The New Year is barely two days old and already calcio fans are being treated to mouthwatering clashes and silverware up for grabs.
The 2024 Supercoppa Italiana gets underway this evening with table-topping Atalanta taking on reigning champions Inter Milan, while AC Milan and Juventus will square off tomorrow.
It’s an unusual format for a competition that historically has pitted Serie A winners against Coppa Italia holders. Even more unusual is the location, with all games taking place in Saudi Arabia.
Here, Destination Calcio looks at the mini-tournament launching Italian football into 2025.
Supercoppa Italiana: What is it?
The Italian Super Cup was only founded in 1988, with AC Milan and Sampdoria contesting the first version of the competition at San Siro 37 years ago.
Back then, it pitted the Serie A champions against the Coppa Italia winners. If a team had won the double, then the Coppa runners up would provide the opposition.
As with the Community Shield in England and the Supercopa de Espana, it was a traditional curtain-raiser to mark the start of a new season.
Why is it taking place now?
Up until 2014, the Supercoppa had exclusively been played in August. However after agreeing to take the showcase game to Qatar, that changed.
Originally Qatar was set to host the game in August, but that year Napoli had Champions League play-off games to contest and so asked for the game to be moved to Serie A’s winter break.
It was also played in December when the match returned to Qatar in 2016 and ever since 2020 it has been played in January – with the climate of host countries also playing a role in the decision to host it in winter.
Why is Saudi Arabia hosting?
It is not unusual for foreign countries to host the Supercoppa. In fact, it’s now considered the norm.
Since first taking the match outside of Italy in 1993 – when AC Milan beat Torino in front of 25,000 fans at the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington D.C, the final has been played on foreign soil 13 times.
This will be the fifth occasion which Saudi Arabia has hosted the Supercoppa final, with reports suggesting they could be set to host the tournament up until 2029 following a €138m (£114m) proposal. There is also sizeable prize money on offer for competing teams, with this year’s winners earning €8m.
Saudi Arabia has made a huge push to host showcase sporting events in recent years and also stages the Spanish Super Cup in January, while it has recently won the right to host the 2030 World Cup.
What is the format?
While this was historically a two-team event, a recent revamp in 2024 has seen the Supercoppa expanded into a four-team competition.
Alongside the winners of the league and cup, the runners up for both competitions now also take part. This year that has resulted in a quartet of Inter, Atalanta, Juventus and Milan headed to the Gulf.
Inter host Atalanta tonight in the first semi-final, before Milan and Juventus face off on Friday. The final will be played on January 6, with all three games being hosted at the King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh.
What does the rest of Serie A do?
While the cream of the 2024 crop battle it out in Saudi, it’s business as usual in Italy’s top flight.
There are seven matches this weekend to kick off Serie A action in 2025, including the small matter of a Derby della Capitale on Sunday evening.
The three matches affected by the Supercoppa action will be played midweek on January 14 and 15.
