2003–04 Serie A
102nd season of top-tier Italian football
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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.
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| Season | 2003–04 |
|---|---|
| Dates | 30 August 2003 – 16 May 2004 |
| Champions | Milan 17th title |
| Relegated | Perugia Modena Empoli Ancona (to C2 after bankruptcy) |
| Champions League | Milan Roma Juventus Internazionale |
| UEFA Cup | Parma Lazio Udinese |
| Matches | 306 |
| Goals | 816 (2.67 per match) |
| Top goalscorer | Andriy Shevchenko (24 goals) |
| Biggest home win | Internazionale 6–0 Reggina (22 November 2003) Roma 6–0 Siena (22 February 2004) |
| Biggest away win | Bologna 0–4 Roma (23 November 2003) |
| Highest scoring | Brescia 4–4 Reggina (21 September 2003) |
| Longest unbeaten run | Milan 19 games |
| Longest winless run | Ancona 28 games |
| Highest attendance | 78,334 Milan v Internazionale |
| Lowest attendance | 3,774 Empoli v Udinese |
← 2002–03 2004–05 → | |
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,[1] following provisional measures[2] 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
(*) Promoted from Serie B.
- As part of the agreement, the logos of the following films distributed by Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International were shown: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Bad Boys II
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
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Milan (C) | 34 | 25 | 7 | 2 | 65 | 24 | +41 | 82 | Qualification to Champions League group stage |
| 2 | Roma | 34 | 21 | 8 | 5 | 68 | 19 | +49 | 71 | |
| 3 | Juventus | 34 | 21 | 6 | 7 | 67 | 42 | +25 | 69 | Qualification to Champions League third qualifying round |
| 4 | Internazionale | 34 | 17 | 8 | 9 | 59 | 37 | +22 | 59 | |
| 5 | Parma | 34 | 16 | 10 | 8 | 57 | 46 | +11 | 58 | Qualification to UEFA Cup first round |
| 6 | Lazio | 34 | 16 | 8 | 10 | 52 | 38 | +14 | 56 | |
| 7 | Udinese[a] | 34 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 44 | 40 | +4 | 50 | |
| 8 | Sampdoria | 34 | 11 | 13 | 10 | 40 | 42 | −2 | 46 | |
| 9 | Chievo | 34 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 36 | 37 | −1 | 44 | |
| 10 | Lecce | 34 | 11 | 8 | 15 | 43 | 56 | −13 | 41 | |
| 11 | Brescia | 34 | 9 | 13 | 12 | 52 | 57 | −5 | 40 | |
| 12 | Bologna | 34 | 10 | 9 | 15 | 45 | 53 | −8 | 39 | |
| 13 | Reggina | 34 | 6 | 16 | 12 | 29 | 45 | −16 | 34[b] | |
| 14 | Siena | 34 | 8 | 10 | 16 | 41 | 54 | −13 | 34[b] | |
| 15 | Perugia (R) | 34 | 6 | 14 | 14 | 44 | 56 | −12 | 32 | Relegation play-off |
| 16 | Modena (R) | 34 | 6 | 12 | 16 | 27 | 46 | −19 | 30[c] | Relegation to Serie B |
| 17 | Empoli (R) | 34 | 7 | 9 | 18 | 26 | 54 | −28 | 30[c] | |
| 18 | Ancona[d] (R, E, R) | 34 | 2 | 7 | 25 | 21 | 70 | −49 | 13 | Phoenix in Serie C2 |
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) tiebreaker for relevant positions 3) head-to-head points and goal difference; 4) head-to-head goals scored; 5) goal difference; 6) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (E) Eliminated; (R) Relegated
Notes:
- Udinese gained entry to the 2004–05 UEFA Cup as Coppa Italia because both finalists Lazio and Juventus qualified for the 2004–05 UEFA Cup and the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League through league position, respectively.
- Reggina finished ahead of Siena on head-to-head points: Reggina 2–1 Siena, Siena 0–0 Reggina.
- Modena finished ahead of Empoli on head-to-head points: Empoli 0–3 Modena, Modena 1–1 Empoli.
- Ancona was denied entry to the 2004–05 Serie B season, having entered administration. It was later admitted to the Lega Professionisti Serie C after bankruptcy.
Results
Qualification play-offs
Perugia had to play a qualification match with 6th-placed team of Serie B, Fiorentina.
| Perugia | 0–1 | Fiorentina |
|---|---|---|
Fantini  10' |
| Fiorentina | 1–1 | Perugia |
|---|---|---|
| Fantini 47' |
do Prado 82' |
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 | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Andriy Shevchenko |
Milan | 24 |
| 2 | Alberto Gilardino |
Parma | 23 |
| 3 | Francesco Totti |
Roma | 20 |
| 4 |  Javier Chevantón |
Lecce | 19 |
| 5 |  Adriano |
Internazionale, Parma | 17 |
| 6 |  David Trezeguet |
Juventus | 16 |
| 7 | Antonio Cassano |
Roma | 14 |
| 8 | Fabio Bazzani |
Sampdoria | 13 |
 Christian Vieri |
Internazionale | ||
| 10 | Roberto Baggio |
Brescia | 12 |
| Andrea Caracciolo |
Brescia | ||
| Dino Fava |
Udinese | ||
 Jon Dahl Tomasson |
Milan | ||
Season transfers
Attendances
Source:[3]
| # | 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
