Italian football clubs have entered European association football competitions (UEFA Champions League/European Cup, UEFA Europa League/UEFA Cup, Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, UEFA Conference League and the now defunct UEFA Intertoto Cup and UEFA Cup Winners' Cup) since the 1955âÂÂ56 season, when Milan took part in European Cup competition. Nowadays, Italian football is the second force in Europe according to UEFA ranking, following the English league. Italian clubs have also entered worldwide inter-club competitions several times since the 1963 Intercontinental Cup.
The golden age of Italian football since the establishing of UEFA is regarded to have occurred in the 1980s and in the 1990s, when several Italian clubs won UEFA competitions, contributing to Serie A obtaining the highest confederation coefficient score for about fifteen years. Since the beginning of 21st century, the force of Italian football at international stage has decreased, mainly after the Calciopoli scandal.
So far, Italian clubs have won the Champions League/European Cup twelve times (Milan, Internazionale and Juventus), the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup seven times (Milan, Fiorentina, Juventus, Lazio, Parma and Sampdoria), the Europa League/UEFA Cup ten times (Internazionale, Juventus, Parma, Napoli and Atalanta), the Conference League once (Roma), the UEFA Super Cup nine times (Milan, Juventus, Lazio and Parma), the Intercontinental Cup seven times (Internazionale, Milan and Juventus), the FIFA Club World Cup twice (Internazionale and Milan), the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup once (Roma), and the UEFA Intertoto Cup four times (Bologna, Juventus, Perugia and Udinese).
Note: Clubs in bold won the respective season's competition.
The competition was named European Cup until 1991âÂÂ92, after which it switched its name to UEFA Champions League.
The competition was named UEFA Cup until 2008âÂÂ09, after which it switched its name to UEFA Europa League.
The competition was named UEFA Europa Conference League until 2023âÂÂ24, after which it switched its name to UEFA Conference League.
While the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (1955âÂÂ1971) is recognised as the predecessor to the UEFA Cup, it was not organised by UEFA. Consequently, UEFA does not consider clubs' records in the Fairs Cup to be part of their European record.
Although the tournament was founded in 1961âÂÂ62, it was only taken over by UEFA in 1995.
Seven teams from Italy qualify for European competitions.
The Serie A winners and clubs finishing 2nd, 3rd and 4th qualify to the UEFA Champions League group stage, while two other teams (one being the Coppa Italia winners) qualify to the UEFA Europa League. The club finishing 6th qualifies for the play-off round of the UEFA Conference League. If the Coppa Italia winner already qualified for the UEFA Champions League or Europa League, then the club finishing 6th qualifies for the Europa League group stage and the 7th qualifies for the play-off round of the Conference League. During season 2024-2025, Italy qualified 5 teams to the Champions League, those who finished 1st to 5th in the previous Serie A, based on the new extra-spot rule.
The following table shows the number of seasons in which Italian clubs took part in the three European seasonal cups (including the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup).
It takes into account competitions in which Italian clubs have taken part in the season kick-off, namely in the month of September when, usually, UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Conference League group stages start. It does not take into account qualifying rounds held during the summer. Azure denotes clubs that experienced a Champions League group phase, pink a Europa League group phase, and green a Conference League group phase.
<small>When two or more clubs have the same number of participations, they are sorted by the number of seasons in the most important competition.</small>
Teams in bold: active streak. Only the best result of each teams is shown
Sources:
As of matches played 19 March 2026
Sources:
As of matches played 19 March 2026