Al Ahly of Egypt, Esperance of Tunisia, Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa and Wydad Casablanca of Morocco are each guaranteed $9.55 million (€8.4 million) appearance fees. The bonanza is the equivalent of Sundowns winning nine league titles in South Africa, the African country with the richest football prize money. A win in the group phase will add $2 million, a draw $1 million, and a top-two finish and qualification for the knockout phase $7.5 million. Winners of the premier African club competition, the CAF Champions League, receive $4 million for playing 14 or 16 matches. No side will play more than seven matches in the Club World Cup. Here, AFP Sport looks at the African contenders, all of whom have competed in the Club World Cup when it was an annual seven-club affair. Ahly Spaniard Jose Riveiro will make his competitive debut as coach of the Cairo Red Devils when they face Lionel Messi-inspired Inter Miami in the tournament opener on June 14. "The best way to contain Messi is to stop the ball reaching him, but we also have a plan for him when he does receive possession," said Riveiro. He left Orlando Pirates in South Africa in May after a three-season stint in which he won five domestic knockout trophies and reached the 2025 Champions League semi-finals. Ahly have been busy in the transfer market, signing former Aston Villa striker Mahmoud 'Trezeguet' Hassan from Turkish outfit Trabzonspor and winger Ahmed 'Zizo' Sayed from arch Cairo rivals Zamalek. Esperance The Blood and Gold from Tunis will be coached by one of their former stars, Maher Kanzari, after Romanian Laurențiu Reghecampf was axed in mid season having been in charge for only four months. Kanzari delivered a domestic league and cup double, but they made a timid exit from the Champions League in the quarter-finals. Esperance boast a star striker in Algerian Youcef Belaili, whose seven goals placed him second in the Champions League Golden Boot race. The four-time African champions have struggled in previous Club World Cup appearances, finishing fifth twice and sixth once. Sundowns Sundowns are a club under a cloud after losing 3-2 on aggregate to Pyramids recently in a Champions League final they were expected to win. It was the second successive Champions League final loss for Portuguese coach Miguel Cardoso, who was in charge of Esperance when they lost the 2024 final to Ahly. Many Sundowns supporters were unhappy that Cardoso did not use fit-again veteran midfielder Themba Zwane in either leg of the title decider. Sundowns are captained by goalkeeper Ronwen Williams, who created history at the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations by saving four shootout penalties to take South Africa past Cape Verde in a quarter-final. Wydad The Casablanca outfit sacked South African coach Rulani Mokwena as the Moroccan season drew to a close after he failed to secure a 2026 Champions League slot for the three-time continental champions. He was replaced by local Mohamed Benhachem, who transformed a team that had drawn six consecutive domestic league matches into one that ended the campaign by winning three in a row. Wydad have signed Burkina Faso midfielder Stephane Aziz Ki from Young Africans of Tanzania and Dutch defender Bart Meijers from Bosnia and Herzegovina club Borac Banja Luka. They are the only African contenders who will not face a Brazilian club in the group phase, but are not expected to advance from a section including Manchester City and Juventus.
France 24
20 hours ago
- France 24
FIFA's Club World Cup finally faces the ultimate test
But the 32-team tournament, which will be played across the USA from June 14 to July 13, has faced criticism and scepticism since the moment FIFA president Gianni Infantino began to float the idea. As a completely new arrival in an already crowded football landscape it remains to be seen whether the competition proves able to carve out a regular place in the calendar. Players representatives, such as global union FIFPRO, have warned of excessive workload on players while others have questioned whether fans will turn out in big enough numbers for the group stage fixtures. "Players will have to perform at the end of an 11-month season with little prospect of getting enough rest before the following season starts," FIFPRO warned when FIFA formally announced the tournament in 2023. Certainly the event adds to an already busy schedule for the world's top players. Inter Milan's Marcus Thuram and Paris Saint-Germain's Desire Doue both played in UEFA's Champions League final on May 31 and then switched shirts to represent their country in the Nations League finals in Germany days later. They have since rejoined their clubs for the new FIFA tournament in which both sides are expected to advance to the latter stages. Those games late in the tournament, likely to feature the top European clubs against the best South American sides, should draw big crowds but it remains to be seen how well ticket sales go for the group-stage games with less globally famous clubs from Asia, North America and Africa included. Captivated Fixtures such as the June 17 encounter in Orlando between South Korean club Ulsan HD and South Africa's Mamelodi Sundowns will certainly require all the power of American marketing to attract a full house. But FIFA hopes that with broadcasters DAZN offering free streaming of the tournament and the lure of giant club and player brands, fans around the world will be captivated by the new competition. "We are talking about something never seen before (that will) bring the magic of a national team World Cup to the club level," Infantino said. "This tournament will be the beginning of something historic, something that will change our sport for the better and for all future generations who will come to love it as we do," he added. In an era when players drive interest as much as, if not more than clubs, the involvement of stars such as Lionel Messi, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe should ensure social media is buzzing. Twelve of the 32 teams come from Europe including freshly crowned Champions League winners PSG, the continent's most successful club Real Madrid, Premier League giants Manchester City and Chelsea, and German powerhouses Bayern Munich. South America's six teams are made up of four Brazilian clubs, including Copa Libertadores winners Botafogo and their Rio de Janeiro rivals Flamengo, along with Argentina's two biggest clubs River Plate and Boca Juniors. Adding local interest, there are three teams from Major League Soccer -- Los Angeles FC, the Seattle Sounders and Messi's Inter Miami, as well as a pair of clubs from Mexico in Pachuca and Monterrey, who can expect plenty of support in the USA. Four clubs represent Africa, including Egypt's storied Al Ahly who open the tournament against Messi and Miami on June 14, while Asia's quartet includes Saudi club Al-Hilal. American fans regularly snaffle up tickets for the big European teams who come to NFL stadiums to play pre-season friendly games and so the added competitive element should see healthy crowds for the headline performers. Questions over how seriously the clubs would take the new competition became somewhat muted after FIFA announced the huge prize fund. The billion dollars are split between participation fees for all clubs and the rewards for those going deep in the tournament. The winner could leave with as much as $125 million. FIFA's current plan is for the tournament to be held every four years but it will be interesting to see if that changes after the first test of its appeal. If it is a flop, the critics will likely re-appear and question whether it is needed at all but should it be a roaring success, it is not hard to imagine some at FIFA pushing for it to be held on a more regular basis. © 2025 AFP
