Worst Serie A Teams Ever: Italian Football Disasters

Last Updated: April 2026

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The Worst Serie A Teams Ever: Fraud, Bankruptcy and the Italian Football Disasters of the 21st Century

English football has Derby County’s 11 points. Italian football has something altogether different – a collection of collapses so catastrophic, so operatically ruinous, that they make even the Premier League’s worst seasons look almost ordinary.

The most notorious belongs to Ancona. In 2003-04, the club was mid-table, unremarkable, and apparently stable – until president Ermanno Pieroni was arrested for fraud. The club did not just lose matches. It imploded. Players went unpaid. Staff disappeared. The squad disintegrated. Ancona ended the season with 13 points and no future. The club folded entirely, one of the starkest examples in European football of an institution destroyed not by poor management on the pitch, but by criminal behaviour off it.

Then there is Pescara – a club with a gift for producing extraordinary football under Zdeněk Zeman, and an equal gift for losing everything the moment the players leave. In 2016-17, promoted after a glorious Serie B campaign, they watched their best players depart for richer clubs. A 2006 World Cup winner took the manager’s job, lasted until Valentine’s Day, and reportedly wept in the dugout. Zeman came back, won his first game 5-0, and then the squad’s limitations reasserted themselves. Eighteen points from 38 games, one of which was never played.

Then there is Chievo Verona – begun the 2018-19 season on minus three points following a false accounting scandal, punished before a ball was kicked, and never recovered. Eventually expelled from professional football entirely.

And Salernitana, who in 2023-24 cycled through four managers, finished on 17 points, and were relegated in circumstances that almost perfectly illustrated the gap between ambition and reality in the modern Italian game.

Key Facts

Quick context before you watch:

Historical record: Brescia Calcio hold the all-time points low with 12 points in 1994-95 — but that predates this documentary’s focus on the 21st-century disasters
Ancona 2003-04: president Ermanno Pieroni arrested mid-season for fraud; club subsequently folded entirely
Pescara 2016-17: 18 points from 38 games; one win came via 3-0 walkover; Massimo Oddo sacked on Valentine’s Day; Zdeněk Zeman returned but could not save them
Chievo Verona 2018-19: began the season on minus three points due to false accounting scandal; later expelled from professional football
Salernitana 2023-24: 17 points, four managers, relegated – currently competing in Serie C (third tier)
Unlike the Premier League, Serie A’s worst seasons are often defined not just by poor football but by off-pitch collapse: fraud, corruption, and institutional failure

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The Worst Serie A Teams of the 21st Century

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Ancona’s Collapse, Chievo’s Expulsion, Salernitana’s Four Managers and Pescara’s Nosedive

Ancona’s 2003-04 season is the defining case study in Italian football disaster. The club was a functioning mid-table Serie A side when Pieroni was arrested. The immediate consequence was financial paralysis – contracts could not be honoured, wages went unpaid, and the football operation became secondary to the legal and financial crisis surrounding ownership. Players left. The squad that finished the season bore little resemblance to the one that started it. The final points total of 13 reflected not a bad football team but an organisation that had ceased to function.

Pescara’s 2016-17 season had a different kind of catastrophe – one built not on fraud but on the structural cruelty of Italian football’s promotion system. Promoted after a fine Serie B campaign under Massimo Oddo, who had won the World Cup with Italy in 2006, Pescara then watched their best players – the ones who had earned promotion – be sold to clubs with bigger budgets. By December, their only points from a ‘win’ had come via a 3-0 walkover after opponents Sassuolo fielded an ineligible player in a match Pescara had actually lost 2-1 on the pitch. Ultras stormed the club’s Christmas dinner. The president’s home was targeted in an arson attack. In February 2017, after a 5-3 defeat at Torino in which Pescara had been 5-0 down, Oddo was photographed weeping in the visitors’ dugout. He was sacked on Valentine’s Day. Zdeněk Zeman – who had managed the club’s glorious 2011-12 promotion campaign with a team containing Marco Verratti, Lorenzo Insigne and Ciro Immobile – returned and won his first match 5-0 against Genoa. It raised brief, implausible hope. The squad’s limitations were too profound. Pescara finished with 18 points, the final win coming against already-relegated Palermo on the last day of the season.

Chievo’s 2018-19 case was different in character but equally devastating in outcome. The minus-three points deduction – applied before the season began as punishment for false accounting practices in their financial records – was unprecedented in Serie A. Starting in negative territory in a division where survival margins are already thin proved insurmountable. Chievo were relegated, continued to face financial difficulties, and were eventually excluded from Italian professional football. Their story is a warning about the long-term consequences of financial irregularities in an era of increasing regulatory scrutiny.

Salernitana’s 2023-24 season was more conventional in its collapse – four managers, a squad assembled on inadequate resources, and the almost mathematical inevitability of relegation once the first few months had passed. Currently in Serie C, their trajectory offers a mirror to every club that overreaches its financial capacity to stay in the top flight.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About the Worst Serie A Teams

Which team holds the record for fewest points in a Serie A season?

Brescia Calcio hold the all-time record for fewest points in a Serie A season in the three-points era, finishing the 1994-95 campaign with just 12 points from 34 matches. This was the first season Serie A used three points for a win. It set the benchmark of futility in the modern era of Italian football.

What happened to Ancona in the 2003-04 Serie A season?

In 2003-04, Ancona were a mid-table Serie A club until president Ermanno Pieroni was arrested on fraud charges during the season. The club immediately fell into financial paralysis – wages went unpaid, staff departed, and players left as the legal and financial crisis engulfed the institution. The squad that finished the season was largely unrecognisable from the one that started. Ancona ended the campaign with 13 points and subsequently folded entirely. The case is one of the clearest examples in European football of a club destroyed not by poor performances on the pitch but by criminal behaviour in its boardroom.

What happened to Chievo Verona in 2018-19 and why?

Chievo Verona began the 2018-19 Serie A season with a deduction of three points as punishment for false accounting practices in their financial records – the most significant pre-season points deduction in Serie A history.

Starting on minus three points in a division with tight relegation margins proved insurmountable. Chievo were relegated. They continued to face financial and regulatory difficulties in subsequent years and were eventually excluded from Italian professional football. The case highlighted the risks of financial irregularities in an era of increasing regulatory oversight across European football.

What happened to Salernitana in the 2023-24 Serie A season?

Salernitana finished the 2023-24 Serie A season with 17 points from 38 matches and were relegated to Serie B. They used four different managers across the campaign – a level of managerial instability that reflected both the sporting difficulties and the internal dysfunction at the club. Following further difficulties, Salernitana were relegated to Serie C (the third tier of Italian football) and were competing at that level as of April 2026.

How is Serie A different from the Premier League in terms of club failure?

The most striking difference is that Serie A’s worst cases are often driven by off-pitch factors – fraud, false accounting, ownership collapse – rather than purely by sporting underperformance. Ancona 2003-04, Chievo 2018-19, and numerous other Italian clubs across the decades have disintegrated not because they were bad football teams but because the institutions behind them were financially or legally compromised. In the Premier League, Derby County’s 11-point record and Southampton’s 30 defeats were primarily the result of poor squad construction and management. In Serie A, the disasters are frequently more operatic and more institutional.

Have any Serie A clubs been expelled from Italian football entirely?

Yes. Several clubs have been excluded from Italian professional football over the decades, typically as a result of financial collapse, failure to meet licensing requirements, or regulatory sanctions. Chievo Verona’s exclusion following their descent after the 2018-19 season is a notable recent example. Ancona folded entirely after their 2003-04 collapse. AC Fiorentina were declared bankrupt in 2002, with a new entity reformed to take their place. The history of Italian football is punctuated by institutional failures that have no real equivalent in the Premier League.

What was the false accounting scandal at Chievo Verona?

Chievo Verona were found by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) to have engaged in false accounting practices – specifically, inflating transfer values in deals between clubs to artificially improve their financial position. This is a practice that has been investigated across several Italian clubs. The punishment handed to Chievo for the 2018-19 season was a three-point deduction applied before the campaign began. The severity of starting below zero in a tight division proved too great to overcome.

Which was the worst Italian football disaster in the documentary?

Ancona 2003-04 is typically regarded as the most dramatic because it combines sporting failure with criminal collapse. President Ermanno Pieroni’s arrest for fraud mid-season transformed a functioning Serie A club into an institution in freefall within weeks. The story captures everything that makes Italian football disasters distinct from their Premier League equivalents: the operatic personal failure, the institutional collapse, and the complete absence of a safety net once the crisis began.

What is the longest points drought in Serie A history?

Serie A’s all-time record low is 12 points (Brescia 1994-95, from 34 matches in an 18-team league), comparable to Derby County’s 11 points from 38 matches. But the clubs in this documentary — Ancona, Pescara, Chievo, Salernitana — tell a different story: one of institutional failure, structural cruelty, and the peculiar Italian tendency for disaster to arrive from the boardroom rather than the dressing room. Pescara’s 18 points in 2016-17 and Salernitana’s 17 in 2023-24 look modest against Brescia’s record, but the circumstances surrounding both make them equally compelling case studies.

Are there any Serie A records that compare to the Premier League’s worst seasons?

Serie A’s record low of 12 points (Brescia 1994-95, from 34 matches) is broadly comparable to Derby County’s 11 points from 38 matches. However, Serie A has historically used 18 clubs rather than 20, meaning seasons involved 34 matches rather than 38 – which adjusts the comparison somewhat. On a per-match basis, some of Serie A’s worst seasons in the 1990s rival the Premier League’s worst, but the institutional failures that accompany many Italian disasters – fraud, false accounting, criminal prosecutions – make direct statistical comparison less revealing than the underlying stories.

What does the Worst Serie A Teams documentary on The Football Documentary Channel cover?

The TFDC documentary examines the most catastrophic seasons in Serie A history – Ancona’s mid-season institutional collapse, Chievo Verona’s points deduction and eventual expulsion from professional football, Salernitana’s four-manager descent, and Pescara’s total implosion. It explores why Italian football disasters so often involve off-pitch failure rather than purely sporting underperformance. It is free to watch at youtube.com/@footballdocumentaries. The full companion deep dive – with detailed season analysis and all 20 FAQs – is at footballdocumentaries.com/worst-serie-a-teams/.

What happened to the clubs featured in the documentary after their disasters?

Ancona folded entirely following the 2003-04 season; a phoenix club, SS Ancona, was founded but has faced its own difficulties. Chievo Verona were excluded from professional football following financial collapse after relegation. Salernitana were relegated to Serie C and, as of April 2026, were competing in the third tier of Italian football. Of the four clubs, only Brescia survived with any semblance of the institution intact.

Which Serie A clubs have been relegated and then folded entirely?

Several Italian clubs have been relegated from Serie A and subsequently ceased to exist as institutions. Ancona is the most prominent example in the modern era – relegated following the fraud-driven collapse of 2003-04, the club folded entirely within a year. AC Fiorentina were declared bankrupt in 2002, with a phoenix club formed to take their place in the lower divisions. Parma have experienced severe financial difficulties, been relegated, and rebuilt under new ownership. The Italian football pyramid has a higher rate of institutional collapse than any other major European league, a pattern rooted in the combination of high wage bills, poor governance, and inadequate financial regulation.

What was the worst Serie A season in the era before three points for a win?

In the two-points-for-a-win era (which ended in Serie A before 1994-95), several clubs recorded exceptionally low points totals from 30 or 34-match seasons. However, comparisons across eras are complicated by the change in the points system. The most catastrophic pre-three-points-era collapses in Italian football typically involved relegation with very few wins – some clubs finishing seasons with as few as five or six victories from 34 matches – but the records from that era are less prominently documented than the modern benchmarks set by Brescia in 1994-95.

How does Serie A’s promotion and relegation system work?

Serie A uses the standard top-flight relegation system: the three lowest-placed clubs at the end of each 38-game season are relegated to Serie B (the second division). The three highest-placed Serie B clubs are promoted automatically to replace them. Unlike some other European systems, there are no relegation play-offs in Serie A – promotion and relegation are determined purely by final league position. This means that a club can be mathematically safe relatively late in the season if the gap between them and the relegation zone is significant, or face a final-day relegation battle if positions are tight.

What was Pescara’s 2016-17 Serie A season?

Pescara were promoted to Serie A in 2016 under manager Massimo Oddo, a 2006 World Cup winner, after a successful Serie B campaign. They then watched their promoted squad dismantled as bigger clubs bought their best players. Their only ‘win’ before Oddo’s sacking came via a 3-0 walkover awarded after Sassuolo fielded an ineligible player in a match Pescara had actually lost 2-1. Oddo was dismissed on Valentine’s Day 2017, reportedly in tears after a 5-3 defeat at Torino. Zdeněk Zeman returned to the club — he had managed Pescara’s celebrated 2011-12 promotion campaign — won his first game 5-0 against Genoa, but could not prevent relegation. Pescara finished with 18 points from 38 games.

The Worst Ever Serie A Teams

For the stories about Ancona, Salernitana, Pescara and Chievo – and all important FAQs – read the companion deep dive: