The 1921-22 Prima Categoria season was the equal twentyfirst of the Italian Football Championship and the fifteenth since the re-brand to Prima Categoria. In a highly political season of Italian football, to rival the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC) organised Prima Categoria, Italy's strongest clubs organised a separate championship named Prima Divisione. The rivalry lasted only this one season. Afterwards, the FIGC recognised the Prima Divisione format as the official championship. Hence, 1921-22 was the last season in which the Prima Categoria winners were awarded Italian Football Champions.
Like previous seasons, the 1921–22 Prima Categoria was organised on a regional basis, leading to a national final. This the only Italian Football Championship won to date by Novese.
Regulation
During the summer of 1921, Italy's most powerful clubs asked the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC) to reduce the number of clubs in Prima Categoria. Vittorio Pozzo developed a plan to accommodate the request. However, smaller clubs fearing they would disappear if such a reduction was passed, voted against Pozzo's plan and causing the plan to be rejected. That led to the creation of a rival new Italian football federation, the Confederazione Calcistica Italiana (CCI). The CCI organised the 1921–22 Prima Divisione that ran concurrent to the FIGC championship.
This rivalry only lasted one season. The following summer FIGC accepted a reduction in the number league participants. Subsequently the FGCI recognised the 1921-22 CCI championship as an official title, alongside the 1921–22 Prima Categoria. Prima Divisione was accepted as the new format from the summer of 1922 onwards, lasting until 1926. Hence, 1921-22 was the last season in which the Prima Categoria winners were awarded Italian Football Champions.
Regulation
Tuscany was added to the main championship as the sixth region. The regional FAs remained with 48 clubs. The preliminary regional phase was the bulk of the tournament, with even twelve matchdays and regular regional football champions, while the following national phase was reduced to a spring tournament of two little groups and a final.
The main tournament was completely divided in six independent sections, and each region had its own football champions that joined the national championship.
Teams
Consequently to the controversy with the secessionist clubs, the Regional FAs quite respected the promotion rules. Only two clubs were added to the six rightful winners of the lower secondary regional tournaments.
This FIGC was very poor, and risks of a general bankruptcy was real. The FIGC had a sole resource, its FIFA membership, during the talks that started with the Northern League.
The rich League proposed that FIGC’s Prima Categoria became the Second Division of its CCI’s championship. An agreement was found in late June: the Colombo Compromise by the boss of newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport.
The League imposed its idea of a 24 clubs First Division and a 48 clubs Second Division from 1923. The FIGC obtained a special 36 clubs championship for 1922-23, including champions and runner-ups of the disbanded Regional FAs. More, a third club of each regional FA could test its strength against a League bottom club.
To respect as possible its clubs, the FIGC decided a test-match between the third and the forth clubs of each region. All other clubs went directly to Division Two.
↑ The 1st leg, in Piacenza, suffered the referee's absence so the first match became 'friendly'. Livorno won 4-2. On July 16 the match was repeated, again in Piacenza, and Livorno won 4-1. Anyway, Piacenza retired before playing the second leg.
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