League and cup draws on Monday: the football season kicks off

Although it formally began on 11 June, the 2022-23 season of San Marino football will take its first real step forward on Monday 8 August 2022 with the draw for the fixtures of the Campionato Sammarinese BKN301 and Coppa Titano BKN301. For the first time in the history of our domestic game, both competitions will have a title sponsor – as explained during the joint press conference held last June. This is one of the new features of the coming season, along with the award for Player of the Month. In just over three days’ time, at the Casa del Calcio in Montecchio (starting at 21:00), the draws will be held for the calendars of the two national competitions. The Coppa Titano BKN301 format has been confirmed, with a bracket of two-legged ties involving all fifteen participating teams. Holders Tre Fiori will enter at the quarter-final stage, where they will be joined by the seven winners from the previous round’s two-legged ties. Alongside Andy Selva’s team, three other clubs are seeded: La Fiorita, Tre Penne and Folgore who, thanks to their performance over the last five years (calculated on the basis of the ranking), cannot meet before the semi-finals. What is certain is that we will have a different final from last year: Tre Fiori and Folgore are on the same side of the draw, as are Tre Penne and La Fiorita. In the event of a tie on aggregate after the two legs, extra time and, if necessary, penalties will be played – at any stage of the competition. All other pairings that will make up the main draw of the oldest football competition in San Marino are unseeded. The winners will lift the trophy and qualify for the UEFA Europa Conference League. The Campionato Sammarinese BKN301 format has recently been revamped: the team finishing top of the single 30-round league will be crowned champions and will qualify directly for the UEFA Champions League preliminary round. The subsequent play-off phase will determine the runners-up, who will represent San Marino in the UEFA Europa Conference League. The post-season will involve the teams finishing between second and seventh place, as well as two more sides coming from the Preliminary Round, which will pit the clubs placed from eighth to eleventh against each other (8 v 11, 9 v 10). These are 180-minute ties, as are the quarter-finals and semi-finals: in the event of a draw on aggregate, the team that finished higher in the regular season will progress. The finals for second and fourth place will be the only fixtures played as single matches and, if still level, they may go to extra time and penalties. From a regulatory point of view, the five substitutions are confirmed, to be used in a maximum of three windows, not including half-time; in addition, teams may now name up to 20 players on the match sheet. Clubs will be required to field at least one player of San Marino nationality, while on the disciplinary side the rules on suspensions for accumulation of yellow cards have been modified. Players will serve a one-match ban after their fourth and eighth yellow cards in the league, and then after every further three bookings. In the Coppa Titano, a suspension is triggered after two yellow cards.

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