Calls for FIGC heads after Italy fail to qualify for the FIFA World Cup again

Italian football’s governance has come under fresh scrutiny after Italy missed the World Cup for a third consecutive tournament, prompting politicians from across the spectrum to demand resignations and institutional reform at the Italian Football Federation (FIGC).Italy’s elimination was sealed by a penalty shootout defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina in Zenica on March 31, extending a slump that now stretches back to their last World Cup finals appearance in 2014.The loss triggered immediate political reaction, reflecting football’s status as a cultural and electoral touchpoint and putting FIGC leadership and the wider domestic football model back on the agenda.“It is an unacceptable disgrace. Italian football needs a complete overhaul, starting with the resignation of Gabriele Gravina,” the League party said in a statement, targeting the FIGC president directly.The intervention is likely to intensify pressure on Gravina ahead of a scheduled meeting of the federation’s Federal Council next week, where he has said his position will be assessed.Gravina, who has led the FIGC since 2018, rejected the idea that a single resignation would fix the underlying issues while acknowledging accountability for the failure.“The responsibility lies with the football federation and with me,” he told reporters after the match. “But the crisis is deep, football needs to be redesigned.”Gravina also pushed back at what he characterised as opportunistic political demands, arguing that the federation is being treated as the only decision-maker in a system shaped by league and club incentives.“The FIGC is being talked about as if it were the only player,” he said. “There are the leagues, there are the clubs. This is why we need a broader reflection in order to change things.”The comments underline a familiar fault line in Italian football: a federation that governs national-team performance and regulatory frameworks, and a professional club ecosystem that controls much of the talent pipeline and calendar, with commercial pressures often taking priority over long-term sporting planning.That tension has been sharpened by the growing influence of broadcast and commercial partners on domestic scheduling, which has been repeatedly cited as limiting national-team preparation time.The political blowback has not been confined to Gravina’s opponents. Former prime minister Matteo Renzi said: “Unfortunately the third consecutive elimination from the World Cup is not an April Fool’s joke. It’s a sign that Italian football has failed.“Soccer isn’t just entertainment in our country; it’s part of our culture and national identity.”The fallout also touches the FIGC’s senior football leadership beyond the presidency, including the technical project and management structure that has been reshaped repeatedly since Italy’s Euro 2021 success failed to translate into qualifying stability.Gravina said he had asked head coach Gennaro Gattuso to remain in post, signalling a preference for continuity in the short term rather than another reset before the next qualifying cycle.“The mood is quite evident, especially for how this result has matured,” Gravina said. “I want to congratulate Rino Gattuso. He is a great coach, I asked him to stay at the helm with these boys.”Gattuso, appointed after a turbulent qualifying campaign, was tearful in his post-match remarks and avoided committing on his future, while framing the defeat as a blow for the wider game.“Today the boys didn’t deserve a beating like this,” Gattuso said. “It hurts, because we needed it for us, for all of Italy and for our movement.”The FIGC’s sporting director structure is also under the spotlight, with questions raised in Italian media about whether Gianluigi Buffon will remain in his role.Buffon urged restraint and warned against impulsive decisions driven by anger and embarrassment.“We need to take our time after this defeat,” Buffon said. “This failure hurts, and there is a danger that people will not react rationally because of the disappointment.”Beyond the immediate crisis management, the debate is increasingly shifting towards structural reform, including youth development, the balance between foreign and domestic player minutes in Serie A, coaching pathways, and the alignment of league incentives with national-team needs.Gravina has argued that change requires joint ownership across institutions that do not share the same commercial priorities, while politicians are positioning the failure as a governance problem with clear accountability at the top.Attention now turns to next week’s FIGC council meeting, and whether it delivers a leadership change or a reform roadmap that convinces stakeholders a deeper redesign is underway rather than another cycle of blame and short-term fixes.