Serie C collapse: After Brescia, Spal also fail to register for 2025-26 season

The ball of Italian Serie A is pictured before the Italian Serie A football match between Juventus and Atalanta at the Allianz Stadium in Turin on March 10, 2024. (Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP) (Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images)

Brescia are not the only club who failed to register for the new Serie C season, as Spal also declared their financial difficulties.

Both teams had been in Serie A in recent decades, but now look as if they will have to start again from scratch in the semi-pro leagues.

Brescia had been docked four points for financial irregularities and then missed a deadline to cover unpaid wages, meaning the side owned by Massimo Cellino is heading to the bankruptcy courts.

Now Spal likely to follow suit, as a statement from the club confirmed it failed to register for the 2025-26 Serie C season.

They last played in Serie A during the 2019-20 campaign.

Spal miss out on Serie C

“With great regret, the owners of Spal announce that the club will not participate in the 2025-26 Serie C campaign.

“It is a painful epilogue that arrived after numerous attempts to find concrete solutions that could guarantee the continuation of the project.

“Unfortunately, the current conditions do not make that possible. In the last four years, the owners made significant financial efforts, investing €50m in liquidity, with €12m alone in the last season, in an attempt to relaunch Spal and give the city of Ferrara a team suited to its history and passion.

“However, the results were not satisfactory, nor proportional to the level of investment.”

The statement from the Spal owners also hit out at incidents involving the ultras that they claim scared away potential investors.

“One of the partners who had expressed the intention of making a significant investment changed their minds after a worrying incident in which some ‘fans’ physically attacked Spal players during a training session.”

Nonetheless, Spal are in a slightly different situation to Brescia, as while they failed to prove their financial stability for Serie C, there could be some hope.

“We remain the owners of Spal and, despite some incorrect news stories, we are not bankrupt. Over the next few days, we will evaluate the available options, including registering the club in a lower league.”

There is at least some good news for one club, as Triestina managed to provide the paperwork and cover outstanding debts sufficiently to register for Serie C.