Italian football is in serious trouble. Federation president Gabriele Gravina resigned on Thursday, and UEFA warned the country could lose its right to host Euro 2032.
Gravina quit after a meeting at the FIGC headquarters in Rome. It came just two days after Italy lost to Bosnia and Herzegovina on penalties in the World Cup playoffs.
Italy will now miss a third World Cup in a row. No former winners have ever done that before.
The 72 year old had planned to wait until a board meeting next week to announce his decision but growing political pressure pushed him to act sooner.
Sports Minister Andrea Abodi had publicly called on Gravina to resign the day before, saying it was unfair to deny responsibility for the national team’s failures.
Gravina’s exit also puts a question mark over head coach Gennaro Gattuso. It was Gravina who personally convinced Gattuso to stay on beyond his current contract.
On top of all this, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin told La Gazzetta dello Sport that Italy’s run down stadiums could cost the country its role as co host of Euro 2032 with Turkey.
Ceferin said Italian politicians should ask themselves why the country’s football infrastructure is among the worst in Europe.
Many of Italy’s top stadiums were built or upgraded for the 1990 World Cup and have not been properly maintained since.
Italy must name five host stadiums by October. Eleven cities are in the running but only Juventus’s Allianz Stadium in Turin is fully ready right now.
Big building projects are under way in Milan, Naples and Rome but several face delays or legal problems.
Inter Milan and AC Milan recently bought San Siro and plan to build a new 71,500 capacity stadium on the same site. However, prosecutors are looking into the land sale over claims of bid rigging.
Italy’s football problems look even worse next to the country’s success in other sports. Italy won a record 30 medals at the recent Milan Cortina Winter Olympics and tennis star Jannik Sinner continues to dominate on the world stage.
Whoever takes over from Gravina will face two big jobs: rebuilding the national team and making sure Italy’s stadiums are ready before UEFA’s deadline runs out.
