Over ten matches into its 36-game run, a trend has started to appear in the standings of the 2019/20 Serie B season. Benevento, Crotone and Salernitana are maintaining spots in the top six, including two of the top three. In addition, Pescara maintain a place in the middle of the table, not far from the playoff bracket. Three more clubs, Cosenza, Trapani, and Juve Stabia, sit towards the bottom, though none are too far from escaping the relegation zone and all are set for a big fight.
Why does this matter? All of the clubs just mentioned are from southern Italy – and the momentum is beginning to grow in their favour.
Largely determined by the medieval borders of the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, and eventually the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, southern Italy is a region characterised by unique cultures, societies and history. By most standards, the regions of Abruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Sicily and Sardinia make up the south.
The Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT) recognises south Italy and insular Italy as two separate regions, with the former representing the southern portion of the peninsula and the latter representing Sicily and Sardinia.
In general, southern clubs, including those from Sicily and Sardinia, have taken up roughly 35 of the 200 Serie A spots available throughout the last two decades, with the 2010s set to repeat the pattern. Per decade, southern clubs have made up about 19 percent of…
read more: thesefootballtimes.co
