Lega Serie A president Maurizio Beretta has said the organisation is considering returning to an 18-team format in the top division of Italian football.

Serie A has been composed of 20 teams since it was expanded in size for the 2004-05 season. Before that, the league operated with 18 clubs from 1988 to 2004 and 16 teams from 1967 to 1988. Critics of the expansion to 20 clubs have said the move has damaged the Italian game by increasing the fixture list and reducing competitiveness. Beretta has now told the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper that Lega Serie A is “studying the possibility of reducing the top flight to 18 teams.”

He continued: “It is a matter we need to discuss in a much deeper way. Clearly if we were to reduce the number of teams, as a consequence we’d also have to revise the mechanism of promotion and relegation. With just one relegation spot we’d get closer to the NBA (basketball) system with more guarantees of revenue and a longer perspective in commercialising the league.

“However, Serie A is already an attractive league. Just look at Juventus-Roma (on January 5), a wonderful game in a modern stadium bought by 52 licensed companies to air in 200 countries. There is a consolidation in pay-per-view television, as every round nine million people watch on the various platforms. There’s also a growth in ticket sales with an average of 24,000 spectators, almost three per cent more than in 2012-13.