2003–04 Serie B

Serie B TIM
Season	2003–04
Promoted	Palermo (3rd title); Cagliari; Messina; Livorno; Atalanta; Fiorentina
Relegated	Como; Avellino; Napoli
Matches played	552
Goals scored	1,287 (2.33 per match)
Top goalscorer	Luca Toni (30 goals)
	← 2002–03 2004–05 →

AlbinoLeffe
Atalanta

Ascoli

Serie B 2003-04 team distribution

The 2003–04 Serie B is the 72nd season since its establishment in 1929. It is the second highest football league in Italy.

This 46 matchdays championship was the longest tournament in all the history of the Italian football.

Teams

Treviso, Avellino, AlbinoLeffe and Pescara had been promoted from Serie C, while Atalanta, Piacenza, Como, and Torino had been relegated from Serie A. Following the Caso Catania, Fiorentina was added.

Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Manager	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
AlbinoLeffe	Elio Gustinetti	Legea	SCAME
Ascoli	Aldo Ammazzalorso	Uhlsport	Carisap
Atalanta	Andrea Mandorlini	Asics	Promatech
Avellino	Zdeněk Zeman	Devis	NewNet Gruppo Tufano
Bari	Giuseppe Pillon	Lotto	Pasta Ambra
Cagliari	Edoardo Reja	A-Line	Terra Sarda
Catania	Nedo Sonetti	Galex	Toyota
Como	Roberto Galia	Erreà	Integratori Integra Sport
Fiorentina	Emiliano Mondonico	Adidas	Fondiaria-Sai
Genoa	Luigi De Canio	Erreà	Costa Cruises
Hellas Verona	Sergio Maddè	Legea	Clerman
Livorno	Walter Mazzarri	Asics	Gruppo Banca Carige
Messina	Bortolo Mutti	Legea	Confcommercio/Caffè Miscela d'Oro, Confcommercio
Napoli	Luigi Simoni	Legea	Russo di Cicciano
Palermo	Francesco Guidolin	Lotto	Provincia di Palermo, Regione Siciliana
Pescara	Cetteo Di Mascio	Ennedue	Saquella Caffè
Piacenza	Luigi Cagni	Lotto	UNICEF
Salernitana	Stefano Pioli	Devis	Centrale del Latte di Salerno
Ternana	Bruno Bolchi	Erreà	EnerTAD
Torino	Ezio Rossi	Asics	Bavaria
Treviso	Adriano Buffoni	Lotto	Segafredo, Provincia di Treviso
Triestina	Attilio Tesser	Asics	San Marco Imaging
Venezia	Angelo Gregucci	Sportika	Gioco Calcio
Vicenza	Giuseppe Iachini	Biemme	Caffè Vero

Events

Following the Caso Catania, the league had been expanded to 24 clubs, and six special promotions were decided to descend to 22.

Relegation play-offs were also introduced.

Final classification

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Palermo (P, C)	46	22	17	7	75	39	+36	83	Promotion to Serie A
2	Cagliari (P)	46	23	14	9	80	51	+29	83
3	Livorno (P)	46	20	19	7	75	45	+30	79
4	Messina (P)	46	21	16	9	71	45	+26	79
5	Atalanta (P)	46	19	20	7	59	36	+23	77
6	Fiorentina (P)	46	19	16	11	53	48	+5	73	Promotion play-offs
7	Ternana	46	18	15	13	64	52	+12	69
8	Piacenza	46	17	17	12	50	47	+3	68
9	Catania	46	18	13	15	53	53	0	67
10	Triestina	46	15	19	12	50	50	0	64
11	Ascoli	46	14	18	14	54	54	0	60
12	Torino	46	14	17	15	57	54	+3	59
13	Vicenza	46	12	20	14	48	51	−3	56
14	Napoli^[a] (D, R, E)	46	10	26	10	35	43	−8	56	Revival in Serie C1
15	Treviso	46	12	19	15	48	51	−3	55
16	Genoa	46	13	16	17	57	62	−5	55
17	Salernitana	46	14	13	19	36	53	−17	55
18	AlbinoLeffe	46	13	15	18	47	59	−12	54
19	Hellas Verona	46	13	14	19	54	65	−11	53
20	Venezia	46	12	15	19	40	57	−17	51	Relegation play-offs
21	Bari^[b] (T)	46	13	11	22	50	63	−13	50	Spared from relegation
22	Pescara^[c] (T)	46	11	13	22	46	69	−23	46	Spared from relegation
23	Avellino (R)	46	8	13	25	51	69	−18	37	Relegation to Serie C1
24	Como (R)	46	7	12	27	34	71	−37	33	Relegation to Serie C1

Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head goals scored; 5) goal difference; 6) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (D) Disqualified; (E) Eliminated; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated; (T) Qualified, but not yet for the particular phase indicated
Notes:

^ Folded after bankruptcy, new entity re-admitted to Serie C1 by Lodo Petrucci.
^ Relegated after relegation play-off and later readmitted in place of Napoli.
^ Relegated and later readmitted after newly relegated Ancona's bankruptcy.

Results

Home \ Away	ALB	ASC	ATA	AVE	BAR	CAG	CTN	COM	FIO	GEN	LIV	MES	NAP	PAL	PES	PIA	SAL	TER	TOR	TRV	TRI	VEN	HEL	VIC
AlbinoLeffe	—	3–3	0–4	1–0	3–1	0–0	1–1	2–1	1–0	0–0	1–1	0–0	1–0	1–1	1–0	0–0	0–1	1–2	2–2	1–0	0–0	0–0	2–0	2–1
Ascoli	2–1	—	1–1	0–1	1–1	3–1	1–0	4–0	0–1	0–1	2–1	1–1	1–2	2–1	0–0	0–0	3–2	0–0	2–2	1–3	2–1	1–0	3–0	3–1
Atalanta	2–1	2–0	—	2–0	2–0	2–1	3–0	2–1	1–1	1–0	0–0	2–2	0–0	0–0	1–0	0–1	0–0	1–1	1–1	2–2	4–1	0–0	0–2	3–2
Avellino	0–3	2–2	1–1	—	1–2	2–3	0–0	0–0	0–1	2–1	1–1	0–1	3–0	0–0	3–2	1–3	2–1	0–2	1–3	2–3	1–0	1–0	6–0	0–1
Bari	0–1	1–2	2–1	2–1	—	0–0	1–2	1–0	0–0	1–0	3–2	1–3	0–0	2–1	2–2	2–1	3–0	1–2	2–1	0–0	4–1	1–2	1–2	2–1
Cagliari	1–0	3–0	5–1	3–1	2–1	—	2–1	3–2	3–1	2–0	4–1	1–1	1–1	3–2	3–0	0–2	3–1	3–0	0–0	1–1	3–1	2–2	1–1	0–0
Catania	2–1	1–1	1–1	2–0	1–0	0–3	—	0–0	1–1	1–0	0–3	1–0	1–0	0–2	2–0	3–0	2–0	1–1	2–0	1–0	0–1	3–0	1–1	1–1
Como	1–1	2–1	0–3	0–3	1–3	1–3	1–4	—	0–2	1–3	3–5	1–1	2–0	0–1	1–1	2–2	1–0	0–2	0–2	2–1	0–0	1–1	0–2	0–1
Fiorentina	2–1	0–0	1–1	3–1	3–1	2–1	3–2	1–0	—	2–2	1–1	2–0	2–1	2–1	1–1	2–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–0	1–1	1–1	1–0	1–1
Genoa	4–2	1–1	0–3	1–1	2–0	4–2	1–3	0–1	2–1	—	0–1	2–2	2–2	1–1	1–1	1–1	1–2	4–1	2–1	0–0	2–2	1–0	4–1	2–0
Livorno	3–0	1–0	0–0	0–0	1–1	1–1	2–2	2–1	2–0	1–1	—	3–0	3–0	1–1	5–1	2–0	2–0	1–0	3–1	2–0	1–1	0–0	3–0	1–2
Messina	4–1	2–1	3–0	3–2	1–0	2–2	3–0	3–0	3–0	4–0	2–1	—	1–1	1–1	2–2	2–0	2–0	1–1	1–1	3–1	1–1	2–1	1–0	1–1
Napoli	0–0	1–1	0–0	1–0	0–0	1–0	2–3	0–1	2–2	0–0	0–0	1–0	—	1–1	1–0	1–1	0–0	2–1	2–2	1–0	0–0	1–1	2–2	1–1
Palermo	2–1	1–0	0–0	1–1	3–0	1–0	5–0	2–1	2–0	3–1	4–1	0–0	4–0	—	2–1	1–1	0–2	2–1	2–1	2–3	3–1	4–0	3–1	3–0
Pescara	4–3	2–1	0–0	1–0	2–0	0–1	1–0	1–1	0–0	1–2	0–0	1–2	1–2	0–2	—	1–0	2–2	2–2	2–1	1–2	1–0	1–0	2–1	0–0
Piacenza	0–0	1–1	0–0	2–0	1–0	1–2	0–0	1–1	2–0	4–4	1–3	1–0	2–3	2–2	2–1	—	1–0	2–1	2–0	2–0	1–0	1–0	3–1	1–0
Salernitana	0–3	0–0	1–3	1–0	2–0	3–2	1–2	1–0	1–0	0–1	0–2	0–3	0–0	1–1	1–2	0–0	—	2–1	2–0	0–0	2–2	2–0	1–1	0–0
Ternana	0–0	1–1	2–1	2–2	0–0	1–1	3–1	0–0	3–2	1–0	1–2	3–0	0–0	1–1	3–0	2–0	1–2	—	0–0	3–2	1–0	5–2	2–0	1–0
Torino	4–0	3–1	0–1	2–2	3–2	4–2	1–0	1–0	1–1	1–0	1–1	1–3	1–2	2–1	2–0	4–2	0–1	2–1	—	2–1	1–1	0–0	1–1	1–1
Treviso	2–1	3–1	0–3	2–1	1–1	0–0	2–1	2–0	0–0	1–0	1–1	1–2	0–1	1–1	3–0	1–1	4–0	1–1	0–0	—	2–1	1–1	0–2	1–1
Triestina	3–0	1–1	1–1	2–1	1–0	1–2	0–0	2–2	2–1	2–1	4–3	1–1	0–0	1–0	2–1	0–0	2–1	1–1	1–0	1–0	—	1–0	2–2	0–1
Venezia	2–1	1–0	1–0	2–1	3–2	1–2	0–3	3–1	0–2	2–2	3–2	2–0	0–0	1–1	2–0	0–0	0–1	0–1	2–1	0–0	1–0	—	0–2	1–1
Hellas Verona	2–3	0–1	1–2	2–2	4–3	1–2	0–0	1–0	0–1	3–0	1–1	0–0	1–1	1–2	4–3	3–0	0–0	3–2	0–0	0–0	0–1	1–0	—	2–3
Vicenza	1–0	2–3	0–1	2–2	1–1	2–0	2–0	0–1	1–1	0–0	2–2	2–1	1–0	0–0	1–1	0–1	3–1	1–2	2–2	1–1	1–1	3–1	1–2	—

Source: Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004, Panini Edizioni, Modena, September 2005
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Promotion play-offs

Fiorentina had to play a qualification match with 15th-placed team of Serie A, Perugia.

16 June 2004

20:30 CEST

Perugia	0–1	Fiorentina
		Fantini 10'

Stadio Renato Curi, Perugia

Attendance: 23,500

Referee: Matteo Trefoloni

20 June 2004

20:30 CEST

Fiorentina	1–1	Perugia
Fantini 47'		do Prado 82'

Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence

Attendance: 43,000

Referee: Roberto Rosetti

A.C. Perugia relegated to Serie B, while ACF Fiorentina was promoted to Serie A.

Relegation play-off*

16 June 2004

20:30 CEST

Bari	1–0	Venezia
Bruno 57'

Stadio San Nicola, Bari

Attendance: 22,583

Referee: Pasquale Rodomonti

19 June 2004

20:30 CEST

Venezia	2–0	Bari
Brellier 50' Biancolino 90+4'

Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo, Venice

Attendance: 4,846

Referee: Stefano Farina

A.S. Bari was relegated but was later readmitted in place of S.S.C. Napoli.

Top scorers

Luca Toni, Palermo: 30

[table_note_NAP0.55658973965635-1] Folded after bankruptcy, new entity re-admitted to Serie C1 by Lodo Petrucci.

[table_note_BAR0.55658973965635-2] Relegated after relegation play-off and later readmitted in place of Napoli.

[table_note_PES0.55658973965635-3] Relegated and later readmitted after newly relegated Ancona's bankruptcy.

[a]

[b]

[c]

v t e Serie B seasons
Seconda Divisione	1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26
Prima Divisione	1926–27 1927–28
Serie B	1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 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 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 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
1945–46 special postwar season: Serie A-B in Southern Italy