Serie B president Mauro Balata is delighted - and excited - by the progress of the competition over the past 12 months.

Italy's second tier has been in the spotlight, not the least for offering the grounding to Vicenzo Italiano to develop as a coach with Spezia before his success this past season with Europa Conference League finalists Fiorentina.

For Balata, the impact of Italiano in Europe and the attention he's drawn only confirms the work being done below Serie A.

“Our League has launched numerous players into the world of international football," he proudly tells Tribalfootball.com, "and I mention some such as Sandro Tonali, Lorenzo Insigne, Nicolo, Zaniolo, Ciro Immobile, Marco Verratti and in the last year Nicolo Fagioli and Federico Gatti.

"And so it also happens with our coaches where maybe they have more time and way to experiment, to grow and innovate their football. And Italiano did it with Spezia. This year we closed the league with 20 Italian coaches, many of them youngsters who will surely have a great future."

Indeed, the dominance of local talent in Serie B is something Balata is eager to highlight.

“More than names I would like to talk about numbers: in this season there were 167 newcomers in Serie B. Of these, 91 are under 23 (55%) and 77 are Italian. The average age of beginners in B is 24 years. We also have seven very young players with Italian passports launched this season: Patrick Nuamah (16 years old at the time of his debut) from Brescia, Lorenzo Carfora (17 years old) from Benevento and Luca Lipani (17 years old) from Genoa. Four were 18 year olds and fifteen 19 year olds."

For Balata, Serie B has been a six-year relationship. He initially became involved at the top of Italian football in 1990, joining the Federation Prosecutor's office. It was in 2017 when he first became involved with Serie B as Commissioner, before taking the presidency that same year. Six years on and Balata has overseen a transformation that has Serie B genuinely competing with the English Championship for worldwide attention.

The investment of City Football Group in Palermo. The star stakeholders in Como - Cesc Fabregas and Thierry Henry. There is a real buzz of excitement up and down the country regarding the second tier. And for Balata, dubbing Serie B a 'second division' no longer applies given the names now involved.

He says: “Our league is no longer a second division and this is demonstrated by the numbers and ambitions of our clubs, as well as the names of the coaches of this league such as former world champions Fabio Grosso, Alberto Gilardino and Pippo Inzaghi without forgetting the multiple champion Gigi Buffon who plays with Parma or Fabregas at Como.

"As I said, the championship with these names is enhanced in terms of image, following and curiosity as well as technical depth. It is a high-level tournament where you can make that apprenticeship that takes you to the great national and international stages. It applies to players and also to coaches."

And with such icons comes greater interest. A worldwide interest which has seen Serie B break all sorts of viewership records over the past year.

Balata explains: “We still have room for growth but we are proud to speak of record crowds, audience and social networks with an average that exceeded 10,000 spectators per match, more than 26% than last season and with over 5.5 million contacts on our socials.

"The interest in particular was relevant in witnessing the wise choice of Lega Serie B to play during the World Cup. We took advantage of the Serie A break and became the reference tournament at national level. In those days we broke all our records."

And some more highlights from season 2022/23?

“As for more wonderful achievement, I would mention the new statute, the return to the old format of the championship with 20 teams, the introduction of VAR, the increase in turnover even the doubling of television rights and distribution in over 50 countries around the world including Australia."

Serie B isn't just growing, it's booming. A competition boasting of global names on the pitch and in the dugout. And it's all been overseen by a man now over 33 years in the Italian game.

Mauro Balata has managed to develop a competition with global appeal - but also with an emphasis on local talent. For Italian football, as we witnessed in European competition last season, the results are there for all to see.