The Serie D () is the top level of semi-professional football in Italy. The fourth tier of the Italian league system, the competition sits beneath the third professional league, Serie C. It is administered by the Lega Nazionale Dilettanti and is organized by the Roman Comitato Interregionale (Interregional Committee), a "league in the league" inside the LND. History In 1948 the three leagues running Division 3 (Serie C) had to be reorganized due to an ever-growing number of regional teams. FIGC decided not to relegate the excess teams to regional championships. It chose the winners and a few runners-up from the 36 Serie C championships to be added to the new third division set up into 4 groups. The rest of the teams joined the new Promozione, which changed its name in 1952 into IV Serie (Fourth Division) and then in 1959 into Serie D. From 1959 each player in the Serie D championships had to opt for semi-professional status, by signing a specially issued status attribution form. The championship was thus included in the Lega Nazionale Semiprofessionisti, today known as Lega Pro. Serie D was re-organized in 1981 when championships were reduced. The league name changed into the Interregional. Players lost semi-pro status and converted to amateurs. The championship subsequently passed into the Lega Nazionale Dilettanti. From 1992 to 1999 the name changed into Campionato Nazionale Dilettanti before eventually returning to the current Serie D name. With the merger of the Lega Pro's two divisions at the end of the 2013–14 season (as decided by the FIGC and Lega Pro in November 2012) to reestablish Serie C, Serie D and the leagues below it moved up by one level in the pyramid system, reducing the number of leagues in Italian football to nine. Structure Since the early 1990s, Serie D has consisted of 162 teams split into 9 regional divisions (Gironi), usually formed of 18 teams each, divided geographically. For the 2012–13 season, there were 166 teams. Two groups (B and C) were formed of 20 teams. In the 2013–14 season the number was 161 and one group (H) comprised 17 teams. For 2014–15 the distribution by region was as follows: Girone A – teams from Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Liguria and Lombardy. Girone B – teams from Lombardy and Veneto. Girone C – teams from Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Veneto. Girone D – teams from Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and